WELLINGTON: British guitarist Eric Clapton, who is a recovering alcoholic, threatened to walk out of a concert at a New Zealand winery when he saw it had produced a wine bearing his name on the bottles. Clapton, the star of the concert at the Mission Estate Winery in Napier, took the stage only after all the bottles were withdrawn, the Hawke’s Bay Today newspaper reported.

“On legal advice, we ele-cted not to make the wine available for sale,” chief executive Peter Holley told the paper. Clapton has reportedly funded special clinics to treat drug and alcohol addicts. Mission Estate, New Zealand’s oldest winery, has released special wines with labels feat-uring the star of its annual vineyard concerts since diva Kiri Te Kanawa performed 15 years ago.