Talk-A-Vino

What do you think of celebrity wines?

Whatever celebrity touches turns into gold, right? To be absolutely honest, I don’t get the whole fascination with the celebrity endorsements and associations. If a shoe carries someone’s name, how is that a better shoe? How is the wine better if a celebrity endorses it or even participates in the winemaking process? Somehow the movie star possesses a palate everyone else should align to? Don’t get me wrong – I’m fascinated every time I see Caitlin Clark score from half the court, or Messi puts the ball precisely into the tiniest possible opening. I do have my favorite movie stars and so on. But how their name makes other products better – that’s beside me. Oh well, the marvel of marketing and third-party endorsements… Okay, I just had to let this rant out. Let’s get back to where we started – celebrity wines.

Today, we will not be talking about all celebrity wines. The subject is more narrow, precise, and seasonally appropriate – we are talking about celebrity Rosé wines.

Turns out quite a few celebrities tried their hand at making the Rosé – some with bubbles, but mostly still. And as with any wines, celebrity factor aside, it is always fun to compare wines in the blind setting – the “unveiling” of the wine is always a thing of pure joy.

Ahh, this post is also a bit about wine friends. And travel. But of course…

First, what prompted this whole tasting idea was a post on Twitter (sorry, I still don’t care to call it X, I still affiliate with Twitter but not with X) by Jonathan @TheWineCruUK, who mentioned that he was planning to open Queen Rosé, the wine associated with the legendary music band Queen. This was the first time I saw a mention of such a wine (I was well aware of many others, such as Hampton Water, Miraval, Maison No 9 and others). Seeing this new Rosé, the first idea was “I want to taste it”, and the second one was “but it would be fun to compare it with others,” and thus the idea of tasting was born.

The next question – where do I find it? A quick research yielded an unfortunate result – while the wine is easily available at a number of supermarkets in the UK, it was nowhere to be found in the US.

As luck would have it, a few weeks after the tasting idea was born, I was supposed to travel to London for work. A quick search for the supermarkets in the area where I was staying was not promising – basically, all suitable supermarkets were at least 40 minutes away by train, and I was on a very tight schedule. I asked Twitter wine friends for advice, and then Jonathan simply sent a message – “hey, tell me where you are staying, and I will send you a bottle”. I have always said it – wine people are special people. So thanks to the wonderful kindness of Jonathan, on the second day of my stay I was devouring the opening of the box to enjoy the view of the bottle – don’t worry, I had enough self-control, so I managed to just look but not to touch.

The next fun part of this project might be a revelation to some of you. I read a while back that Heathrow airport installed new scanners which now allow up to 2 liters of liquid to be brought on board in the hand luggage. Or at least this is what the article said.

I did a bit of research online, and this seemed to hold water. My actual confirmation came once I checked in for my flight back home – the airline restrictions clearly stated that I can bring with me up to 72 oz of liquid in the hand luggage – if you wish, go do the math – this will amount to 2 liters give or take.

And voila, the bottle safely made it home, and we were all set for the blind Rosé tasting.

Last fall, I was privy to a fascinating event I still need to write about (I suck as a blogger, feel free to say it out loud). In the event, we tasted a vertical (!) of Sasha Lichine top-of-the-line Rosé – Chateau d’Esclans Les Clans and Garrus wines. The wines were absolutely spectacular, and while they don’t qualify as celebrity wines, I kind of forced my way with including one of the Chateau d’Esclans Rosé into the tasting, more as a hallmark than for an actual competition.

And now, finally, we can talk about what transpired in the tasting.

We had 2 of the sparkling celebrity Rosé and 9 of the still wines. We decided to taste sparkling wines blindly, but separately from the still wines.

Here is brief information about celebrity wines in our tasting:

NV Archer Roose Rosé Pays d’Oc, France (13% ABV, blend of Syrah, Cinsault, Grenache, and Caladoc).
Celebrity: Elizabeth Banks, actress, producer, writer and director

NV Avaline Rosé Vin de France (13% ABV, blend of Cinsault, Grenache, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Caladoc)
Celebrity: actress and author Cameron Diaz and entrepreneur/business executive Katherine Power. Wine originally launched in 2020.

NV Bellissima Zero Sugar Rosé Veneto IGT Italy (12.5% ABV, 100% Pinot Grigio)
Celebrity: supermodel and actress Christie Brinkley. Still wines line launched in 2023

2022 Château d’Esclans Les Clans Rosé Côtes de Provence  (14% ABV, Grenache, Rolle). Not specifically a “celebrity” Rosé, but one of the very top Rosé in existence.

2023 Forever Young Rosé Côtes de Provence  (12.5% ABV, 55% Grenache, 40% Cinsault, 5% Syrah)
Celebrity: The Real Housewives of New York City alum and entrepreneur Bethenny Frankel, alongside French vintner Valérie Rousselle and nightlife impresario Seth Greenberg; Produced by Château Roubine, established in 1307 and one of only 18 Cru Classé estates in Provence.

2025 Hampton Water Rosé South of France (13% ABV, 60% Grenache, 15% Cinsault, 15% Mourvèdre, 10% Syrah)
Celebrity: Jon Bon Jovi and his son Jesse. Winemaker: Gérard Bertrand, famous Languedoc winemaker

2025 Invivo X Rosé South of France (12.4% ABV, 60% Grenache, 20% Cinsault, 20% Syrah)
Celebrity: Sarah Jessica Parker

NV Kylie Minogue Prosecco Rosé DOC Italy (11% ABV, 85% Glera, 15% Pinot Noir)
Celebrity: Kylie Minogue; producer: Zonin estate

NV Lve French Sparkling Rosé Vin de France (11.5% ABV, blend of Pinot Noir, Grenache, Ugni Blanc, Colombard, and Chardonnay)
Celebrity: John Legend, musician; wine produced in collaboration with Raymond Vineyard from Napa

2025 Miraval Rosé Côtes de Provence  (12% ABV, blend of Cinsault, Grenache, Syrah, and Rolle)
Celebrity: Brad Pitt; wine made in cooperation with Perrin Family

2025 Queen Rosé Côtes de Provence  (13% ABV, 70% Grenache, 30% Cinsault)
Celebrity: Roger Taylor, the legendary drummer of the rock band Queen, in collaboration with Sony Music and the historic French winery Les Caves du Commandeur

Now, to the tasting:

We didn’t want to mix sparkling and still wines in the tasting, so we had two of the sparkling wines first with some appetizers, and then proceeded with the still wines. We still tasted them blind, and it is interesting that our preferences were split precisely across “gender lines” 🙂 Boys preferred wine #2, French Sparkling Rosé, and all the girls also unanimously went with wine #1, Prosecco.

Here are my brief notes for the still Rosé wines:

#3: Spectacular nose, gunflint, strawberries, grapefruit. Gunflint on the palate, sapidity, very nice, Chardonnay like.
#4: Pine needle. Lots of strawberries, still pine needle on the palate. Interesting.
#5: Carrot juice, strawberries on the nose. More strawberries and cleansing acidity on the palate, very nice.
#6: Interesting, nice, strawberries on the nose. More strawberries on the palate, good structure, delicious.
#7: wow, similar to #6, tart acidity, crisp, great finish.
#8 – very funky, hint of petrol, mineral. Lots of minerality on the palate.
#9 – sapidity, strawberries, restrained, nice, tart, not bad at all.
#10 – clean, open, inviting, great. Beautiful palate with strawberries, good acidity and perfect balance.
#11 – nice, strawberries, restrained, a little tart. Very good overall.

As you can tell from these brief notes, most of the wines showed quite well, so we could expect a very interesting voting and very interesting results.

We actually had to take the vote twice, and in a moment you will understand why.

We usually have a simple rule – every person can vote twice for their favorite wines, and the wine with the most votes wins the popular vote.

Here is how the first round ended up:

Wine #3 – 7
Wine #4 – 0
Wine #5 – 1
Wine #6 – 2
Wine #7 – 1
Wine #8 – 0
Wine #9 – 2
Wine #10 – 3
Wine #11 – 2

Everybody pretty much agreed that the wine #3 tasted not like a simple Rosé, but rather like a fine wine in its own right. As we knew that Château d’Esclans Les Clans was one of the wines we tasted, we decided that that was wine #3, and thus it wouldn’t be fair to the rest of the Rosés to be judged against purposefully made “Rosé first growth”. Thus we decided to take another vote, this time excluding wine #3 from the vote.

Here are the results of the new vote:

Wine #4 – 1
Wine #5 – 1
Wind #6 – 2
Wine #7 – 2
Wine #8 – 0
Wine #9 – 1
Wine #10 – 5
Wine #11 – 2

As always, the reveal was the most exciting part, and we learned that our suspicion about wine #3 was correct; it was Château d’Esclans Les Clans. The winning wine happened to be Queen Rosé, which made me very happy – I was not lugging it from London for nothing 🙂

Here is now the list of wines according to our tasting order:

#1 – NV Kylie Minogue Prosecco Rosé DOC Italy
#2 – NV Lve French Sparkling Rosé Vin de France
#3 – 2022 Chateau d’Esclans Les Clans Rosé Côtes de Provence
#4 – NV Bellissima Zero Sugar Rosé Veneto IGT Italy
#5 – 2025 Miraval Rosé Côtes de Provence
#6 – 2025 Hampton Water Rosé South of France
#7 – 2025 Invivo X Rosé South of France
#8 – NV Archer Roose Rosé Pays d’Oc, France
#9 – 2023 Forever Young Rosé Côtes de Provence
#10 – 2025 Queen Rosé Côtes de Provence
#11 – NV Avaline Rosé Vin de France

I would say that overall, the celebrity Rosé fared quite well, with the exception of the wine #8. And I would be happy to drink that Queen Rosé at any time – maybe one day it will make it to the states.

There you are, my friends – an exciting and fun tasting, and something that you can – and should – do at home.

Until the next time – cheers!