Fame may be fickle, but celebrity wine brands have proved even more capricious.
From rapper Jay-Z to golfer Greg Norman, actress Cameron Diaz and even Elvis from the grave, celebrities have been dabbling in wine for decades, with differing results. Gimmicky, unappetising or, quite frankly, bizarre, most have proved to
be one-hit wonders before exiting stage left. However, for a few, the stars have aligned and the wines have created a following of their own.
The least successful have been celebrity-licensed or endorsed labels. In these cases, a celebrity’s involvement is often little more than lending their name, with a wine company calling the shots on the liquid to the label. The Elvis wines are an example of a brand that’s more merchandise than memorable wine experience. Like many celebrity wines, they left the building during the last recession, but have now been resurrected by a company that’s also behind the Star Trek wines.
Sometimes, the famous names themselves can be the problem, especially when the brand and star are poorly paired. The Shane Warne Collection is one particularly short-lived example. Bowled out after only one vintage, this followed a lukewarm response from critics and the bad-boy cricketer’s ball-tampering scandal, which came shortly after the label’s release.
Rock and wine have also proved uneasy bedfellows. Motörhead’s shiraz was outlawed by Iceland’s State Alcohol and Tobacco Company because of the heavy metal band’s penchant for more powerful substances. However, while Motörhead wine is no more, soft-rocker Jon Bon Jovi is enjoying more success with his Hampton Water French rosé, which evokes a bon vivant lifestyle rather than rock ’n’ roll excess.
Hampton Water is an example of a more fruitful, actively collaborative joint venture, where a celebrity engages with a professional wine producer. This is the approach taken by two of the most successful celebrity wine brands, which hail from New Zealand. In these, chat-show host Graham Norton and actor Sarah Jessica Parker have partnered with New Zealand’s Invivo Wines to create globally successful brands bearing their names.
For Invivo’s Tim Lightbourne, the stars’ direct involvement drives the wines’ international popularity.
“Both are incredibly hands-on and involved, and are shareholders in Invivo,” he explains. “Graham and Sarah Jessica regularly attend buyer meetings in person and are in the blending room with us every single year. They both taste, accept and reject wines.
“They won’t put their names on any wine they wouldn’t drink themselves,” Lightbourne says, adding that the wines have to be of a quality to work commercially on their own terms.
“No amount of goodwill sustains a listing if the liquid doesn’t deliver repeat purchase by the wine drinker.”
While feeling more authentic, such ventures are not always successful, at least not here in New Zealand. Kylie Minogue’s wine brand, for which she is billed as an active creative director in collaboration with a London-based wine brand developer, was not so lucky here. Her rosé launched in New Zealand less than a year ago, and has already been dropped by its local distributor, albeit faring far better in Britain.
Some of the most enduring and interesting celebrity wines are those where the celebrity owns the wine estate and employs a professional to make the wines. One surprising vineyard owner is hard-rock band Tool’s Maynard James Keenan, who for the past 20 years has been a wine pioneer in Arizona. I had a chance to try some of the wines from his Caduceus Cellars and Merkin Vineyards when he was in New Zealand some years back, and was impressed.
Other stars with estates include singer Sting, with his Tuscan Il Palagio estate, and Star Wars creator George Lucas, who owns Skywalker Vineyard. Pop star Pink has even studied oenology to make her Two Wolves wines herself. Here in New Zealand, notable vineyard proprietors include cinematographer Michael Seresin and the late actor Sam Neill, with his Two Paddocks.
Celebrity Tastes
So, are celebrity wines any good? I put some of the highest-profile celebrity wines available in New Zealand today to the test.
Jo Burzynska gives her expert verdict on these celebrity wines: Two Paddocks’ The Fusilier, Miraval’s Studio rose, and Seresin’s Beautiful Chaos syrah.
Two Paddocks Proprietor’s Reserve Central Otago Pinot Noir
Two Paddocks would have an international reputation for the quality of its organic pinot noirs even without the connection to its famous proprietor. Actor Sir Sam Neill planted his first small vineyard in Central Otago in 1993, initially to make pinot noir for family and friends. After the success of its early vintages, Neill expanded his first plot and invested in three other small vineyards across the region.
Despite jetting off to film sets worldwide, Neill still made time to be in his vineyard and could often be found pouring his wines at events. Neill died in July, but the show at Two Paddocks is going on under the watchful eye of winery consultant and pinot pioneer Larry McKenna, winemaker Dean Shaw and viticulturist Dylan Crawford.
The late Kiwi actor Sir Sam Neill, who founded Two Paddocks.
My top pick from the current Two Paddocks impressive crop is the 2023 Proprietor’s Reserve The Fusilier from its Bannockburn Vineyard. It’s a deep and complex wine, with dark fruit layered with clove and nutmeg spice, a ferrous mineral note, savoury undertones and a hint of smoky rose incense. It’s beautifully fresh with plush velvety tannins.
Studio by Miraval Méditerranée Rosé
Brad Pitt. Photo / Getty Images
Miraval makes seriously good rosé in pink wine’s French heartland of Provence. The fact that it’s owned by actor Brad Pitt is secondary. I visited Château Miraval in the late 1990s, when previous owner Tom Bove was transforming it into one of the world’s top rosé estates. Pitt and then-partner Angelina Jolie bought the château from Bove in 2011 jointly with the Perrin family of the legendary Château de Beaucastel. Pitt and the Perrins still own their shares in Miraval, while Jolie sold her portion to a Russian oligarch, much to Pitt’s chagrin.
Fame reverberated through Miraval long before Brangelina’s involvement. It’s been home to a legendary recording studio since the 1970s, where the likes of Pink Floyd recorded The Wall. Miraval’s “Studio” pays tribute to this.
The 2025 vintage of this south-eastern French rosé is a blend of Cinsault, Tibouren, Grenache and Rolle, fermented in steel tanks, as well as tulip-shaped vats for added depth. It’s bone-dry and fabulously refreshing, with a strawberry spritzer-like character and notes of white fruit and mineral.
Verdict: Top of the Charts
Seresin Beautiful Chaos Marlborough Syrah
Michael Seresin in the vineyard of his self-titled winery, “Seresin Estate”.
New Zealand cinematographer Michael Seresin found fame through a variety of films, from Bugsy Malone to Harry Potter. He founded Seresin Estate in Marlborough in the early 1990s, with a vision to make fine wine as naturally as possible. Consequently, it has been ahead of the curve when it comes to organic production: certified organic since 2003 and biodynamic since 2010.
Seresin spends most of his time in the UK nowadays, and the winery’s operations have been downsized in recent years, with the sale of its winemaking facility and home vineyard in 2018. Seresin’s production became focused on its remaining 78-hectare Raupo Creek Vineyard, New Zealand’s largest Demeter-certified biodynamic vineyard, which is now also for sale.
Seresin Estate’s wines have always been high-quality and interesting. They’ve also not been afraid to walk on the wild side, as exemplified by its Beautiful Chaos minimal-intervention range. The 2025 Syrah is beautifully perfumed, with hints of lily of the valley, violet, greenery and pepper infusing blue fruits. It’s a fresh, chalky-textured, medium-bodied wine with some lovely depth.
Verdict: Critic’s Choice
Jo Burzynska gives her expert verdict on these celebrity wines: Graham Norton’s Own Prosecco, Sarah Jessica Parker’s Spicy Jalapeno sauvignon blanc, and 19 Crimes’ Cali Red.
Graham Norton’s Own Prosecco
When Tim Lightbourne and Rob Cameron of New Zealand’s Invivo Wines discovered that chat-show host Graham Norton was a big fan of sauvignon blanc, they arranged to supply theirs for free to his green room. A few years later, they pitched an actual partnership and, in 2014, the first Graham Norton’s Own sauvignon blanc was released.
Given his admission of heavy drinking, Norton may have been a risky wine collaborator. However, his GN label, which has expanded to include a range of wines as well as gins, has become one of the big celebrity-wine smash hits. The winning formula is grounded in Norton’s very real investment in the brand, financially and through selecting the wines for the final blends.
Graham Norton blending the 13th vintage of his Invivo NZ Sauvignon Blanc.
Tasting through the range, it’s evident that the wines are well made, with plenty of popular appeal. His sauvignon blanc has won numerous medals and accolades, while his prosecco is in pole position in the Irish market. His extra dry DOC NV prosecco, sourced from Italy, is a pleasant drop. It’s crisp, delicate and uncomplicated, with the style’s classic apple and lemon flavours and a hint of blossom.
Verdict: People’s Choice
Invivo X, SJP Spicy Jalapeño Sauvignon Blanc
Sarah Jessica Parker and Invivo founders, Tim Lightbourne and Rob Cameron, taste the five-year anniversary of their partnership.
Invivo Wines did it again with their partnership with Sex and the City actor Sarah Jessica Parker. Launched in 2019 with a Marlborough sauvignon blanc and French rosé, Parker’s wine range, like Norton’s collaboration, is much more than an endorsement. She’s a shareholder with direct input into the final styles and their styling. She named the wine based on how she signs off her social media posts, and was involved with the label design, hand-painting the X and selecting its colours.
Again, the wines have been good quality. Appearing three times in Wine Spectator’s Top 100 Wines of the World, these have already netted more than 60 gold medals. In the US and Ireland, Invivo X, SJP is one of the fastest-growing premium sauvignon blancs in the category, with initial stocks of the X, SJP Spicy Jalapeño Sauvignon Blanc launched this year selling out.
Released in New Zealand this month, the Jalapeño Sauvignon taps into the viral Tik Tok trend of sipping wine with slices of this piquant pepper. The addition of natural jalapeño and chilli extracts imparts a definite kick to this soft and simple sauvignon. However, I’m more an admirer of the dry and elegant Invivo X, SJP Vin de France Rosé 2024, with its subtle red fruit, hint of apricot kernel, and fragrant notes of blossom and savoury herb.
19 Crimes ‘Cali Red’, California, US
Snoop Dogg
Since 2020, hip-hop star Snoop Dogg has been the face of Treasury Wine Estates’ 19 Crimes, which rapidly became a five-million-case global brand. He’s been putting his name to a growing range of wines, which started with the Cali Red blend. The label has won accolades for its marketing, if not the contents of its bottle.
Snoop Dogg himself made it clear he’s not a fan of any of the alcohol brands he endorses. On his SnoopDoggTV YouTube channel, he candidly stated, “I don’t drink none of that s**t. And they know what it is … you don’t pay me to drink it, you pay me to promote it.”
Snoop Dogg’s 19 Crimes wine “Cali Red” (2020), produced in California, USA. Photo / Supplied
If a wine that tastes of cherry cola mixed with blackcurrant cordial sounds like your thang, Cali Red might hit the right note. It’s inexpensive, with a fairly bombastic body that’s not trying to be anything serious. However, it fell flat for me because of a cloying sweetness that’s not even masked by its whack of added acid. It also finishes with a synthetic note akin to grape lollies. I’m with Snoop on this one. I wouldn’t drink it either.
Verdict: (Drop It Like It’s) Not Hot
More on wine & drinks