Saturday, February 11, 2017

The Queen's New "Side Hustle" - Sparkling Wine

As a self-professed Anglophile, I found Jules' and Wei Hsiung's midterm presentation on English wines to be particularly fascinating. Nearly convinced me to drop out of law school and open a vineyard in the English countryside. Nearly.

So imagine my delight to see this Vanity Fair story featured on the Broadsheet (a Fortune-sponsored daily digest about the world's most powerful women) last week.

Turns out Queen Elizabeth is well aware of the business opportunities offered by the English wine industry. In 2011, she commissioned a seven-acre vineyard in Windsor Great Park featuring chardonnay, pinot noir, and pinot meunier. Although the first vintage (3,000 bottles) sold out "promptly," a new offering will be available this fall at a relatively reasonable $44 / bottle. 

Allegedly this marks a re-entry into the wine business for the royal family - Henry II grew grapes at Windsor Castle during the 12th century.

And for those of you who read the Vanity Fair article and were curious about other celebrity wineries, here are a few helpful links:

  • Brangelina (RIP): 
    • http://miraval-provence.com/en/#Miraval
    • http://fortune.com/2016/09/20/angelina-jolie-brad-pitt-winery/
  • Dave Matthews:
    • http://blenheimvineyards.com/
Sources:
  • http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4144226/Queen-joins-English-sparkling-wine-craze.html
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_II_of_England



2 comments:

  1. Turns out, the Queen isn't the only Lady looking to enter the wine biz. Last week, Lady Gaga announced she was starting her own wine label called "Grigio Girls".

    http://www.tmz.com/2017/02/05/lady-gaga-wine-business-grigio-girls/

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Tierney for sharing this. During our research, we saw that the Queen had sold out of her sparkling wines, and were joking maybe more English winegrowers should come under her strong brand umbrella. Could definitely see it working in many parts of Asia!

    ReplyDelete