Celebrity endorsement isn’t always a good idea

If you happen to be in China, you may come across wines that, at first glance, appear to be by Penfolds, the premium Australian producer. And then, on closer inspection, turn out to be labelled Benfolds. I’m sure ‘Benfold’s Grange’ is a snip compared to the real thing, but the contents of the bottle will be, you can be quite sure, nothing like it. Counterfeit brands are quite an industry in that part of the world and wine is a particularly vulnerable sector thanks to huge Chinese tariffs.

Penfolds’ owner, Treasury Wine Estates (TWE), still has faith in the Chinese market but they are looking very closely at growing the US market. And the collapse of sales in China also explains why we are seeing a lot more Penfolds wines in Ireland these days.

Even a little market like ours is of interest at a time like this.

TWE is behind the hugely successful, mainly Australian, wine brand 19 Crimes, developed with Millennial men in mind and clearly designed to appeal to people who were drinking cola until pretty recently. Residual sugar ranges from 12g/ litre to a whopping 24g/litre. To put this in context, the seriously jammy and sweet Apothic red from California’s Gallo corporation, weighs in at 15g/litre. And a typical dry red wine, say a straight Bordeaux, has between 1 and 2g/litre.

If you’re reading this, I suspect the latter is more your kind of drink. But back to 19 Crimes, which is being promoted by two celebrity ex-convicts in the US, Martha ‘only the little people pay taxes’ Stewart and the colourful, to say the least, Snoop Dog. TWE seem to be covering all the bases with this pair.

Promotional activity includes ‘collectable’ corks and, of course, an app. I don’t know what Snoop Dog has done in creating his own 19 Crimes wine but TWE say: ‘Our partner on this wine… is defiant and always uncompromising, just like 19 Crimes. Enjoy this bold Californian red, that shines with black and red fruit flavours and vanilla undertones.’

Undertones is putting it mildly. A much more edifying and admirable celebrity who has partnered with a wine company to create his own brands is Graham Norton, whose latest addition to his portfolio is West Cork Marmalade Gin which is pretty good if light on juniper and very slightly sweet. His Australian Shiraz is decent stuff and comes in at less than 5g/litre residual sugar, and his New Zealand Sauvignon has 3.6g/litre.