Pink wine is saving summer as big names from movies, music and sports take their talents to rosé. Sarah Jessica Parker and rapper Post Malone arrived on the scene first this year, and now racecar driver–vintner Danica Patrick, Australia’s “princess of pop” Kylie Minogue and rock group All Time Low have joined the pack with pinks from France and California.
Retired IndyCar and NASCAR driver Patrick started what has become a decade-plus rally on the wine circuit in 2009, when she purchased 24 acres on Napa’s Howell Mountain for what would become her Somnium Cabernet-centric label. But her wine-mind was racing even before then.
“My passion for wine started when I moved to England to race,” Patrick told Unfiltered via email. “I just remember going to a bar and asking, ‘Can you give me the sweetest white wine you have?’ which is always the start to a wine lover’s journey, and then it became dry white wine.”
Green flag for pink wine season: Danica Patrick’s rosé drives a stylish embossed bottle and retails for $28. (Courtesy of Danica Rosé)
Now, the hard-charging driver has teamed with the Nechio Novak private equity group and the French Margnat family, which has been making wine for generations, to create a new rosé from Provence, announced last week and available in California, Florida and New York stores, as well as online in most other states. Patrick says the project gives her a great excuse to visit the French Mediterranean coast, where rosé is a way of life. “It’s the home of rosé, so that’s why I chose France,” Patrick said. “It is such a versatile wine. It’s so approachable, and you also don’t feel bad drinking or buying a lot of it because it’s a really accessible price point.”
Off the speedway and on the stage, Minogue joined the ranks of hitmaker-winemakers, like fellow dynamo performer Mary J. Blige, with a new wine brand, hers leading with a French rosé made in collaboration with London-based distributor Benchmark Drinks. After two years of tuning it up, “we have created a rosé that I am truly enamored by; it’s fresh, light and the perfect pink,” Minogue said in a statement provided to Unfiltered.
We should be so lucky (to try Kylie Minogue’s new wine). (Copyright Darenote Ltd. / Wines by Kylie Minogue)
Minogue’s Vin de France made its debut at 450 Tesco stores across Britain at $11 and is slated to arrive in the U.S. later this year. The rosé is just the beginning of a wine-filled season ahead for the singer, who plans to release a Provence rosé from St.-Tropez soon, along with a French Sauvignon Blanc and a Merlot.
Finally, wine-and-coffee–fueled rockers All Time Low have added another track to their California label Everything Is Wine, a project with Lodi-based E2 Family Winery, Wines That Rock and Warner Music Artist Services. (The name is a riff on “Everything Is Fine,” a 2018 single of theirs.) The latest release, the Zinfandel-based Summer Daze rosé (also named for a song on the band’s new album) is another Lodi production.
The band can’t get together to jam during the pandemic, but guitarist Jack Barakat (left) and wine frontman–singer Alex Gaskarth (right) quickly sold out (or otherwise dispatched) their first batch of rosé in a matter of days. (Courtesy of All Time Low)
“We’ve been brainstorming and working towards a rosé since we first had the idea of our own wine label,” lead singer and guitarist Alex Gaskarth told Unfiltered via email, saying the wine straddes “a fine line between a dry and a slightly sweeter rosé, making it the perfect accompaniment to poolside cookouts, dining al fresco, and even allow[ing] it to thrive in the craft cocktail space.” Because even if the bars aren’t open, the summer must go on. And this year, it’s looking more and more like everything is, indeed, wine.
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