Kylie Minogue’s new wine faces tough review from UK critics
Kylie Minogue has picked up a new side hustle to her music career and not everyone likes it. One harsh critic called it a “sweet yet bitter disappointment”.
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Kylie Minogue’s new signature wine being sold in British supermarket Tesco has been savaged in a blistering review that labelled it a “coarse, surly, sweet yet bitter disappointment.”
The southern French Rose, which hit shelves this week to coincide with the I Should Be So Lucky singer’s 52nd birthday, received a thumbs down.
Minogue was a key part of the wine’s production process, picking a “juicy and refreshing pale pink” with “notes of red berries and white blossom” during a London tasting for the bottle that bears her name.
She had said that she wanted a wine that was not too light, or too heavy, with rose particularly popular in the English summer.
A reviewer for The Times of London newspaper, did not share Minogue’s enthusiasm for the drop, which is being sold for $16.68 AUD (9 GBP) per bottle.
“I can confirm that the wine within this pot-bellied, clear glass bottle, looking suspiciously like Brangelina’s mouth-watering Miraval Rosé, is a coarse, surly, sweet-yet-bitter disappointment,” wine expert Jane MacQuitty wrote.
“It has 4.4g per litre of residual sugar, hence its sickly finish. Forget the “Enjoy! With love, Kylie x” marketing message. Anyone spending the best part of a tenner on this, like most of the long line of celebrity-endorsed wines, needs their head examined.”
The average cost of a bottle of wine in UK supermarkets was $10.99 (5.93 GBP), according to figures released in February.
Minogue’s wine was at the upper end for most drinkers in the UK, with most wines on the shelves around $13 (7GBP).
The new wine was made from a grape blend of 80 per cent Carignan and 20 per cent Cabernet Sauvignon from the southern French coast.
Benchmarks Drinks has marketed the wine, which is the latest addition to its celebrity range that includes a collection bearing cricketer Ian Botham’s name.
Botham gave a speech at Australia House last year ahead of the Ashes to spruik the drop, which is also sold in British supermarkets.
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Minogue said that she came up with the idea of the wine while drinking Rose when she was recording her 14th studio album Golden in Nashville.
“It was exceptionally hot and humid that summer, and it was an exciting time, being in Nashville and writing songs with no distractions,” she told the June edition of the Drinks Business magazine.
“While dining outdoors one night, my manager Polly and I were drinking Whispering Angel to cool down from the heat, which got me thinking how great it would be to have my own rosé. I love pale pink rosés and all the associations of the Mediterranean that go with them.”
Minogue’s friends were far kinder than the wine reviewer this week as they flooded her with birthday wishes.
Her sister Dannii shared the love, while Torn singer and fellow Neighbours alumni Natalie Imbruglia also wished her happy birthday.
Minogue said on Instagram: “Thank you SO much for your birthday messages.
“My wish is to send you all … so … much … love! Especially to my family, your love and kindness lifts me up each and every day.”
stephen.drill@news.co.uk