Kylie Minogue Wines has become a stellar success for the Aussie star
Her latest venture into wine has seen Australia’s singing star Kylie Minogue dominate a new industry.
When Australia’s premier pop princess, Kylie Minogue, quietly launched her eponymous wine brand on a whim two years ago, mere weeks into the first global lockdown, even she never imagined it would be as instantly chart-topping as one of her many hit singles.
Yet fast-forward two years and an incredible five million bottles sold worldwide – that’s more than 20 million glasses poured – and the singer’s Prosecco Rose, launched last April, is already the top-selling branded prosecco rose in the UK, while her Yarra Valley pinot noir, produced by De Bortoli, has just snagged a gold medal at The Drinks Business magazine’s prestigious Global Pinot Noir Masters for a second year running.
“The fact that it has been so successful, so fast, is kind of abstract to me. It’s incredible,” Minogue enthuses by phone from Paris, where she has been spending a few rare days’ vacation.
“It wasn’t a given that people would be willing to give the wines a try, but they have, and it has opened up different avenues for me away from the ‘normal job’,” says the singer, whose 15th studio album, Disco, released in late 2020, went straight to No.1 in both Australia and the UK.
This not only secured her place as the first female artist to have No.1 albums in the UK across five decades, but Minogue also overtook Elton John and George Michael on the all-time chart leaderboard.
Despite only playing the curly-haired, fresh-faced tomboy Charlene Mitchell on Neighbours for two years in the late ’80s, the singer owes much to the long-running Australian soap for skyrocketing her to global fame. Particularly after her on-screen wedding to Scott Robinson (played by Jason Donovan) was watched by tens of millions of viewers around the world and the duo’s consequent Stock Aitken Waterman-produced 1988 hit, Especially for You, immediately went gold.
Minogue and Donovan will return to Ramsay Street as Scott and Charlene Robinson in the final episode of Neighbours, due to air in August.
“It was pretty weird turning into Pine Oak Court (aka Ramsay Street) after all that time,” she recalls.
While filming was only for a half day, she chose to drive herself because “I wanted to be reminded of being that 19-year-old again, when I would get into my Datsun and fang it to Vermont South or the Network Ten studios at Nunawading”, she reminisces.
“I had no idea that, as my first real job out of school, it was going to be this big opportunity. So it was very sweet to be with Jason and to think, wow, we’re still around,” she says.
As Minogue’s French ex-boyfriend, Olivier Martinez, used to say, she says, “it buckles a buckle – it completes the circle – and although we haven’t had anything to do with Neighbours for over 30 years, it was a really nice way to say thank you”.
While Minogue has also recently relocated back to Melbourne – “I will be away from home as often as I was away from home when I lived in London, but the big difference here is that when I am home, I can spend time with my family, hanging with my nephews, catching up with friends” – the singer shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
Recently voted the most alluring A-lister over 50 by US dating app Ourtime (beating Elizabeth Hurley, Jennifer Aniston and Nicole Kidman), Minogue celebrated her 54th birthday on Saturday with a surprise appearance on stage at London’s Brixton Academy with British singer Jessie Ware.
The two met for the first time when Minogue joined Ware’s Table Manners podcast in September 2020 and subsequently released the disco hit, Kiss of Life, late last year.
This week, Minogue will continue the party with an intimate soiree honouring Kylie Minogue Wine’s second anniversary at the exclusive London members club, Annabel’s, before heading Stateside to officially launch the collection with a private performance at the famous Cafe Carlyle.
In record time, Minogue’s wines have quickly garnered fans from Belgium to Byron Bay. The collection now includes three pale-hued Provencal roses (including a Cotes de Provence and Cotes de Provence Cru Classe rose produced by the prestigious Chateau Sainte Roseline winery, located just north of Saint Tropez), a French sauvignon blanc and merlot, and a Spanish organic cava.
The aforementioned Italian Prosecco Rose is produced by the seventh-generation Zonin family, based in the heart of Veneto, and served in a bottle exclusively smattered with debossed hearts in ode to the singer’s reference to her fans as “lovers”.
Two top-quality Australian wines feature too; a creamy, rounded but fresh chardonnay, sourced from a small, special-batch blend of grapes nurtured on Howard Park’s Allingham vineyard in the cooler southern reaches of Margaret River; and the light, fragrant pinot noir – a big hit with Minogue’s dad, Ron – comprising a mix of handpicked upper and lower Yarra Valley grapes to give the wine “a lot more perfume and charm”, says the estate’s winemaker, Steve Webber.
Minogue works as creative director on the collection in joint venture with Sydney-born, London-based wine industry veteran Paul Schaafsma, who founded Benchmark Drinks after more than two decades working with the likes of Wolf Blass, Brian McGuigan and Hardys.
The singer is intricately involved in every step of curating and creating the collection, from deciding on the style, colour and packaging of each wine and liaising closely with Schaafsma and the winemakers on the final blend that will be bottled.
“Kylie puts her stamp on every step of the process,” says Schaafsma, who also works on wine ranges with cricketer Ian Botham, chef Gordon Ramsay and singer Gary Barlow.
“If Benchmark is going to work with someone, it means they are authentic, committed and absolutely passionate for the project. You can see it in the first 10 minutes of meeting the person. I knew I wanted to work with Kylie in the first 30 seconds,” he enthuses.
“Everyone loves Kylie – the story of her life and career appeals to the 20-somethings as it does the 70-year-olds. And they’re all buying Kylie Minogue Wines.”
Remarkably, the first rose in the collection was developed entirely during those first few strange months of global lockdown in 2020, where Minogue and Schaafsma tasted different wines and swapped ideas at a distance across Minogue’s South Kensington front doorstep. Now, as lockdowns have gradually lifted, Minogue has managed to visit many of her wine producers in person.
“I’ve been able to put faces to names, see their vines, get their vibes,” she says. “I love the stories behind wine growing, having tastings out of the barrel at different stages of maturation. They’ve all been different – each place has its own quality – but the common denominator is their passion and really hard yakka.”
Being welcomed into the various winemakers’ homes – meeting their spouses, their kids, their grandkids – has also reminded the pop star of being on tour. “Working with an extended team who are like family,” says Minogue. “We’re all there for the same goal, and the end result is this little jewel that then goes on to have its own life around the world.”
Drawing on Minogue’s “amazing palate” has made it easier for the winemakers “to bring in some of her personal nuances into the blending”, says Schaafsma.
“Kylie is a lovely person and I wanted to surround her with people that were absolutely brilliant at what they do but would also have her best interests at heart,” he says.
He also wanted the wines to reflect Minogue’s distinctively feminine, gentle but upbeat style, “so that you know it’s a Kylie Minogue wine as soon as you taste it, not as soon as you look at it”, he adds.
While there is a “softness and elegance” to the pinot noir, he says, the Cotes de Provence’s perfect salmon-pink hue, with “a line of acidity that keeps it fresh and crisp and interesting” has “enough fruit to keep your palate satisfied”.
For many people, part of the appeal of Minogue’s wines is the trustworthiness of her name. “We’ve all been in that place where you’re confronted with a wine list or the supermarket shelf and you need some help,” she says.
“Hopefully we’re helping people to feel more confident about buying wine,” adds Schaafsma. “Customers are loving the fact that it’s Kylie’s wine and they’re loving the fact that the wine is good, otherwise they wouldn’t come back for a second bottle,” he enthuses.
Howard Park’s owner, Jeff Burch, agrees. “It’s not surprising Kylie’s wines have struck a chord with her fans but have also been well received among the wine cognoscenti,” he says. “Throughout her career she has demonstrated an ability to innovate and captivate, to stay ahead of the curve and showcase great creativity, professionalism, attention to detail and a desire to collaborate. All ideal traits for success in the wine industry.”
To her great delight (and surprise), Minogue last year was honoured with a Special Wine Entrepreneurship Award at the UK’s inaugural Golden Vines Awards, surrounded by “the creme de la creme of people who have spent their entire lives in this industry perfecting wine”, she says.
“I feel like I am such a baby in all of this, which is really refreshing since I am not a baby in the music world, not by a long shot,” she laughs.
Minogue is no stranger to new business ventures and collaborations beyond music, having previously offered perfume, lingerie and bedding. She says she “decides on each business venture or endorsement differently”.
“There are some job offers I accept for the experience alone. Perhaps it’s a city I’ve never visited, or a team I admire or the opportunity to play with my band.
“With the lingerie and the bedding, I started those when I felt there was a gap in the market and that I was able to deliver an accessible and quality product. They did so well that others followed and the market ended up quite full. I moved on from both but I know there is interest in reviving Love Kylie (lingerie) so, let’s see!”
While music will always be Minogue’s mainstay – most recently, the singer was in Cannes to promote hip DJ Peggy Gou’s 20th-anniversary remix of her dancefloor No.1, Can’t Get You Out of My Head, in association with Magnum ice cream – she isn’t far off adding wine mogul alongside disco queen to her resume.
“I was hoping for success and new experiences, but it has been that and more,” Minogue reflects.
“Before, I simply enjoyed a glass of wine but now I know 100 per cent more than I knew before, which is probably 1 per cent of what I need to know,” she says, laughing.
“I’ve had to tell myself not to get overwhelmed by all of it because there’s just no possible way for me to fast-track and catch up to everything.
“But, while it’s a new industry for me, I feel like it hasn’t been too rushed, it has felt like good timing, so now I just want to enjoy the ride, work hard, do my best and have a lot of fun.”