Meghan has launched her new rosé on Diana's birthday. How shrewd
Meghan's wine, released today, joins her 'As Ever' lifestyle stable, taking its place alongside some jam, shortbread mix and hibiscus tea. At the time of writing I have been unable to sample the product, so I will have to take her press release's word for it, which is that this 'bespoke blend' will have 'soft notes of stone fruit, gentle minerality and a lasting finish'.
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Of course it hardly matters what the liquid tastes like. For anyone with a glamorous profile and a shrewd business nose, rosé is an easy win, a wine that requires no wine knowledge beyond enjoying its summery ambience. As the Telegraph 's wine correspondent, Victoria Moore, points out, every celeb and multimillionaire worth their salt now sells 'this shimmering, pale-pink liquid in beautiful bottles, like a fragment of a summer dream, to the likes of me and you.' There was once a time when rosé wasn't trendy, and when drinkers looked for qualities other than looks. Today, colour is the main thing. The paler the better, ideally the faintest of touches off fully translucent.
Meghan's wine is made, according to sources, with grapes from Fairwinds Estate in Napa Valley, California, a six-hour drive away from her home in Montecito. Fairwinds produces Barry Manilow's wines and those for the John Wayne family estate. It's behind countless other 'entertainment' wine brands, sports wine brands, fraternity wine brands and sorority wine brands. The Duchess of Sussex will be in excellent company as she seeks to 'bring joy to [us] and [our] loved ones' with the deliverance of her 2025 As Ever Rosé.
Naturally there is a Diana connection, too. The Martha Stewart of Montecito did not get where she is without an eye for the main prize, and she was hardly about to launch her rosé – a blue riband moment for any would-be lifestyle tycoon – on some random day of the year.
July 1 was Diana's birthday. It was also the date that Meghan first made contact with 'H', her shadowy and little-seen husband rumoured to have former connections to the British crown. We cannot say for certain how Diana would have celebrated her 64th birthday, but perhaps she would have appreciated a 'bespoke blend' being launched on it.
To Meghan's credit, she has displayed more prior interest in wine than she has in jam. She has admitted to enjoying a glass to relax. Her now-defunct former lifestyle blog, 'The Tig', was apparently named after Tiganello, a favoured Italian red.
'It wasn't just red or white – suddenly I understood what people meant by the body, legs, structure of wine,' she wrote. 'It was an ah-ha moment at its finest.
'For me, it became a 'Tig' moment – a moment of getting it. From that point on, any new awareness, any new discovery or 'ohhhhh, I get it!' moment was a 'Tig' moment.'
This is an old-fashioned view of wine, where learning to appreciate its richness and depth is part of growing up. Luckily for As Ever, Meghan has 'Tigged' that vibes trump terroir. See a rosé and think of the sea, sunshine and a fledgling lifestyle brand in California. Thanks to her, we can all drink like former royalty.
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