Wine with Meg + Mel

Celebrity Wines: From Dolly Parton to Brad Pitt

• Season 4 • Episode 25

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Speaker 1:

Hi and welcome to Wine with Meg and Mel. We are here to help you navigate the world of wine. I'm Mel Gill, who's joined by Master of Wine Meg Brotman. Meg, we are the celebrity wines today. I'm so excited.

Speaker 2:

You have put them Well. I need about one really. The others I couldn't Foulest bottle on this table.

Speaker 1:

Oh my God, it's awesome and it's so on brand, making me sick to look at, but I'm kind of obsessed with it. Anyway, we'll get to it first. Meg, what have you been drinking so?

Speaker 2:

I recently had Claire Burda. She's a small wine producer up in Macedon, ranges Her eminence Cute Brute. Cute Brute Isn't that a great name? It's a sparkling wine, nice, made from Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay, very high acidity, beautiful aperitif wine, lovely packaging, zero dosage. Which you could tell, ooh, yep, do you enjoy? Zero dosage? Which you could tell, yeah, do you enjoy zoo? Um, we, when we put pete and I had it when we opened it, I first went, oh my god, because it was like the first wine for the day.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so we stopped and prepared a little plate of you know nibbly things to have with it and it was really, really delicious, but it's definitely in that aperitif style Great wine.

Speaker 1:

I have to say I've never really tasted a no dosage wine that I've like loved. Oh no, okay, yeah, but maybe I just haven't tasted many.

Speaker 2:

It's a brave move because you know Macedon cool region. Actually it's Whitlands, I think she's up in the high Whitlands, sorry, okay, and it's a family-owned vineyard and she was working in the wine in hospitality and her and her partner have now just gone into doing the small production of wine. And it didn't have a cork, it had the what do you call it? Crown sealy thing on top.

Speaker 1:

Oh, that's interesting.

Speaker 2:

So it was a very good wine. I don't know where you'd find it.

Speaker 1:

Is one more sustainable than the other?

Speaker 2:

than the other. Um, well, I guess if she'd steer it as dosage oh no, she has disgorged it. Um, I don't know if crownsies are recyclable. I'm not sure what they're actually made out of, but that's a good question. Yeah, I don't know. All right, uh, fun fact um, french wine industry, so biggest producers in the world. For years and years and years and years, their production in 2024 has dropped by 18% that's huge To 39,. So 20%. Whoa, 39.3 million hectolitres. They'd actually predicted that it was going to drop to 40.5 or something, but because of all their frosts and rain and everything, it's dropped enormously.

Speaker 1:

Wow.

Speaker 2:

Burgundy and the Loire Valley were particularly hardly hit with the frost. So in a world where we have a, the problem is Burgundy is still on the rise. Everyone wants it, so it's just going to force the prices even bloody higher than they already are and they'll never come back down. Yeah, and same with Loire. Yeah, no one's going to drop their prices. No, so Burgundy's out of reach. Drink Yarra Valley.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and that's our tech room message today. We love it. So Celebrity Wines. Okay, celebrity Wines. Let's start with what is on my table, jesus, I'm putting it up for the video. If she puts it up, it's Dolly Parton. This is definitely an episode that is going on YouTube because Dolly Parton's sparkling made in Australia.

Speaker 2:

I just want to know if Dolly's come out here and I didn't know, because we love her so much you know.

Speaker 1:

Do you know what this looks like If you gave a 10-year-old girl some like glitter pens and said create a wine label? This is what it would look like.

Speaker 2:

So it's a butterfly-shaped label and it's got a number of very blingy butterflies over it, with Dolly Parton sparkling wine On the back. It's from the Parton family cellars With their music and spirit. Dolly knows how to bring people together. Now with a glass of delicious sparkling made for you and this moment I think it's made by Accolade. Yes, it is made by Accolade. And 12.5% alcohol, just product of Australia.

Speaker 1:

So what's interesting is like plenty of celebrities have wines and stuff, but they name it something else. But this just says on big flashy like Dolly pardon.

Speaker 2:

Kylie Minogue says Kylie, is it? That's interesting Ooh.

Speaker 1:

All right, we're tasting it. Are we Do we know anything about it, or just that it's Australian?

Speaker 2:

sparkling. No, I tried to get some information. I think it's Chardonnay based and it has a little bit of residual sugar. So it's Chardonnay based and it has a little bit of residual sugar, so it's obviously appealing to a more. Can we say commercial? Yeah, so I think you can feel the sugar in it. It's actually pretty drinkable, I've got to say. But the thing is with these celebrity wines, is it about the wine? This is my question.

Speaker 2:

I don't like it no, it wouldn't be my first choice of wine. This is my question. I don't like it. No, it wouldn't be, my first choice of wine.

Speaker 1:

Are you like I don't want to say anything bad about it, in case Dolly's listening.

Speaker 2:

No, I don't want to say anything bad about Dolly because she does so much for charity and stuff, like the only theme park that I would ever visit in the world would be Dolly's theme park, Do you want to, instead of our normal doong doong, doong, do you want? Pour myself a cup of ambition and something Wine to five. I've already come up with a song we're going to rename that. That's in the song I get up and go to the kitchen pour myself a cup of ambition. That is beautiful.

Speaker 1:

And that's a cup of ambition. I'll edit it into this episode. Working wine to five.

Speaker 2:

Oh, I was having so much fun with it the other night. Jesus, I love her. The wine's fine, but it's Dolly. Does Dolly need more money? But the thing is she gives it away, she gives it away. This is the thing about Dolly that I love she gives so much away to people. You know she grew up like they had a dirt floor. She grew up dirt poor. But why is she getting in the wine space now? It's just she's got a few, most all out of America.

Speaker 1:

That is a $22 sparkling never in my whole. I'm sorry, dolly, love your music. Would never pay $22 for that wine.

Speaker 2:

But I tell you what do well at Tamworth yeah, when they have their festivals, their country music festivals. Yeah, Dolly, if you're giving all the money away, I'll ask people to buy it, because you just want to give the wine away, it's all right, but it's, you know, it's, it's blingy, yeah, and will people buy it?

Speaker 1:

because Dolly Parton has her name on it, it's just branding.

Speaker 2:

She wouldn't have made it so there are a few famous people that make wine like pink.

Speaker 1:

But I have no doubt she had a role in the design for the label.

Speaker 2:

Oh for, sure I don't know what the thing about the butterflies is. So next we have our own little Australian icon who may grow into Dolly Parton, kylie Minogue, and I'm really disappointed in this because Kylie does a rosé which is done by DeBortoli. Yeah, but this is a Prosecco rosé from Italy.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, what you doing.

Speaker 2:

Kylie. What you doing, kylie? We have plenty of Prosecco grown here in Australia. Again, blingy bottle it's hearts. Look at the stippling on it. Again blingy bottle, it's hearts, look at the stippling on it. Oh, it's hearts, it's hearts, oh, kylie. And when we took the opened the foil or the hood at the top, I liked that it undoes and it says with love, kylie.

Speaker 1:

Okay, I liked that touch. I thought that was cute. I felt like it was a personal letter to us. Kylie's just talking to us. Yeah, I really felt like I heard it from her. But I'm not sure about the hearts on the label.

Speaker 2:

It does look a bit too blingy. It is all about bling. It's like a perfume bottle. This is the thing. These people make perfume Because Sarah Jessica Parker does a wine as well. She does too. Yeah, Now Graham Norton does one, but he actually goes out and helps with the blending, because he always drank New Zealand Sauvignon from this particular winery on his show. And so they approached him and said would you like to do a collab with us? And that's more of a collab. This is, I think, just branding. I don't know that Kylie's out in making Prosecco up in the Veneto.

Speaker 2:

But I mean, I don't want a celebrity blending my wine anyway, Well, did you know that Pink took herself off to winemaking college at Davis? Did she actually study? Yeah, she has a vineyard and she reckons working in the vineyard is harder than doing her stage act. And that woman does trapeze work. And she took herself off to Davis to study winemaking. All right, good on her, we like that. Okay. So Prosecco from Italy. So it's a DOC Prosecco, 11% alcohol. It's an elegant, sparkling rosé, weird Crisp, fresh notes of strawberries, raspberries and blossom. So what are they allowed to use for Prosecco? Is it Pinot Noir? They're using Pinot Nero.

Speaker 1:

For the colour.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, or it's actually made from not from Gleyra, is it not from? Gleyra? No, I think it's from the.

Speaker 1:

Oh, I just assumed they used Gleyra. Put it in something else for the colour.

Speaker 2:

They changed the DOC rules a few years ago to do the rosé because they were just getting on the bandwagon. My God, that is not very good.

Speaker 1:

Oh, I didn't like it, but I didn't hate it as much as you did, are you okay?

Speaker 2:

It's um okay Clear bottle.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah, I was just like.

Speaker 2:

It doesn't taste like anything, it's like old apple that's been left open, cut open.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's exactly what Jay's like. Yeah, it's not appealing at all.

Speaker 2:

Wow. How much is that? $23. $23. So this is the thing You're paying for the branding Kylie. Just a top tip make it in Australia. Yeah, you know. Yeah, it'd be fresher and cleaner and yummy and not a clear bottle, she wouldn't be able to export it to Europe, calling it Prosecco True, because of the new laws what?

Speaker 1:

That didn't come in, did it, we fought it.

Speaker 2:

No, but New Zealand said that in order for them to get a free trade agreement with Italy. They're saying oh no, australia can't call Prosecco Prosecco in New Zealand.

Speaker 1:

Oh, in New, Zealand, so they have trade problems.

Speaker 2:

Yes, no, no, no. Okay, so again, rosé. It's going to be a quick episode. What is it about Rosé? Because when I was doing my research for this, most of the celebrity wines is Rosé. I guess you know Brad Pitt we we know has his lovely house down in. You need to tip out Kylie down in Provence and he's making his Miraval rosé.

Speaker 1:

Can we spend some time talking about how much Brad Pitt sucks? So we're not, you know, giving him too much free publicity. Does he suck? He's awful, oh is he? He got done for physical abuse of what's her name, angelina.

Speaker 2:

Jolie.

Speaker 1:

Angelina Jolie and his kids. None of his kids talk to him anymore, and he's still this big celebrity. Oh, it all happened on this plane. She's taken him to court. Oh wow, His kids hate him so much. They've taken Pitt out of their surname because of what he did to Jolie Like yeah, you're spending far too much time on celebrity magazines. But he hasn't been cancelled. Hollywood likes him too much, so I want to say whatever this tastes like, don't buy it and I'd say with but does he own it or does she own it?

Speaker 2:

He owns it, he owns it. Okay, he got it in the divorce Because she's always been considered a little bit out there.

Speaker 1:

Well, yeah, they say that.

Speaker 2:

So they're probably, you know, probably judging on her, but if he's kids, then that says a lot.

Speaker 1:

She's unfairly been targeted. I think that she's always been seen as like a shrewd woman who because she doesn't have female friends and stuff but she's actually like there's nothing against her, like she does heaps of charity work and yeah, yeah, she does. Isn't that where they're? And I'm pretty sure all the flight attendants can back up what happened.

Speaker 2:

No, well, I think the fact that his children, that says it all. They would have seen. Every one of them. Yeah, and they've taken pit. Are they jolly pits?

Speaker 1:

One of them, they were all jolly pit, and they're all coming like of age now, and so the first ones to turn legal age. The first thing she did was go to court to take pit off her name.

Speaker 2:

So he doesn't see them at all. He doesn't see them at all. Oh no, that's well. I shouldn't have got this if I'd known that. Sorry, okay, and it's rose, so it's doubly worse. Now we have to drink rose okay this is studio by mirabelle. This is like 24 dollars, but it goes up to 40. There's there's one at $39. I mean seriously trading on the name.

Speaker 1:

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2:

And Brad Pitt. If you are an abuser, then Mm, mm, tastes like rosé. Well, that's our. Yes, tastes like rosé. It's quite nice.

Speaker 1:

Really, I don't even, I'm not even just saying this because of Brad Pitt.

Speaker 2:

I just think it tastes like rosé. I think you've got a bad taste in your mouth. It does taste like rosé, but I mean not even nice rosé. Rosé, it's fine.

Speaker 1:

Like remember the last week we did that De Bordelais, de Bordelais, that actually I tasted it and went ooh, like raspberry kind of floral interesting. A few things I could point out.

Speaker 2:

This just tastes like rosé. I think we'll move on. It's not even from Provence, it's an IGP wine. Oh my God, and it's $24. That is wrong. Oh, and it's imported by Pinnacle. Wow, we'll move on to Snoop Dogg, snoopy.

Speaker 2:

Dogg For the record we love Snoop Dogg Right Dogg, For the record, we love Snoop Dogg Right. So I don't know much about that rap world. My son is really into rap but on the weirder side of it all and I was a bit worried before I did this that he was involved with P Diddy, because that's all my rap world kind of they all collide Anyway. So I did some investigating so that we weren't promoting someone who went off to one of those weird party things that P Diddy did yes, Freak offs or something. Anyway, this is 19 Crimes. So this is produced by Treasury.

Speaker 1:

P Diddy wrote a rap called Believe in Yourself and it's a rap for kids, full of affirmations to make them like believe in themselves.

Speaker 2:

We loved Newt Dogg. Does he still smoke a lot of dope? Didn't he go to jail for something?

Speaker 1:

I don't think he went to jail. Yeah, he like notoriously smokes dope but like it's legal no, it is now, but I think he went to jail for it, did he?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, for possession, anyway, I don't know. He's wonderful. This is 19 Crime. So this is that Treasury brand that's just taken the US by storm. Yeah, and it's interactive. So if you put your phone up against it, it tells the story of who the criminal is, which is why I think he has actually got a criminal record Right.

Speaker 2:

So he's got a few wines I think there's three, one of which was a rosé. This is a Cali Red, so California Red, 12.5% alcohol, 2021 vintage. Interesting that it's kind of in a an opaque bottle. Is the bottle actually black? No, it's not.

Speaker 1:

it's not, it's green, see what I mean. But it looks black. Yeah, it's interesting, it's like oh yeah, he went to jail for three years. Yeah, possession of drugs and a traffic violation.

Speaker 2:

There you go, told you um tell us the true story of Rule Break. Has he been? The odds are blah, blah, blah, blah blah. Composition red wine You're kidding. Origin California yeah.

Speaker 1:

I was a Californian, I was Cali red.

Speaker 2:

So I was going to do all Australian, but trying to find celebrities that is all Australian was a bit hard. Yeah, he's got like. How much was Kelly Redd? 15, 16, 16? I think I might have been on spesh, because that's why it's it is worth being a member. I've been blocked from buying wine from Dan Murphy's online. What, what, I don't know why we've've been blocked.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, why would they do that? I don't know, but I'm doing it through my app now, which is actually way easier. 1520. I paid for it, yeah, okay. Anyway, cali Red Wine what do you reckon? Great Fridays.

Speaker 1:

It'll be cab. Why don't it be cab?

Speaker 2:

It'd be Central Valley.

Speaker 1:

It'd be. Yeah it smells like Zin, actually Zin and Cab Merlot.

Speaker 2:

There'll be Merlot in it. Everything it does smell like Zinfandel, so it's got a distinct blueberry, mmm.

Speaker 1:

Yummy, it's got sugar in itop dog. That's terrible. I was expecting it, oh my god, it's like fruitcake.

Speaker 2:

It is like fruitcake. Why would you do that?

Speaker 1:

do they give california? Do they give you?

Speaker 2:

that that's a crime $16 to let her in. That is a crime.

Speaker 1:

That's 19 crimes. I don't know what you're expecting.

Speaker 2:

That's exactly what I was expecting. I was expecting a bit of residual sugar to soften it, but not Like that is sweet. That's gross.

Speaker 1:

Wow. What are we going to do with these ones today?

Speaker 2:

Well, we're not fighting over any of those, we're not. Maybe Make some punch. Well, that's very disappointing.

Speaker 1:

There's not a single good celebrity word. Isn't there a celebrity champagne? How come you didn't get that, Meg God?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, Jay-Z's champagne.

Speaker 1:

Oh, come on, You've just brought in all these crappy ones.

Speaker 2:

Oh, I had the Penfolds champagne.

Speaker 1:

Oh, how was it?

Speaker 2:

It's okay, $70.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, okay, it's very apple y.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, a little bit bruised apple. Yeah, it's okay, $70. Yeah, okay, it's very apple-y. Yeah, a little bit bruised apple. Yeah, dolly Parton wine. See, yeah, there you go, she's up there, I just don't.

Speaker 1:

yes, look, you're paying for the branding people Don't buy celebrity wine is the take-home message. I think Should we do the sporting heroes guys. Yeah, I think we should.

Speaker 2:

Let's do sporting heroes and see what their wines are like, because we've had one of the Daniel Ricciardo wines and that was actually pretty good. Yeah, it was good, we liked it.

Speaker 1:

And they've got Ricky Ponting.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Okay, but can they have their name to it, or do they have to have actually made it? I think they have to have actually made it. Well then, we've got none. I don't think anyone. Ricky Ponting does. He makes the wine. Oh, like he, you know, makes the wine, like I'm pretty sure he, like there'd be a picture of him. I'm sure we can find a picture of him at a blending table. That doesn't mean anything, woman, I mean not the sole winemaker, but like they'd have winemakers. But you know how, even Richie Vandenberg oh, look, here he is, richie Vandenberg is actually in his family.

Speaker 1:

He's holding a glass. Someone's got a barrel thief.

Speaker 2:

Someone's holding the barrel thief for him in conversation with Ricky Conti.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, they got. Oh, look at, I told you there'd be a blending photo. He's blending in his cricket outfit, he's wearing his all white cricket hat and he's blending Rule number one, mate, if you're working around wine, you wear black.

Speaker 2:

Okay, let's do it, and let's yes look at photos.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, okay, maybe not there's so much wine. Look, I mean this was a disappointing episode, so maybe that would just be another disappointing episode.

Speaker 2:

So I want to do an episode on like really drill down in Germany, but I don't know if people are interested.

Speaker 1:

People would absolutely be interested. I can tell you that, yeah, okay, while sorry, there's nothing that we recommend you go out and buy from this lot. Just go buy something that you've never heard of this weekend Go support an Australian family. Go support an Australian family. We will be back with you next week. Until then, enjoy your next glass of wine and drink well, not these, no.

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Meg Brodtmann MW

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Mel Gilcrist

Co-host