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News
Graham Norton is launching a gin
TV presenter, winemaker and national treasure Graham Norton is launching his own gin label with the same New Zealand company that produces his wine range.
Norton released a teaser video for the gin alongside Invivo founders Tim Lightbourne and Rob Cameron.
Working with Invivo, Norton released a teaser video on Vimeo over the weekend which reveals that GN Gin will be hitting supermarket shelves soon.
The news comes shortly after Norton met with Invivo’s founders Tim Lightbourne and Rob Cameron to finish the blending process for the team’s 2018 GN Pinot rosé, Shiraz and Sauvignon Blanc wines.
The Irish presenter who has since become a national treasure in the UK teamed up with New Zealand wine producers Invivo to launch the brand in 2014, and is personally involved in selecting the blend from tank samples alongside Invivo’s founders and winemakers, Tim Lightbourne and Rob Cameron, who say their wines are made from “grapes, time and two maxed out credit cards.”
The GN Sauvignon Blanc 2017 won a Gold medal in the Drinks Business Global Sauvignon Masters last year, a wine that was also chosen to be served in Qantas Business class.
Invivo aims to raise $6.5 million through crowdfunding in its home country, with plans to expand its Graham Norton wine brand and launch a “new celebrity collaboration” in the US.
Since 2015, Invivo sales have increased from $3.7m to a projected $13.9m this financial year, achieving a 374% bottle sales growth since their 2015 crowdfunding campaign.
From 50,000 bottles in 2015, this year the team is expected to produce more than three million bottles.
utterly ridiculous! as if we didn’t already have enough NZ wines to choose from, and now as if we don’t have a big enough choice of gin to choose from? And as for Graham Norton, what is t of him doing this – self-serving nonsense in my view, just another egotistical so-called celeb jumping on another bandwagon! Does he really need the money, I doubt it, is he really interested in jumping ship from tv presenter to winemaker or distiller, I doubt it, so why doesn’t he just get on with his day job and leave the drinks business alone? let’s be honest, the wines will be good, not exceptional, and so will the gin – so who gains from this? I know who, those guys in NZ who managed to convince Graham or his agent that it was a great idea! If Graham was really that interested in wine or gin, why did he not seek to work with a UK producer, was it really necessary to go to the other side of the world for this? What a joke!
Think that’s an extreme reaction to a very innocent collaboration project. I don’t understand this obsession with shrinking the world, oh GN is British, he must work with British producers, it’s complete nonsense. If GN is interested in wine and gin (which he is) and if GN wants to put his name to wines that he’s proud of (which he has) why should anyone have a problem with it. I’m sure we all buy wines and gins from people who don’t need the money, some of the finest producers have a ridiculous amount of money but because they haven’t made it being multi-talented, that’s fine. “Oh he inherited his vineyard and his millions, so that’s just fine, but don’t buy from GN’s range because he was rich enough already from his hard work in another field”. I welcome new entrants across every field, more gins, more wines, more variety, yes please! He was a brand ambassador for three years before he even invested in Invivo. It was the marketing prowess of Invivo that actually started the relationship, sending a case off their own back for him to sample and it grew from there. Personally I see a forward thinking winery who actually took it on themselves to make something happen in a big market for NZ wine (the UK). I see it as a wine-lover (GN) investing in a company that he believed in from a product and brand perspective and I see it as a new range of wines and spirits for the UK consumer to sample, judge and either buy or not. There are no negatives to this. I think it’s easy and incorrect to label this as a simple “self-serving” foray into personal PR.
Have to laugh. But Graham Norton is actually Irish.
He’s Irish.