Yahoo Entertainment Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt Will Release First Wine, ‘Miraval,’ Next Month
Curious what Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie serve celebrity guests like George Clooney or Quentin Tarantino out at their Chateau Miraval residence in France? Well, wonder no more, because the power couple is set to release their first wine next month!
They will make their debut with a new rosé from their 1,000-acre estate. The rosé, which the couple originally called “Pink Floyd,” will now be called Miraval.
“We are intimately involved and quite enthused over the wine project with our friends the Perrin family,” Pitt’s publicist confirmed to Bloomberg News.
This collaboration is reportedly part of their joint venture with the Famille Perrin, a very well known winemaking family, which owns Chateau Beaucastel. Mutual friends brought the two families together.
“Brad and Angelina are very friendly, nice people and down to earth,” Marc Perrin said, adding the Hollywood couple is taking this new passion quite seriously. “They’re thinking long term.”
The Jolie-Pitts reportedly plan to release a white wine at the end of the summer and red wines next year.
The Perrin family began producing Miraval wines with the 2012 harvest and both families will share the profits equally, according to Perrin.
“If you knew Brad and Angelina, you would see they are in search of perfection in everything,” he said.
Both families reportedly have put in a lot of effort into creating the perfect blend.
“We also tasted a range of Provence rosés to understand what the neighbors were doing and to decide what we wanted,” Perrin explained, adding the fact that the Chateau Miraval estate was organic, therefore making it a no brainer to get this collaboration going.
“Organic is the only way to grow grapes,” Perrin stated.
So, what can wine connoisseurs expect from this new rosé?
According to Bloomberg’s wine correspondent Elin McCoy, stainless steel tanks for the new rosé will give Miraval an intensely floral, wild lily aroma and brighter flavor notes of strawberry and raspberry.
Pitt and Jolie attended the blending sessions and were actively involved in creating the new bottle shape.
More proof that this is indeed a joint venture is the fact that the back label will carry the names “Jolie-Pitt and Perrin.”
Pitt and Jolie are not the only A-list celebrities to dive into the alcohol business.
George Clooney and Rande Gerber debuted their Casamigos Tequila last month. Justin Timberlake has his own 901 Tequila, while his “Suit & Tie” collaborator Jay-Z recently launched his new cognac, D’USSE. Diddy launched Ciroc Vodka back in 2007. Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas launched a line of wines last year, and even has a red called “Fergalicious” (named after her hit track). Drew Barrymore recently won an award for her own Barrymore Pinot and Richard Gere has launched his own line of Tuscan wine to rave reviews. But perhaps the most famous Hollywood name in the wine business is “Godfather” director Francis Ford Coppola, who has owned successful vineyards for four decades now.
To get a sense of how lucrative the alcohol business can be for celebrities, just take a look at Coppola, Diddy and Bethenny Frankel, all of whom have found huge success off of their alcohol ventures.
Although Diddy came in at number two on Forbes’ Cash Kings last year, the mag predicts that he will be the first hip hop billionaire thanks to his Ciroc deal for which the entrepreneur sees a 50/50 take of all profits. The spirit went from moving 120,000 cases per year in 2007 to more than a million in 2011 after Diddy came on board.
Francis Ford Coppola found financial independence outside of Hollywood with half a billion dollars in revenue through his extracurricular projects last year built mostly on his wine business, but also including cigars, a line of prepared foods, two restaurants, and three Central American resorts.
Reality TV star Bethenny Frankel may be nearing the billion dollar revenue mark in her future as well, mostly in thanks to her Skinnygirl cocktail line which was acquired by the world's fourth-largest spirits company in 2011 for around $120 million dollars.
Given how serious Pitt and Jolie are taking their wine venture, we wouldn't be surprised if they found this level of success outside of the movie business eventually as well.
All of these megastars are already at the top the film and music industries, but which will dominate the alcohol market?
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