Top 10 songs featuring Moscato (by Andy Young)

Did Rappers Ruin Moscato?

 

Moscato is enjoying a hip hop renaissance having featured in a number of rap songs and it has become a hugely popular drink in the US.

In 2011 sales in the US passed US$300 million and sales in Canada doubled.

The sweet wine has become a particularly popular drink among the 20-30 age group, which may also be down to its increased mentions in song lyrics.

Big rap stars Lil’ Kim and Drake have sung about Moscato, with the latter even trying his hand at a bit of food and wine matching, recommending Moscato with “lobster and shrimp”.

And last week outspoken rap star Nicki Minaj was announced as the new face and part owner of Moscato brand Myx Fusions.

We’ve trawled our urban memory banks (and the internet) and come up with a selection of song and lyrics that have featured the sweet wine.

 

Read on …

Actress and rock star join celeb wine craze (by thedrinksbusiness.com)

Kate Hudson, not just an actress…

 

Actress Kate Hudson and her rock star fiancé Matt Bellamy of Muse have become the latest in a steady stream of celebrities to enter the wine business.

According to Life & Style magazine, the couple were so pleased with their 2010 HudsonBellamy rosé that they now plan to start selling it into bars and restaurants.

The pair are reported to have offered friends and family the chance to buy cases before it goes on sale to the public, describing the wine as “crisp, bright and perfect for upcoming summer.”

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Celebrating Celebrity Vineyards [the Book] (by winespectator.com)

Meet Natalie Oliveros as a vintner.

Plus, chef Emeril Lagasse honored for taking charity up a notch, Paris’ Elysée undertakes wine austerity, Napa’s philanthropic 1 percenters, and more

“When they showed up, I just thought they were hard-up for celebrities,” joked Robert Kamen at the April book launch of Celebrity Vineyards at the Bowery Hotel in New York. Kamen protested to Unfiltered that, as a screenwriter—albeit the screenwriter of the Karate Kid series, Taps and A Walk in the Clouds—he just sits in a darkened room writing stuff all day (celebrities: They’re just like Unfiltered!), and pardoned himself to sign a copy of the book “for a minute while I be a celebrity.” But Kamen was a vintner before his fame, purchasing 280 acres on the slopes of the Mayacamas Mountains in Sonoma with the money from his first screenplay, in the late 1970s. “What can I do with all the money I make as a screenwriter? I bury it in the ground.”

While Kamen’s story goes back further than that of most of the celebrities in the book, all were selected, according to author Nick Wise, because they were “serious about some parts, whether picking the vineyards or the final blends.” Other famous vintners profiled in Celebrity Vineyards: Francis Ford Coppola, chef Charlie Palmer, Dan Aykroyd, Antonio Banderas, Fess Parker, race car drivers Mario Andretti and Randy Lewis, coach Dick Vermeil and Natalie Oliveros, perhaps better known to Unfiltered readers as adult-film phenom Savanna Samson. “They have to bring out the whole ‘Savanna Samson’ thing, but I do make the wine,” Oliveros said. “I was there every month in 2012.” Oliveros is co-owner of Brunello estate La Fiorita with Roberto Cipressi; the 2006 riserva earned a classic 95 points on the Wine Spectator 100-point scale. Wise, who has worked as a wine merchant and entertainment writer, mused that winemaking is an attractive second profession to “a lot of technical people, a lot of golfers and race car drivers. That translates into the technicality that goes into wine—what pH, what tannin level.” As for Kamen, his approach began with slightly less precision: As he tells it, his “dope dealer” in the ’70s dreamed of planting an organic vineyard on North Coast slopes, but no one would bite at the time. Kamen took a chance and was among the first to go organic in the state. His original viticulturist is still on staff.

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Also read:

• From Porn Star To Italian Wine Maven (by Chantal Martineau)

Famous movie drinking scenes (by thedrinksbusiness.com)

It is often said that one of the hardest things for an actor to portray convincingly is that of being drunk.

This can of course be countered by actually being drunk at the time, advice some of the actors on this list took very much to heart.

Drink has played a role in more or less every film ever made, except most children’s films. Think about it. How many films have scenes in bars or dinner parties or have a character constantly sipping from a hip flask or celebrating or drinking to forget?

Some films, as the drinks business has previously highlighted, are dedicated to drink entirely.

But it is a more select group of films which use alcohol as a driver of the plot, tackling issues such as suicide, loneliness and depression.

Tragic, comic, terrifying, a good drunk performance can make a film, permanently fixing it in one’s subconscious.

There are so many scenes to choose from this list, as with all lists, is very far from definitive but it does, hopefully, focus on some of the most striking and funny cinematic boozing.

It is also worth giving an honourable mention to WC Fields (pictured) who for roughly his entire career, played the perma-tipsy old rogue/grouch who uttered such memorable lines as: “I was in love with a beautiful blonde once, dear. She drove me to drink. That’s the one thing I am indebted to her for.”

And: “Once, on a trek through Afghanistan, we lost our corkscrew…and were forced to live on food and water for several days!”

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Famous figures & their favourite fizz (by Andy Young)

Kim Kardashian.

 

From Sir Mick Jagger to Kim Kardashian, or Jay-Z to Leonardo DiCaprio, find out the preferred Champagne brand of famous figures.

Whether it’s wracking up huge bar bills, celebrating birthdays or preparing for a concert, Champagne is linked with luxury, celebrations and festivities and is commonly the drink of choice for celebrities.

Having previously revealed the favourite drinks of world leaders, poets and even despots, you can now find out what is the favourite Champagne brand for a range of celebrities.

Unsurprisingly, these well-known personalities have expensive taste…

Read on …

 

Famous and funny alchohol quotes (by Andy Young)

Last week we published a famous quote from Madame Lily Bollinger, and that got us thinking about our favourite alcohol-related lines.

Lily Bollinger was asked how much she enjoyed her own product, to which she replied: “I drink it when I’m happy and when I’m sad. Sometimes I drink it when I’m alone. When I have company I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I’m not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise I never touch – unless I’m thirsty.”

Of course Lily is not the only person from a Champagne house to be attributed to a famous quote: When he first tasted his newly created Champagne, Dom Pierre Pérignon is quoted as saying: “Come quickly. I’m tasting the stars.”

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Pinot Meunier and porcelain for Cattier (by thedrinksbusiness.com)

Celebrities, like Rihanna, is a big fan of the Cattier’s Armand de Brignac label.

 

Speaking to the drinks business last week, Cattier’s commercial director Philippe Bienvenu said that the house would definitely be bottling a single vineyard varietal Pinot Meunier from the 2012 vintage.

As previously reported by db, the Champagne will be bottled under Cattier’s Armand de Brignac label, famous for its gold packaging, high prices, large formats, and association with celebrities, most notably American rapper Jay-Z.

The grapes for the upcoming Champagne come from a 1.1 hectare walled vineyard called Clos Yons, situated between Chigny-les-Roses and Rilly-la-Montagne, which is planted exclusively with Pinot Meunier.
Read on …

 

Celebrities and their favourite drink (by thedrinksbusiness.com)

Kim Kardashian.

 

From Kim Kardashian to Queen Elizabeth II, here’s a look at the favourite drinks of some of the world’s most famous people.
Whether it is a white Russian or glass of Sapporo, celebrities enjoy some very different drinks. Who do you think enjoys a gin and Dubonnet with a slice of lemon with the pips removed? Can you guess who lists a pomegranate Martini as their favourite drink?

This is a slightly more cheery list than our rogue’s gallery of despots and their drinks, which we featured recently.

Read on …

World leaders and their favourite drinks (by Andy Young)

Tony Bliar.

 

Tony Blair said that he drank alcohol to help him relax while he was prime minister, but which drinks do our world leaders enjoy?
In his memoir, A Journey, Mr Blair wrote: “By the standards of days gone by I was not even remotely a toper, and I couldn’t do lunchtime drinking except on Christmas Day, but if you took the thing everyone always lies about – units per week – I was definitely at the outer limit.
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More Barrymore: Actress Launches Her Own Wine Label and Cosmetics Brand (by brandchannel.com)

Super Sexy, Drew Barrymore, releases wine label.

 

Meet Drew Barrymore, the expanding solo retail brand.

The 37-year-old actress, who has spent her lifetime performing, announced this week that she has undertaken lines of wine and cosmetics.

“I just want to do the things that you actually do in life, which is drink wine and play with makeup,” she told OK! magazine in an interview posted Thursday. “It took years… to make both of these brands.”
Barrymore Wine, which launched itself with a Pinot Grigio, was created to honor her family, she said on the label’s website. In promotional copy highlighted by Buzzfeed, she pokes fun at “Real Housewives of New York” star Ramona Singer, who has also launched a Pinot Grigio: “Move over Ramona Singer, you’re so yesterday’s news… let the “Real” Stars, not reality stars, show you how to drink Pinot Grigio!”

Read on …