Celebrity Wine Projects Are Popular With Wine Drinkers

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Mar 10th 2008 at 12:02PM

Celebrity wine projects are extremely common these days and range from a celebrity simply lending their name or face to a project, to celebs who get hands on with the wine and are involved in the winemaking process. A new report from Neilsen reports that the celebrity projects are as Wine Spirits Daily terms it "the new hotness," replacing brands with animals on their labels as the wines that are most appealing to consumers. Celebrity wines are up nearly 19% in grocery store sales since last year. They are less than one percent of total wine but that adds up to $41.8 million. Consumers seems to be willing to pay more for the celeb wines, an average of $8.50 versus $5.75 per bottle of regular table wine (celeb wines are generally in th $12 to $15 range). As you might guess, the West Coast is more interested in celebrity brands; Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego all had above average sales.

Gallery: Celebrity Wine Projects