New d’Arenberg wine branded sexist

A new £99 wine by provocative Australian brand d’Arenberg has been dubbed “sexist” by a local female wine writer due to its controversial name.

Winemaker Chester Osborn is in hot water over his new wine’s name

As reported by Australian paper The Advertiser, wine commentator Jane Thomson took umbrage to winemaker Chester Osbon’s latest effort: “The Old Bloke and the Three Young Blondes”.

The “Old Bloke” refers to old vine Shiraz, which forms the backbone of the wine, while the “Three Young Blondes” are white grapes Marsanne, Roussanne and Viognier, which make up the remainder of the blend adding “fragrance and spice”.

Thomson, who runs the 5,000-member “Fabulous Ladies Wine Society”, branded the wine an example of “everyday sexism in practice” on Facebook, suggesting that the d’Arenberg marketing department hadn’t thought the name through well.

The Old Bloke and the Three Young Blondes

“Most everyday sexism is so common and casual that we let it go. I think it’s worth raising the flag every now and then and asking do we really need this?” she said.

Her comment attracted a strong reaction from Facebook, both from women in support of her view and others telling her to lighten up, leading Thomson to elaborate on her opinion.

“I was more intrigued than upset, but it did make me wince. There’s an assumption that kind of language is acceptable,” she said.

Osborn defended his name choice to The Advertiser: “The old bloke refers to very old-vine shiraz, and the blondes refer to the young white varieties in the blend,” he said, insisting he never intended for the name to cause offence.

“Most of our label names are pretty crazy and have some humour in them. This one fits in the same boat,” he added.

Chester could in fact be making light of his advancing years, referring to himself as the “old bloke” and his daughters as the “three young blondes”.

The white label features four silhouette heads within each other, with a pipe-smoking old man on the outside.

According to Osborn, the nose is “brimming with dark fruits, woody spices and rich blackberry aromas” with the Viognier adding notes of “apricot and ginger”, the Roussanne “dried almonds and papaya” and the Marsanne “yellow stone fruit”.

This isn’t the first time Osborn has got into hot water over a wine name. A few years ago he was forced by Champagne house Mumm to change the name of his sparkling wine Dadd. The fizz wine is now called Pollyanna Polly.