Exclusive interview: David Furnish on Elton John Zero
In a game-changing move for the fast-growing no and low category, Elton John is putting his name to an alcohol-free Champagne alternative. David Furnish tells Patrick Schmitt MW the full story.
It was at the height of last summer when I was first briefed on a big development slated for 2026, due to hit the no/low drinks sector. Such was the fame of the figure backing a new 0% wine that the world would sit up and take notice, ensuring ABV-free labels would no longer be niche. But who was this person? That, sadly, I wasn’t allowed to know – it was strictly under embargo, so much so that not even a hint could be given.
Keeping this secret was celebrity wine heavyweight Paul Schaafsma of Benchmark Drinks, the man helping famous figures charge up the drinks charts, from pop star Kylie Minogue to Take That frontman Gary Barlow. All Schaafsma would tell me in August was that this future entrant “would change the business” – with the support of Benchmark Drinks, which would handle the brand’s production and distribution.
Four months later, Schaafsma would spill all: it would be Elton John, the solo artist behind the sales of more than 327 million records, including the best-selling single of all time: Candle in the Wind.
As for the product, well, it would be called Elton John Zero Blanc de Blancs, a reference to the drink’s pure Chardonnay base, and its position as an alcohol-free alternative to Champagne. Made using grapes from northern Italy, it would be crafted in Germany – which has become the home for high-quality no-alcohol wine.
As soon as Schaafsma had revealed the person behind the product – dubbed Elton Zero for short – it seemed so obvious, and yet, during several months of wondering, I had never suspected that this British singer-songwriter would enter the drinks category.
Elton is an ideal backer for a 0% brand – he must be one of the best-known non-drinkers, following a well-publicised struggle with alcohol addiction, which ended in 1990, when he ditched the booze altogether for a life of sobriety. Also teetotal is his husband of more than a decade – and partner for over 30 years – David Furnish, who gave up alcohol in 2014.
However, quitting drinking has not diminished the pair’s love of entertaining. The problem was, as Furnish tells me in an exclusive interview in December, they felt that they had no suitably celebratory alternative to the Champagne they once enjoyed, nor an ideal 0% fizz for their abstaining guests.
It was this quandary that drove their urge to create one, explains Furnish – CEO of Rocket Entertainment, and a former advertising executive-turned-film director, who once ran a Champagne bar in Las Vegas. “It really came from something we wanted and needed in our life and in our home,” he begins, before stating: “Both Elton and I are teetotal, and we love to entertain.”
Adding that such lavish hosting could be for friends or family, or connected to work, he says that there was no pre-existing non-alcoholic drink that “hit the same mark” as a high-end fizz, particularly when it comes to “celebratory moments – the sort when you want to make a special toast”.
Having been “lovers of Champagne”, Furnish admits that he and Elton “do get quite tired and bored of sparkling water” – and remember without any fondness “the old days when it was always Shloer [sparkling grape juice]”. It’s also apparent that they have been looking for something to suit their lifestyle for some time. “The whole process of de-alcoholising, such as reverse osmosis, seems to take away the real essence and spirit of sparkling drinks, and the ones I had tried were either way too sweet or they had a sort of tinny, metallic finish to them.”
Continuing, he recalls: “Then, when we hooked up with Paul from Benchmark and we talked about what our ideal sparkling wine would be, something that had a beautiful, dry finish; something that really had that kind of mellow, satisfying sense that you get from a really nice sparkling wine or Champagne, and we discussed about different ways of achieving that result.”
Best it can be
It was during such a conversation with Schaafsma that Furnish learned that one could create a wine-like 0% product without employing an alcohol removal process – and instead one could ferment grapes with a special type of bacteria that doesn’t produce alcohol, similar to the way kombucha is created. “Rather than taking something out from what was probably great to start with, this is building something up to be the very best it can be,” he says.
Having tried the outcomes of such a process, “we were overjoyed and pleasantly surprised that it tastes as authentic and as close to the real thing as possible”, he comments, before stating: “In fact, it’s as good as the real thing, with all the joyful things you appreciate in a fine sparkling wine or Champagne – it was a revelation.”
That’s not to suggest that Furnish and Elton were presented with a fait accompli in terms of the taste. As he tells me, they were both involved in the final drink’s style and nature, assessing samples until they found a product they wanted to back. “It had to pass muster for us in terms of something we would want to serve in our own home, and definitely, there is a distinctive and discernible difference in taste from building a beautiful sparkling wine from the ground up, rather than having something and taking stuff out of it, which sees you remove part of its soul, and then you have to add other things to try to compensate – it’s never quite the same.”
Having found a blend to their liking, Furnish says that they decided to put Elton’s name to the final product – something to serve at their parties. And it has an assured market within the couple’s events. “Without question we will use it – we do huge fundraising dinners such as our White Tie and Tiara Ball [at their home in Windsor], or our Oscar [Academy Awards Viewing] Party in Los Angeles, where we have always felt that there is something missing; the sort of thing that you would serve at an event like that for somebody who doesn’t want to consume alcohol, but who wants to feel like they are part of the Champagne crowd.”
In addition, Furnish emphasises that the pair will drink it at home. “It’s something we will use personally,” he says, before stressing that without these two uses, Elton would be unlikely to lend his name to the product. “Elton gets asked to put his name on a lot of things, and he’s very selective in what he does,” records Furnish.
Indeed, Furnish can only name one other recent tie-up using Elton’s name – scented candles produced in partnership with Harry Slatkin. “He is one of the world’s best fragrance blenders, and Elton knows what he likes in a scented candle, and has worked with Harry to produce a candle that he [Elton] is happy to put his name on – and they are all burning in our house right now,” explains Furnish.
Stressing Elton’s reticence to use his name for anything other than a very personal project, Furnish says: “If you spend years and years crafting some of the best pop music in the world, that is timeless and associated with the highest quality, then you are very, very, very discerning about what you choose to put your name to.”
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Positive feedback
The couple have also been doing impromptu consumer research, trialling Elton Zero on friends and acquaintances. “We have served it without telling people, then asked them: ‘What do you think of this?’,” with Furnish recording plenty of “positive feedback”, including some who have said: ‘Oh, that’s lovely Champagne.’” Proudly, Furnish says that, during a recent lunch at London’s River Café, the restaurant’s owner, Ruth Rogers, gave her seal of approval, along with former Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, who happened to be dining there. Such endorsements are “reassuring”, says Furnish, because these are “people with a refined perspective”.
As for the name, and look and feel of the product, that is down to Elton and Furnish. “Elton has a very distinctive brand identity,” explains Furnish, adding that “it’s one that’s been very successful”, drawing attention to the British singer-songwriter’s greatest hits album, Diamonds, with its blue-and-silver appearance, which Elton Zero reproduces. Released in late 2017, “at a time when greatest hits packages weren’t selling any more”, this album just kept “growing and growing and growing”, and still abounds, even in the digital sphere, according to Furnish.
“That blue is very recognisable and identifiable when you hear an Elton song,” he says, before pointing out that blue is also a colour rarely seen on the wine aisles – so the packaging “stands out” and “it makes a connection to Elton”.
Summing up the look of the soon-to-be-launched drink, he says: “Elton has written some of the highest-quality pop songs in our history, and we want those same associations of quality to go over to this product, because we really believe it deserves it, and so I was very happy to take our sort of signature, the Elton branding, which we use very, very, very discriminately, and put it on this product, because it really is something we’re very happy and excited about.”
As for calling the product a ‘blanc de blancs’, as opposed to ‘sparkling Chardonnay’, that was a deliberate move on the part of Furnish, Elton and Schaafsma at Benchmark “to associate the product with France, as the home of Champagne”, and “befitting of what we were wanting to create: which is something for the very special moments in your life.”
Indeed, Furnish confesses that he once considered creating a private label Champagne for his bar called Fizz in Las Vegas, which was set up for a few years while Elton was in residence at Caesars Palace. “I did know a lot about Champagne, and it was my drink of choice,” he recalls, adding that his preference was for a “very dry style” – with a particular fondness for Laurent-Perrier’s zero sugar [Brut Nature] Champagne.
Since giving up drinking, Furnish acknowledges that there are two things that are hard to replace without alcohol. “I miss the flavour, and I miss the sense of feeling like you’re joining in – feeling like it suits the occasion or the surroundings or the setting,” he says, adding that Elton Zero “will go in flutes on silver trays at formal dinners, fundraising events and special occasions in our house … unquestionably, this will be served”.
Beyond such events, Elton Zero will be available to buy, and is launching in early January in UK supermarket Sainsbury’s, where it will be priced around £10. Furnish, however, doesn’t want to be drawn on how big it could be in terms of sales volumes – mainly because he says that forecasting is hard.
Extraordinary response
While he says that “everyone we’ve shown it to has said ‘yes’, so it’s been an extraordinary response – and we haven’t even started yet”, he acknowledges that the no/low drinks sector “is a crowded, noisy category, and we’re not the first ones through the gate”.
Nevertheless, he’s hugely hopeful for the product, based on Elton’s fame, but also on the projected growth of the 0% sector. “I don’t ever make judgments about what people choose to do with their lives, and I think that alcohol can be enjoyed and consumed in life responsibly, but unfortunately, a lot of the health news and medical news that’s coming out about alcohol is not great, and it’s getting worse,” he says.
He continues: “I’m not a doctor, nor one to judge, but I think there’s a lot of people who are going to want to make alcohol-free choices for health reasons, and that’s their decision to make; I am not anti-alcohol – I just think you need to find what’s right for you.
“Certainly we’re seeing with the Gen Zs that they seem to be consuming less alcohol than Boomers like me, and as they emerge, they want alcohol-free options, and so I’m hoping and excited and enthusiastic that we’re in the right place at the right time.”
Notably, despite wanting to emulate the taste and experience of drinking Champagne, Elton Zero is priced more like crémant. Furnish explains: “I feel there’s a real place for this, and I’m also really happy in terms of where our price ended up, because I feel it’s accessible.”
He adds: “We seem to be living in a world where all of the things that make us feel special are becoming more and more expensive and out of reach, and I’m looking at the price of our product, and I’m looking at the bottle, and I’m looking at the packaging, and ultimately what goes in the glass, and I’m really happy where we’ve landed.”
He then states: “As Elton always says: ‘If I’m going to put my name on something, I want my fans to be able to afford it; I want my fans to have access to it,’ because he feels they’ve always had access to his music, and Elton – as much as he is a perfectionist – he is not an elitist.”
Finally, suggesting that Elton will be watching the sales of his new baby closely, Furnish comments: “The thing that matters most to Elton with his music is not awards, it’s about how many people are listening, How is it selling? How is it streaming? What is his chart position? And that’s because he gets the greatest joy out of reaching people and bringing them happiness and joy.”
In other words, he wants Elton Zero to hit the mainstream – just like his music.
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