Elton John celebrates his best-selling 0% sparkling
Last week Sir Elton John celebrated the launch of his non-alcoholic sparkling wine at London’s River Café – as the brand confirms its position as the UK’s best-selling premium 0%.
As db was first to report, 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 – was first introduced to the UK in January this year with a shelf presence at Sainsbury’s, priced at £10.
It has since extended its reach and is now also stocked in the UK at Tesco, Asda, Ocado, Booths and Amazon, and became the fastest selling 0% wine launched by Tesco in their spring range change, according to the brand’s distributor, Paul Schaafsma, MD at Benchmark Drinks.
Tesco’s top launch
Speaking to db at the event on Wednesday 24 June, Schaafsma – the man who has helped a range of famous figures charge up the drinks charts, from pop star Kylie Minogue to Take That frontman Gary Barlow – expressed his delight at the early success of Elton Zero, as it’s generally referred to.
Having already told db in an exclusive interview last month that Elton Zero was the UK’s best-selling premium 0% fizz, he also said that the product would be launching in the US in August and Australia in September, noting the “really good response” to the blanc de blancs so far. He further recorded that the celebrity-backed brand has found an audience among shoppers looking for a “more premium” non-alcoholic sparkling, who tend to be aged between 45 and 60 years old – in line with Elton John’s fan base.
River Café first to serve
Although Elton Zero has reached a wide audience through its UK supermarket presence, the first trade customer for the sparkling drink was in fact Ruth Rogers, the owner of The River Café – after Elton and his husband David Furnish gave her a sample to try when they were dining there last year.
As you can read about here, and retold by Rogers herself at the dinner last week, she tried it, along with journalist and former Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter – who was also at the restaurant on that evening – and she liked it so much, she decided to carry it at the River Café.
At the party last week, she commented that she was reassured that the 0% sparkling is made using Italian grapes, considering The River Café’s Italian cuisine, joking with Elton by saying, “I don’t go into your business, so how come you’ve come into mine,” before stating, “I’m going to get a piano.”
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Celebrity friends attend
Also addressing attendees at the dinner, who included Jake Shears, Damian Hurley and Kristen McMenamy, among many other high-profile guests, Elton said that he had been thinking about launching a 0% sparkling wine “for a long time” and was “proud” of Elton Zero. Since he gave up drinking in 1990, following a well-publicised struggle with alcohol addiction, Elton said he had become “bored of drinking non-alcohol beers”, before expressing his disappointment with most other 0% sparkling wines.
Providing more detail on the product was Elton’s husband and CEO of Rocket Entertainment Group David Furnish, who said, “What drew us to this product is the fact that it’s the first one of its kind and that it’s made differently; all the non-alcoholic drinks we’ve all tried and haven’t really enjoyed very much are made with alcohol and then dealcoholised, whereas with this product, the grapes are fermented with good cultures and that creates all of the qualities and properties and personality of a beautiful Blanc de Blancs, without creating alcohol.
Continuing, he said, “So it’s grown from the inside and we’ve taken nothing out, other than infusing with green tea to provide some texture, and that’s why it drinks so well.”
Elton Zero and risotto
The gathering last week saw Elton and David bring together friends from the worlds of music, fashion, film and culture, along with wine buyers from a few UK supermarkets, as well as a few members of the press.
Guests were treated to Elton Zero on The River Café’s outdoor terrace overlooking the Thames, where the Neruda String Quartet of the Royal Academy of Music performed, before moving into Sylvia’s, the restaurant’s private dining room.
Ruth Rogers and The River Café team presented a bespoke menu created to complement the drink, with the dinner comprising risotto al pomodoro with fresh San Marzano tomatoes, Ligurian basil and Pecorino Gran Riserva; Branzino al forno – sea bass fillet roasted with olive paste, zucchini ‘trifolati’, basil and mint – accompanied by braised Italian spinach and Tuscan roast potatoes; and lemon tart served with a selection of River Café gelati.
Elton John Zero Blanc de Blancs is made primarily using cool-climate Chardonnay from northern Italy, along with a variety of ingredients, including green tea extract to add a touch of fine tannin, before it is gently saturated with CO2 to give it a fine and persistent fizz.
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