Transcript:
00:00:00:00 – 00:00:25:02
Hello, bonjour, and welcome to your new Bonner Private Wines video, where we learn together everything that you need to know about wine, weekly. I’m your host, Julien, Bordeaux trained winemaker, and I quite like to look into celebrity wines every once in a while. And today is one of those days. Actually, I like to look into the story behind any wine, and I like to taste them more importantly.
00:00:25:02 – 00:00:46:15
But it’s especially important here for celebrity wines because those famous people sometimes just want to pretend they like wine. They pretend they can make a good wine or have somebody make a good wine. They have to pay a premium for them, but then they deliver a mediocre product. And I don’t really like this. You just pay for the glamor and the fame.
00:00:46:15 – 00:01:11:23
So today I want to review the wine made by Brad Pitt. This is possibly the single most famous celebrity wine on earth, because it involves the marriage between Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. It’s where the wedding actually took place, but it’s also involved their divorce, their children, and a legal fight that’s been going on for nearly a decade over the property.
00:01:11:23 – 00:01:32:09
The story behind this wine is a bit of a mess, but does it actually taste any good? That’s what we’re going to know. So let’s find out. One look at how first Miraval is so important in Brangelina’s love story. How it all turned out really sour in the end, the divorce and how the property got in the middle of this.
00:01:32:09 – 00:02:03:19
To finally analyze this baby rosé and see if you should ever consider buying it, tasting it, enjoying it or not. Let’s go.
00:02:03:21 – 00:02:33:09
So why is this wine so important in the life of Brad Pitt? And why does it matter if it actually tastes any good or not? And if I find it at least half decent? Well, you see, this wine comes from a property in France that has witnessed some of the happiest days in Brad’s life, but also probably some of his worst headaches and frustrations over his ex-wife, Angelina Jolie.
00:02:33:11 – 00:02:55:02
Let’s take a minute to talk about this wine story before we actually uncork it, or before we actually pour it. I’m actually uncorking it right now. Miraval is the name of the wine, and it’s the name of the property as well. It’s a large rural property in the south of France, near the glamorous French Riviera in the Provence wine region.
00:02:55:02 – 00:03:44:10
Famous for the Cannes movie festival. All the celebrities have yachts there and they spend their holidays in San Tropez, etc. but you see the area right? In 2007, 2008, so some 16 years ago, Brad Pitt and Angelina fell in love with each other and they fell in love with Miraval estate. More importantly, and as celebrities do, they bought the estate for about €25 million at the time to have a vacation home in France, to the point that in July of 2008, when their twins were born at a local Nice hospital, a nearby hospital, well, they spent some of their first baby nights at Miraval while Brad and Angelina were still crazy in love.
00:03:44:10 – 00:04:08:07
So Miraval was even the wedding venue in 2014 of those two celebrities when they got married legally, Pitt owned 60% of the shares of Miraval, while Jolie owned only 40% of it. And you can probably see how this will come back to bite in a minute.
00:04:08:09 – 00:04:41:01
And from there, the story unfortunately gets really messy. I won’t go into too many details, but Brad Pitt gave up his additional 10% shares of Miraval estate as a wedding gift to Angelina, so they could be even at 50% each, a nice gesture for him from him. But then in 2016, the divorce was filed, and I think all of the legal and financial ramifications are still ongoing and disputed to this day.
00:04:41:01 – 00:05:15:01
As Brad and Angelina fought over Miraval, the big twist in this story is that in 2021, Angelina sold her half of Miraval winery to a winery producer called Tenute del Mondo, a subsidiary of the Stoli Group, controlled by Yuri Scheffler, a Russian oligarch, which probably infuriated Pitt and led him to dispute the legality of the 10% gift that he had offered to Jolie so he could keep the property.
00:05:15:01 – 00:05:36:13
You see, it’s a bit messy. The legal fighting is still ongoing, as far as I understand, and it’s been negotiated or fought over for more than eight years at this point. But the conclusion is that it does really seem like Brad Pitt doesn’t want to let go of Miraval, he wants to keep the property so he can stay there.
00:05:36:15 – 00:06:02:07
And I also assume that he likes the wine. You would think so. So let’s find out if all of this fighting for Miraval was worth it, is worth it. And if Miraval rosé is actually any good. Let’s taste. Brad Pitt doesn’t make the wine himself, of course, he has a famous local French producer, the Perrin family, turn these, the estate’s grapes into this wine.
00:06:02:07 – 00:06:09:04
It’s important to know, but let’s taste.
00:06:09:06 – 00:06:34:10
First of all, I personally like the packaging of the bottle. It looks really quite glamorous, elegant, so that’s nice. The color is also nice and elegant. It’s a pale salmon pink, as is traditional for the Provence rosés, which are generally dry and crisp and quite food friendly and salivating and a bit mineral. So we expected this color.
00:06:34:10 – 00:07:03:15
I like that it’s got a bit of orange in it. It’s not only bright pink, but it’s, some pinkish orange, and it’s quite elegant. Let’s smell. It does smell super elegant as well. Very, saline in the first feel, smells like the sea. So you can already sense the minerality. A lot of, fresh pear coming out of the glass.
00:07:03:15 – 00:07:33:06
A bit of pomegranate as well. So very subtle. Quite so elegant aromas at first. A bit of citrus, a bit of lime. So very fresh. It is quite cold. It’s just out of the fridge there. But that’s certainly how you want to enjoy your rosé. So really enjoy. Or during the freshness of the aromas. Let’s taste.
00:07:33:08 – 00:08:14:21
So this is a dry rosé. No sugar can really be felt. No sweetness there. But it’s got a roundness, to the body. So it’s really, really soft. Really really mellow. It’s got nice acidity, really crisp, really zingy. So it’s definitely a super soft, super mouthwatering feeling. And it’s actually really, really good. I’m enjoying this style of Provence rosé, but this one in particular, I love how chewy it is in the body and the oily texture that it’s got on top of having all the freshness, the vibrancy of delicate pear and lime fruit.
00:08:14:23 – 00:08:41:18
So really fresh, really zingy, but only extremely, extremely well balanced. So yes, I can understand why Brad Pitt would want to keep this estate that looks absolutely stunning and superb. I wouldn’t mind having the property in Provence myself. It’s certainly for around $25, a good, solid, very solid, rosé, I guess Brad Pitt wouldn’t make any bad wine.
00:08:41:18 – 00:08:58:05
So yes, for once, this is a celebrity wine that I can get behind. I will see you soon. In the wonderful world of wine. Cheers.
