Snoop Dogg has signed a distribution deal with Treasury Wine Estates to launch his Cali wine brand in the UK.
The first wine – Cali Red (13.5% abv) – will roll into Asda, Morrisons, Tesco and wholesalers on 8 August (rsp: £9-£11/70cl).
Its launch will be supported with an integrated marketing campaign, including in-store display and promotion, out of home, social and influencer engagement and an in-person event.
Shoppers will also be able to scan a QR code on the bottle labels to ask the rapper questions through augmented reality.
Treasury said it had laid out long-term plans for Cali, with a rosé wine launching in February 2023 and further NPD in the pipeline.
The brand, which was inspired by the “West Coast lifestyle”, would challenge “the convention of wine” in its “approachability”, Treasury added.
Snoop Dogg (whose real name is Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr) said he “didn’t grow up a wine drinker”.
“Wine was foreign to me in my neighbourhood, but I love it now – so I wanted to create a wine that cut away all the noise and looked and tasted like something people who don’t usually drink wine would want to try.”
“I was involved in the tasting process and just knew from the first sip everyone was going to love it,” he said, adding he was “excited to be bringing Cali by Snoop to the UK”.
Treasury Wine Estates head of marketing for EMEA, Ben Blake, said it was “such an honour to partner with music icon Snoop Dogg and bring a wine of such quality to the UK”.
Blake said he predicted Cali Red would “be a hit with fans of Snoop Dogg” and that he was “excited to see how this brand grows over the coming years.”
Cali follows a spate of recent celebrity wine launches in the UK by Benchmark Drinks – which has partnered with the likes of Gordon Ramsay, Gary Barlow and Kylie Minogue.
They have performed strongly in the supermarkets: Minogue’s wine, for instance, is currently the fastest-growing alcohol brand by percentage, according to this year’s Biggest Alcohol Brands report.
It is now worth £18.9m, having more than quadrupled its value on volumes up 314.9% [NielsenIQ 52 w/e 30 April 2022].
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