Celebrity booze
It's Friday and I thought you could do with a drink...it has been a bit of a month for celebrity driven spirits with 3 notable activities popping up in feeds
Brad Pitt - The Gardener
Launching at the esteemed 2023 Cannes Film Festival “The Gardener” is a collaborative effort between Brad Pitt, the master distiller Tom Nichol (renowned for his work with Tanqueray), and the esteemed Perrin family, entrusted with the management of two of Pitt's wineries that produce the Fleur de Miraval rosé champagne.
Distinguished by its commitment to organic processes, "The Gardener" is crafted as a wheat-based London Dry gin in traditional copper stills, combining botanicals including juniper, licorice, angelica root, lemon, and coriander, with nuanced hints of bigarade oranges, sweet oranges, and pink grapefruit. These carefully selected flavour elements pay homage to the gin's Mediterranean origins.
Design-wise it’s a lovely bottle, leaning into the fluted glass trend but with an organic shape reminiscent of the wheat stalks the spirit base comes from. The colouring, illustration and typography all evoke that southern French ideal of warm sunshine, ornate stained glass motifs and glimpses of the Mediterranean - not bad for a very reductive application of labels! The seal is a cracker, a really lovely embossed wood stopper, continuing the organic motif.
Margot Robbie - Papa Salt
Margot, her husband and a group of tight friends have been working in the background for the last 5 years – apparently making 59 variations of the spirit – to develop a gin that would make as much sense in LA as it does in Byron.
Inspired by the Australian coast, it’s a spirit that is designed to taste of a languid day at the beach incorporating distinctive ingredients such as Australian oyster shells, which infuse a subtle touch of minerality, and a blend of native Australian botanicals like roasted wattleseed, pink peppercorn, waxflower, hibiscus, and citrus peel.
The gin was named after Papa Salt, a man from the Californian coastline whom the group met while travelling and who embodied the Australian slang term for a beach bum: salty sea dog.
The bottle has a wonderful sea glass vibe to it - developed by Sydney design agency Squad Ink - that definitely evokes a relaxed seaside vibe. Type is minimal and clean and overall it’s a pleasant accessible approach to the product that definitely screams unpretentious.
Make it Suntory time…
The House of Suntory is celebrating its centenary and has recently announced a new partnership with actor Keanu Reeves and directors Sofia Coppola and Roman Coppola to mark this milestone. Naturally, this partnership includes the release of exclusive and high-end whiskies, specifically two 18-year-old single malts from Yamazaki and Hakushu.
The campaign kicked off with a short film - a journey through Suntory's rich history. The film features Keanu Reeves, who appeared in an ad campaign for Suntory Reserve back in 1992, and is set to the tune of Joan Jett's cover of "Crimson and Clover." Peppered through are moments of Suntory’s collaborations with celebrities over the years as well as an appearance by Bill Murray’s fictional character from Sophia Coppola’s Lost in Translation. You can watch the film for yourself at here.
Whilst the activity is an expected exercise for the brands, in the coming months, Keanu Reeves will appear in Roman Coppola’s new docuseries, The Nature and Spirit of Japan, a piece of branded entertainment focussed on Japanese whisky and craftsmanship.
3 other things
A different POV on Dyson and that new robot vacuum going viral
One more celebrity booze link – Emma Watson and her brother launch Renais Gin
Arnold Schwarzenegger has now become Netflix's Chief Action Officer