Would you like red or white with your television show, sir?
Alcoholic beverage television crossovers are rapidly gaining in popularity. On Tuesday it was announced that Breaking Bad was releasing a branded beer, something Game of Thrones, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and The Simpsons had already done. Now comes news that Downton Abbey is entering the business as well, albeit with a suitably classy twist: Wine with a period-appropriate authenticity.
Knockout Licensing—the company that manages Downton’s licensing in the U.S. and Canada—has teamed up with Wines That Rock and Dulong Grands Vins de Bordeaux to produce Bordeaux Clarets and Bordeaux Blancs bearing the Downton Abbey name. A press release reveals that they aspire to “recreate the rich Bordeaux wines imported by the British aristocracy from France in the early 1900s.” Metro notes, the “wine will come from grapes grown on the same vines and from the same soil as the era depicted in Downton Abbey.”
(MORE: WATCH: Man Makes Gingerbread Replica of Downton Abbey)
“We are working with The Dulong Grands Vins De Bordeaux vineyards, which have been in the same family for five generations,” Bill Zysblat, co-owner of Wines That Rock, told Licensing.Biz. “They have over 130 years of experience in creating the world’s best wines so these are wines the Crawley family would have been proud to serve at Downton.”
The wine, which does not yet have a release date, will be sold in individual bottles as well as packaged gift sets by distributors in the U.S. and Canada.
MORE: WATCH: Diddy on His Downton Abbey Debut
MORE: “I Must Have Said It Wrong”: Decoding Downton Abbey’s Television DNA