Celebrity wine was once seen as a joke in the UK drinks trade, a famous name, flashy label, and bottles meant to sell fast and vanish. Kylie Minogue Wines challenges that view, not by ignoring business, but by treating it seriously. The result is a range that fits well in mainstream shops and, at its best, stands up in more selective settings.
This report covers what’s inside the bottles, how the range is put together, and how to shop online with confidence, whether you’re a curious drinker, a sommelier after a reliable glass, or a buyer interested in no- and low-alcohol wines. It also gives a fuller picture: Minogue is the public face and creative force, while Paul Schaafsma, founder and managing director of Benchmark Drinks, handles the supply chain, business strategy, and much of the product development. Their partnership is key.
Choose the right Kylie Minogue bottle for your palate
When shopping for Kylie Minogue Wines online, it’s best to choose by style, not by celebrity. The range is designed for specific drinking occasions, and each has a clear, predictable flavour profile.
- If you want a dry, pale, easy rosé for an aperitif, try the Signature Rosé. The blend is 80% Grenache and 20% Cinsault, made for freshness and soft red-berry fruit, not tannin.
- For bubbles with fruit and brightness for parties, brunch, or canapés, pick the Prosecco Rosé. It’s 85% Glera and 15% Pinot Nero, with strawberry and raspberry notes and a crisp citrus finish.
- If you prefer a more food-friendly rosé with structure, try the Provençal options, including the Château Sainte Roseline collaboration. This is a more serious table rosé, with the blend chosen by the estate team and Minogue.
- If you want alcohol-free wine, see the 0% Sparkling wines as their own category, not as Champagne substitutes. They’re made with a different process that avoids standard dealcoholisation, so the texture is unique.
- If you want lower alcohol but not zero, the Petit Rosé is worth noting. It shows how the brand is following modern trends, like lighter options and wines for weekdays.
Tip for professionals: think of the range as a ladder. The entry-level rosé is made for consistency, while the partner-estate bottles build the brand’s credibility.
See what Paul Schaafsma actually does beyond the celebrity label
Minogue is more involved than most celebrities in drinks projects. She often talks about tasting, blending, and packaging, and the range has a clear look: pale colour, clean lines, and an aspirational feel. Still, the business side is led by Benchmark Drinks, run by Paul Schaafsma.
Schaafsma isn’t just a licensing agent. He founded and runs Benchmark, and has held senior roles in global wine, including as CEO of Accolade Wines. This experience helps the project grow without losing quality. It takes steady sourcing, good packaging, strong retailer ties, and the ability to handle changes in materials and shipping.
Here’s how their roles break down in practice.
- Minogue shapes the brand’s tone, look, and promise to customers, and she stays at the heart of its story.
- Schaafsma oversees the operations that make the brand’s promise real, including choosing partners, managing production contracts, setting prices, and ensuring the wines reach stores.
For wine professionals, the key takeaway is this: a celebrity can attract attention, but only a strong operator can turn that attention into a lasting wine brand.
Track the numbers that changed the UK rosé aisle.
The brand’s commercial success isn’t just marketing talk. Industry reports show that sales have changed how the UK trade views celebrity wine. Since launching in May 2020, Kylie Minogue Wines has reportedly sold over 22 million bottles worldwide by mid-2025, according to Nielsen EPOS.
In UK retail, the Prosecco Rosé is seen as a category leader, with a reported 33% market share in branded Prosecco Rosé, according to trade reports and Nielsen EPOS.
Fun fact: Nielsen EPOS data suggests that a glass of Kylie Minogue Prosecco Rosé is sold every six seconds in UK retail.
This doesn’t mean every bottle is remarkable. What it shows is that the label has become a go-to choice for many shoppers who don’t buy by grape, region, or producer. In stores, where most people won’t visit a winery or read the back label, trust matters most. Minogue brings cultural trust; Schaafsma brings operational trust.
Understand why southern French rosé anchors the range
The best way to understand this range is to start with France. The Signature Rosé is a pale, dry, fruit-forward wine made to appeal to many, with clear details on its Grenache and Cinsault blend and southern French origins.
Grenache usually adds ripe strawberry and watermelon flavours, warmth, and roundness. Cinsault lightens the wine, boosts aroma, and keeps tannin low. Made in stainless steel, this blend gives UK rosé drinkers what they want: a fragrant, brisk, and refreshing wine when chilled. The goal isn’t to copy savoury, oxidative rosés or compete with the most delicate Provence wines. It’s about being consistent, recognisable, and dry enough for today’s tastes.
The Château Sainte Roseline partnership is especially interesting because it tackles the question of credibility. This Cru Classé estate in Provence has shared details about its work with Minogue, and trade reports say the wine is plot-selected and developed with the château team and owner Aurélie Bertin.
For buyers, Cru Classé doesn’t guarantee you’ll love the taste, but it does show a high level of seriousness, estate reputation, vineyards, and a quality story that matters in top hospitality. The blend has a Provençal base and is meant for the table, not just for poolside sipping.
Taste Prosecco Rosé as a Veneto partnership, not a pink gimmick.k
Prosecco is popular in the UK because it’s social, easy to understand, and affordable. A good branded Prosecco needs to offer reliable fruit and bubbles, and it must satisfy buyers who know Prosecco Rosé can easily become bland or too sweet. The Kylie Minogue Prosecco Rosé is made with the Italian producer Zonin, using a blend of 85% Glera and 15% Pinot Nero.
Glera adds pear, apple, white blossom, and the classic Prosecco lift. Pinot Nero givecolouror and red-fruit notes, like strawberry, and a fuller mid-palate. The brand describes the taste as berries and delicate flowers, which is a fair guide for shoppers.
If you’re buying for a wine list or online, see this as a clean, bright sparkling option—not a lesson in terroir. It’s best served well chilled with salty, simple foods like smoked salmon, cured meats, crisps, fried snacks, melon, or fruity desserts. It’s also a good choice for those who like the look of pink Champagne but want Prosecco prices.
Read the alcohol free wines like their own category
The 0% sparkling wines stand out because they aren’t just regular wine with the alcohol taken out. Benchmark and Minogue have explained that they use bacteria instead of yeast for fermentation, and add green tea from Yunnan’s Liu-Da Mountains to build texture.
This affects how you should taste it. De-alcoholised wines often lose body and aroma because alcohol adds both. If you expect a 0% sparkling wine to match Champagne, you’ll be disappointed. But if you see it as a well-made, festive soft drink, it works: bright fruit, some grip, and enough presence to feel purposeful. The brand also shares nutrition info, like up to 30% less sugar and low calories per 100 ml for the Sparkling Blanc.
For trade and serious buyers, the main point is strategy. Benchmark aims to lead the 0% sector, and the Minogue label helps make that goal widely known.
Judgevegan-friendlyy and organic cues without falling for badges
Many drinkers now see production ethics as part of quality, especially natural wine fans and hospitality teams with varied dietary needs. The Kylie Minogue range is often called vegan-friendly by the brand and retailers, meaning they don’t use animal-based fining agents like isinglass or gelatine.
The practical advice here is simple.
- “Vegan-friendly” is useful for service confidence, but it is not a proxy for low sulphur, wild fermentation, or minimal intervention.
- “Organic” tells you something about farming standards, but not necessarily about cellar decisions.
- If you need certification certainty, look for a named certifying body on the bottle or on the producer documentation, not only retailer tags.
For context, the brand’s portfolio also includes an Organic Brut Reserva Cava made with Vilarnau, and specialist trade coverage has focused on the winemaking team behind that bottling.
Question the sustainability story and the trade-offs
Sustainability in wine is complicated. Glass is heavy, shipping is tricky, and packaging rules are changing fast. Benchmark’s logistics, as reported in the trade, involve shipping much of the wine in bulk and bottling it in the UK using glass from Encirc near Manchester. This can cut down on the need to transport empty bottles over long distances.
This method has its challenges. Bulk shipping needs careful oxygen control, and the bottling location can raise transparency issues if buyers expect estate bottling. For those who care, it’s best to see sustainability as something you can measure, like lighter glass, fewer shipping miles, clear reporting, and honest labels.
Packaging rules are also changing fast. Recent reports on the UK’s Extended Producer Responsibility system show how new rules can quickly create cash-flow problems for drinks companies, including Benchmark.
Decide whether Kylie Minogue Wines is worth buying.
The honest verdict is that this isn’t a natural wine project, and it doesn’t claim to be. It’s a modern branded wine range made for scale, with a strong focus on style, presentation, and drinking occasions. For many, that’s a plus. If you want the unpredictability of skin-contact whites, bottle-conditioned pet-nats, or low-sulphur reds that change every year, you won’t find that here.
What you do get is a good example of celebrity wine becoming a serious European business when managed by people who know both the creative and business sides. Minogue brings global identity and creative drive. Schaafsma builds partnerships, manages margins, maintains supply stability, and adapts the range to trends such as alcohol-free and lighter wines. This mix means the brand is now judged on taste, price, and style, not just as a novelty.
For buyers, the next steps are simple. Choose whether you want dry still rosé, sparkling rosé, premium Provence, or alcohol-free. Buy from a retailer with good storage and turnover. Chill the wine properly. Then judge it as wine, not just as a product. Like a pop record, it’s the craft that matters, not just the name. The same goes for this wine.
