Following many months of video calls on small laptop screens (thanks Covid), Graham Norton and Invivo Co-founders Tim Lightbourne and Rob Cameron, have taken over New Zealand’s biggest screen at Eden Park Stadium to blend their new vintage of wine together.
Watch Graham make his new 2021 Sauvignon Blanc at Eden Park here
From vine to field, Graham’s larger-than-life personality and expert wine blending skills shone through on the huge screen – at 40 metres wide and eight meters high – at the country’s national sports stadium, that typically sees the world’s best rugby players grace the pitch, not winemakers.
Graham comments: “It was a lot of fun blending the wine and seeing the guys live at Eden Park stadium – I kept on expecting someone with a lawn mower to appear in the background!”
Ireland-based Norton dialled in his Kiwi business partners from his home in West Cork at 8pm in the evening. Tim and Rob had couriered seven Sauvignon Blanc samples to Graham, harvested in New Zealand in March this year, along with a winemaking kit filled with beakers, which Graham set-up at home.
Tim and Rob, 18,311 kilometres and 12 hours ahead of Norton, arranged their winemaking kit on the pitch at Eden Park Stadium. Over a two-hour live-stream, the trio collaborated to create and sign off Graham Norton’s Own Sauvignon Blanc 2021 vintage.
Graham Norton’s collaboration with Invivo & Co goes from strength to strength. The business partners recently celebrated producing their 10 millionth bottle of wine together and are set to produce their fifteenth millionth bottle of wine this vintage; a landmark moment since their first run of 14,000 bottles of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc in 2014.
On its success, Graham comments “I’m delighted with this year’s new Sauvignon Blanc blend. It’s a classic New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, it’s a grown-up wine and it’s elegant and delicious. It’s surreal thinking that our little collaboration together that started out all those years ago is now all over the world. I’m amazed, and proud of it too. I don’t just put my name to the wines, I’m involved and I love being part of the process.”
Graham Norton’s wine and spirits range – that now features Prosecco, Prosecco Rosé, Sauvignon Blanc, Rose, Shiraz and two Irish gins (including one pink) – has clocked up more than 200 accolades over the years and Graham is a shareholder in Invivo & Co.
Watch the blending session here.
In New Zealand, the range is available at Countdown, New World, Glengarry, Liquorland, Bottle O, SuperLiquor and Liquor Centre and most other wine stores. The full Graham Norton and Invivo ranges are available at our Invivo Store, which new vintages being added as they are bottled. Cheers!
