Finding out how much of Graham Norton really goes into a bottle of GN

Wine company Invivo was set up in 2008 by Tim Lightbourne and Rob Cameron, two Kiwis then living in London. The company prides itself on taking an innovative approach to making and marketing wine. One example of this is two X Unity Proseccos they make for the Eurovision Song Contest. “The Eurovision guys reached out to us. They wanted something to help celebrate. So we do a limited run every year,” says Lightfoot.

But the collaboration Invivo is best known for is the range of Graham Norton wines, which is now in its 10th year. There are five wines, as well as three spirits, but the original and best-known is the New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.

“We read that Graham liked Sauvignon Blanc so we reached out to the show and managed to get our wine on in 2011. Every year we would go up to the show, meet Graham and let him know what was going on in the winery,” Cameron says.

“Possibly they read an interview with me in a New Zealand paper, gushing on about New Zealand wines,” says Norton, on a Zoom call. “I was really impressed by their gumption – in the first instance, to get in touch – and it was just such a clever marketing idea. Then they were able to say, ‘this wine, as drunk by Gwyneth Paltrow, or Madonna, or whoever’. Then I tasted the wine and really liked it.”

The relationship then developed, Cameron says. “Two years later, we approached Graham to see if he’d be keen to make a wine with us and, to our surprise, he was. So that first year we took some grapes from Marlborough and brought them over on a plane so he could stomp on them with his feet. I flew back three bottles of the foot stomp juice and that was added to the wine. We only made about a thousand cases for fun. The second year, we wanted to make it a bit more authentic and that is when the blending sessions started.”

“I don’t know what their ambition was for this,” Norton says, “but I never thought it would become this big. I just thought this would be one wine and I would say, ‘What fun – I have a wine with my name on it’. I never thought – dreamt – it would grow into this big range of wines – and spirits too now.”

Bandon native Norton takes an active role in the blending of the wine and appears intrigued by the process. “Blending is such a fascinating experience,” he says. “It takes wine tasting to a whole new level. It is just fascinating how a tiny bit of one wine will totally transform the character of another. There are often surprises, where no one expected that to do that. And I love that. Some years it is easy and we agree very quickly; others it takes hours. But we always get there.”

I ask, is he a wine buff? “I’m a wine drinker – I don’t know if that makes me a buff. But the boys are right; New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc was and is my favourite tipple.”

In addition to the New Zealand Sauvignon, there is now a South African Sauvignon, largely driven by a shortage of New Zealand wine in one vintage, plus a rosé, an Australian Shiraz, and two Proseccos. Have they ever thought about making a Pinot Noir, New Zealand’s other great wine?

“We talk about it every year and make two for Invivo,” says Lightfoot. “If we did it, it would be more high end, smaller volume. It tends to be at a higher price and people don’t buy it every week.”

Graham Norton is justifiably proud of his wines. You will only buy it once for the novelty factor but you 'will keep buying it because you like it', he says

“I always feel my name on an expensive bottle of wine won’t help,” chips in Norton, laughing. “If you see it in the mid-priced range you say, ‘Oh look, why not, let’s give it a whirl.’ If you are in a more expensive part of the wine shop then my name probably won’t help.”

The also make two gins and a vodka in Ireland. “The gin came first,” says Norton. “We went into West Cork Distillery in Skibbereen, and again we had a great time. To taste the difference with a little bit more of this, a little less of that was absolutely fascinating. Now we have the vodka, which is delicious. I really like that the spirits come from west Cork and bring business into the area, and every year I do a quiz with the local village where I live. I’ve even met the man who makes the cardboard boxes they put the gin in.”

Norton is speaking to me from New York, where he spends time every year.

“What’s good about America is I can buy my wine without being embarrassed, because they don’t know who I am,” he says. “I’m just that man who happens to like those GN wines.”

He is justifiably proud of the wines. “I always say people will buy it once because there’s a novelty, and say ‘Look what I got. I bought a bottle of Graham Norton’s wine’, but you’ll only buy it once for that. You will keep buying it because you like it.”

To date, they have sold 15 million bottles of wine. They give credit to Kevin O’Callaghan, wine buyer for Musgraves in Cork, who was the first in the world to buy the GN wines, and it “somehow it snowballed from there”.

“Ten years ago we never thought it would be like this,” says Cameron. “It’s been quite a journey and we are not done yet. Plenty more to come.”