Bulgarian wine proves a cut above

Bulgarian producer Boyar Estates has once again proved its genius at marketing - by inspiring a new hairstyle.

Normally only the mega-famous – David Beckham, Jennifer Aniston or Princess Diana – inspire the masses to copy their barnets.

But Boyar’s Blueridge range, in its distinctive ‘sliced’ bottle, has roused hordes of urbanites to sculpt their hair into an angled ridge.

The trigger was an advertising campaign (pictured) that had a man in a barber’s shop looking pleased with his new style, angled thickly over one eye, echoing the cut of the bottle. ‘A range of wines with a new angle,’ runs the catchline.

Now London salons are getting more and more requests for the cut. ‘We have people coming in with a picture of it,’ Clive Colman, a partner at London hairdresser Burlingtons, said. ‘One person even came in with the bottle. It’s an amazing concept.’

Colman said some people had had their hair dyed to echo the blue-black colour of the bottle.

Boyar has been in the headlines before. In 2001 the UK Advertising Standards Authority had a flood of complaints about a Blueridge poster with the legend ‘Jesus was born in a trough,’ followed by the line, ‘Bulgarian Blueridge. Does it matter where it comes from?’

Domaine Boyar was Bulgaria’s first privately-owned producer after the collapse of communism at the end of the 1980s. Set up in 1991 it is now Bulgaria’s biggest producer. It owns Boyar Estates and a handful of other wineries in the country.

Written by Adam Lechmere