American heiress Paris Hilton will be the new face of Bordeaux wines, decanter.com can reveal.
Hilton, 26, is set to feature in a TV, poster and print campaign to run throughout the summer and autumn in Europe and the US.
It is understood the ads, which will feature the strapline, ‘Paris: One Night in Bordeaux’, will be announced at the Vinexpo trade fair in Bordeaux in June this year.
An insider told decanter.com the millionaire socialite herself would launch the campaign on the first day of Vinexpo, arriving at the fair – which is attended by more than 50,000 members of the international wine trade – in a hot air balloon.
‘She will descend in a golden dirigible,’ the source said, adding that safety regulations had caused headaches for organisers.
‘They eventually compromised by allowing the landing zone to extend into the lake in case of an overshoot,’ he said.
The Bordeaux wine trade body (CIVB) said that it was planning a new campaign to be launched ‘in the autumn’ but refused to confirm or deny Hilton’s involvement.
This is not the first time Hilton has lent her image to a wine brand: last year she launched Rich, a canned Prosecco, in Austria (pictured). It is however a first for Bordeaux: the CIVB has never employed an international A-list celebrity as part of an advertising campaign.
The visit of the notorious jet-setteuse has set Bordeaux abuzz with speculation – mainly about which chateau she will stay at.
‘There was a lot of discussion,’ said another well-placed source. ‘She [Hilton] liked the oriental feel of Cos d’Estournel, but found Chateau Palmer “scary” and Petrus “poky”. She will probably spend the night at Lafite, as she has family connections with the Rothschilds.’
Vinexpo begins on 17 June.
Written by Oliver Styles
