One of the funniest stories of the year is “British royalists are desperate to taste-test the Duchess of Sussex’s products, which are only sold in America.” Meghan has sent some personal As Ever packages to friends and allies in the UK, but As Ever is not for sale in the UK or Europe. The only way the British tabloids or newspapers are getting their hands on As Ever products is if they have an American office/mailing address, or they have friends in America willing to ship the products over. The Mail’s Palace Confidential talk show idiots did a “taste-test” of Meghan’s rosé on this week’s show. They tried their best to mock the wine, but basically the only bad thing they could come up with is that the wine has a high alcohol content (higher than most rosés). Well, the Times of London also organized a taste-test, but this time, it wasn’t a blind taste-test among staff. No, this time, they gathered three New York-based sommeliers to taste the As Ever wine and give their general thoughts. Some highlights:
Dana Beninati:
“First of all, it’s a beautiful bottle. It’s simple, it’s elegant and I think it speaks to a younger generation without alienating anyone. When I look at the label, I think super-feminine, delicate and very clean, so those are my expectations of the wine. It looks good. It smells good. It’s inviting. I think this is a wine meant to be drunk immediately upon purchase, which is a fair assumption when we’re talking about a rosé. It’s not meant to age.”“When I take my first sip, it’s hot on the finish, not in temperature but in alcohol content. I get that heat on the nose and there’s a slight burn in the aftertaste as well, all this indicates a high-alcohol wine. That’s really surprising to me because consumers nowadays are generally looking for drinks that are lower in alcohol and sugar. When I think about my perfect day, I’m sipping a rosé by the pool, it’s hot outside and my friends and I are enjoying multiple bottles over the course of a day, so I’d typically be looking for lower alcohol content.”
“From a food perspective, it’s giving ripe strawberries and a touch of cranberry. It would be yummy with a Sunday roast with stuffing, Yorkshire pudding and cranberry sauce. A dish like that is rich and fatty, so it would help bring that alcohol back into a sense of balance.
“Overall to me, this is a wine made by expert marketers, not by Meghan. It doesn’t taste like something that’s been handcrafted from family-owned vineyards. It doesn’t feel thoughtful; it doesn’t feel like I’m supporting a small family-owned winery. I think that a bottle of 2024 As Ever or a bottle of 2030 As Ever will taste exactly the same.”
Crystl Faye Horton:
“The colour is a classic salmon pink. It’s definitely aiming for people who want a traditional Provence-style rosé. The addition of cabernet sauvignon to the blend is so interesting to me, because it’s such an expensive grape. The nose is perfumed, but not in an offensive way.“There’s so much going on flavour-wise in this wine. There’s wild strawberries, there’s cherry, there’s quince, there are these sweet baking spices that you would smell when you walked into grandma’s kitchen. You could place it in a tasting menu, a pairing menu or omakase. You could match it with a broad spectrum of Asian cuisines from Thai to Indian. The citrus could cut through any fatty or spicy food.”
“I have tasted a gazillion rosés, and most of them are a good starter wine to get your palate cleansed and your taste buds to stand up on your tongue. With this, there’s a really pretty bright acid in it. It’s really wonderful. A lot of celebrities just slap a label on a bottle, but this really feels like somebody wanted to make this wine with intention. I have met many wonderful winemakers in California, and she has somebody who clearly knows what they’re doing.”
Gambrelle Snyder:
“My first impression is that the colour is a little more orangey-apricot than the pink hue you would typically associate with a Napa rosé. When I stuck my nose in, I was surprised to pick up nectarines and other stone fruit. You’d usually expect cranberries and strawberries with a rosé.”“The overall aesthetic is simple, plain and clean, which translates to what’s in the glass. It’s a very clean glass of wine. I think with the notable acidity in the wine, it would be lovely with some rich cheese and crackers, french fries, crab cakes or a lobster roll. But it’s also easy to drink on its own. There’s a little bit of fire on the finish from the alcohol if you let it linger in your mouth too long. I’m not a fan of that. You want all of the flavours to melt together. You want them to combine and play off of each other, compliment each other.”
“When you take that final sip of rosé, you should get the fruit flavours, and I got a little bit of heat on the back. It’s not the greatest thing to have that be the sensation of the finish in your mouth. $30 feels like a fair price point for this wine. You have a tasty product and nice labelling, the whole package makes sense to me.”
“It’s better than I thought it was going to be. I’d like to see the ABV [alcohol content] be a tad lower.”
Since I’m on the wagon, I’m not going to taste-test the wine, but I believe it when wine professionals praise the taste, just as I believe it when people remark on how the wine is stronger than they expected. I’d love to know Meghan’s rationale for the higher-than-usual alcohol content. Maybe she simply prefers a stronger rosé! It also appears to be a consistent theme: wine professionals are genuinely surprised by how much they like the As Ever rosé, and when they discover how good it is, they rush to give someone other than Meghan credit for the taste. Something similar happened when the NY Post (another Murdoch-owned outlet) organized a blind taste-test.
There is video, this is the short version edited, what does the comments in the end tells you
#AsEverRosé is just way too good… they tried https://t.co/TKZke6Qr8q pic.twitter.com/uS1evapapK
— Sayid
(@SayidMet) July 16, 2025
Photos courtesy of As Ever’s IG.
