The English band Iron Maiden has teamed up with the importer and distributor Ehrmanns Wine to create a wine, named Darkest Red . The name was inspired by one of the group's songs, "Darkest Hour," from the 2021 Senjutsu
Darkest Red is a Douro DOC, a red wine produced by the renowned Portuguese producer Van Zellers & CO . During the product launch at ProWein —a wine fair held in Düsseldorf, Germany— Ehrmanns Wine , Paul Daniell , explained the reason for the choice.
“This has been in the works for a year. We chose the Douro DOC because it’s growing. There’s a buzz about Portuguese wines. If we made another Malbec, it would just be another Malbec – this is something different. It’s a disruptive wine in a disruptive category,” said Daniell, according to The Drinks Business .
The wine blend is composed of native Douro red grapes, including Touriga Nacional and Tinta Roriz — also known as Tempranillo — and is aged in old Port wine barrels for 6 to 9 months, with an alcohol content of 13.5%.
“We wanted to do something unexpected. You might not think of a rock band for a wine brand, it had to be a perfect match. Kylie Minogue , for example, works with rosé wine. This one had to be red, but we didn’t want it to be too obvious,” added marketing chief Keith Lay , according to The Drinks Business .
Although it's a somewhat unusual connection, the band and the wine industry are already old acquaintances; Darkest Red isn't Iron Maiden . Over the years, they've released several editions of Eddie's Evil Brew , a Chilean Merlot, each paying homage to an album: Seventh Son of a Seventh Son , The Final Frontier , Powerslave , and Somewhere in Time .
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