Will You Accept this Rosé?

My guilty pleasure for years has been The Bachelor and Bachelorette franchise. A sexist franchise with countless flaws (that’s a different blog post) … yet I keep returning, season after season. Partly because the Monday night gathering with friends always includes wine, and partly because I find the people who choose to go on this show fascinating.

Just as fascinating as their behavior on the show are the paths the contestants take after the show. The most popular as of late: The Instagram Influencer. After last night’s Most. Dramatic. Finale. Ever. while debriefing with friends and polishing off the last of our wine, I took to Instagram to explore past contestants’ paths, specifically their relationship with wine.

As expected, I found many contestants promoting well known DTC companies such as Winc and BrightCellars. But I was surprised to see that there were a number of contestants that had more than dipped their toe into the wine world:

·       Ben Flajnik –Season 16, The Bachelor: Ben was a winemaker before coming on the show, at Sonoma wine company Envolve. Ben sold Envolve to the Benzinger family in 2016, although is still involved in the wine world with his new venture Return of the Rosé

·       Kaitlyn Bristowe – Season 11, The Bachelorette: Katilyn launched a wine-centered podcast “Off the Vine”, and is working on launching her own wine label.

·       Lauren Bushnell – Season 20, “Winner” of the Bachelor: No longer engaged to her Bachelor Ben Higgins, Lauren is working with her new boyfriend to launch a wine brand Dear Rosé

The show has always had a connection with wine (The Bachelor franchise even launched its own label), and its clear past contestants see an opportunity to leverage this connection for their own pursuits in the wine world. Given the rising role of The Influencer in brands’ success, I wonder how these new ventures will fare.