By Daniela Elser
It鈥檚 official.
Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex has added 鈥榲igneron鈥 to her ever-growing fleet of job titles that already includes jam seller, flower sprinkle proselytiser, tele producer, candle making instructor, apiarist, podcaster, handbag and vegan latte company investor, children鈥檚 book author, former working HRH, calligrapher, actress and blogger, and designated cheerer upper-er of Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex.
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On Tuesday, on what would have been her mother-in-law Diana, Princess of Wales鈥 64th birthday, the duchess finally got into the vino business, launching her As Ever lifestyle brand鈥檚 first bottle of the good stuff, a ros茅, which sold out in less than an hour.
But even when shelves are restocked again, I鈥檓 assuming by an overalls-wearing Harry supportively proudly working up some manly calluses on his hands, don鈥檛 expect it to land in your local bottle-o near anytime soon.
To even try the drop would cost you AUD$167, hardly making it Friday drinks-quaffable stuff.
(The 鈥渄ry, and refreshing鈥 blend was only sold with a minimum order of three bottles, reportedly due to shipping costs and for environmental reasons.)
That works out at about $45 a bottle for which you could also get 2.4 bottles of Kylie Minogue鈥檚 ros茅, 3.2 bottles of Snoop Dogg鈥檚, and 1.2 bottles of Daniel Riccardo鈥檚 version.
Should the logistics of getting your hands on a taste of Meghan鈥檚 wine be surmounted, don鈥檛 expect it to have been produced anywhere near the Sussexes鈥 Montecito home.
According to the Telegraph the tipple is produced by the Fairwinds Estate in Napa Valley, 630 km north and a six hour drive away.
The Napa Valley vineyard where Meghan sourced her ros茅 also reportedly makes wines for other starry wine labels, including those of Barry Manilow and John Wayne. (Who knew that Wayne, after ridin鈥 his trusty steed into some fly-bitten frontier town, loved nothing more than moseying over to his the saloon for a big, bold grenache?)
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In the last couple of weeks more details have emerged about where As Ever products are sourced from.
Sure, As Ever is a brand built on the image of shimmering, sun-kissed shots of Meghan picking apricots and flowers in her picturesque garden and her contentedly stirring a bubbling pot of jam in her kitchen, all very David Hockney-meets-Delia Smith.
However, so far the provenance of some As Ever lines appears to be far less hashtaggable and dreamy.
The first scene of the duchess鈥 With Love Meghan series showed her tending to her bees, whispering 鈥淟ook at how much honey we have鈥 but Daily Mail has reported that As Ever鈥檚 range of fruit spreads, herbal teas, flower sprinkles and honey are sourced from a company which has a factory 3,200 plus kilometres away in Illinois. (Their headquarters are 560 plus kilometres away in California.)
The firm, called The Republic of Tea, also makes Bridgerton and Downton Abbey-branded tea.
Thanks to the Mail putting the calculator app to good use, The Republic of Tea鈥檚 hibiscus tea bags work out at costing $0.48 per cup of tea while the As Ever ones are $1.52 each.
Let鈥檚 be realistic here. The Duchess of Sussex might be a passionate home cook and her kitchen might have the same square meterage of a mid-size metro two-bedder but to commercially produce enough jam, sorry spread, was always going to require outside help.
Likewise her teabags. Did anyone really think that Harry was down the shed, neatly spooning dried hibiscus petals into little sachets and mulling his life choices?
Of her products, a source close to Meghan told the Mail, they 鈥渟tarted with the version Meghan makes at home and worked to develop a version of it that could be produced at scale.鈥
Fans clearly don鈥檛 give a fig about where duchess鈥 As Ever goodies are actually being cooked up with all three of the As Ever stock releases selling out in less than 60 minutes.
(On June20, the second day the duchess鈥 wares went on sale, the brand鈥檚 website was visited half a million times, the Mail has reported.)
However, the As Ever roll out has not been all peachy.
The 43-year-old will give out free jars of her spread after a technical issue saw the site continue to take orders after overselling on the release of June鈥檚 鈥渟ummer drop鈥.
Something similar happened with sales of As Ever honey in April with the site providing refunds and offering free products after they continued selling honey after stock had actually run out.
Depending on your Sussex stance, this either only reflects the high degree of public demand for Meghan鈥檚 products and how hungry Americans are to buy into her charmed As Ever vision or says something about a business struggling to find its feet.
As the Daily Beast鈥檚 Tom Sykes pointed out ahead of the ros茅鈥檚 debut, As Ever鈥檚 non- alcoholic products have only been available for purchase for less than two hours in the three months, which equates the As Ever鈥檚 food 鈥渟helves [having] been fully stocked for just 0.01 percent of the time鈥 since launch.
What remains to be seen is whether this all only cultivates an air of exclusivity and rarity and whets shoppers鈥 appetites or whether it will just frustrate them.
Also, does only having products on sale for less than an hour, every so often, make for a sustainable, profitable business concern?
In March the Telegraph reported that the Duchess of Sussex 鈥渢hinks she鈥檚 going to be a billionaire鈥 thanks to her growing portfolio of ventures and projects.
At least we know this, if Harry has been helping out behind the scenes, it might not have all been hard graft.
The production of Meghan鈥檚 proprietary blend of ros茅 saw the duchess 鈥渉eavily involved鈥 for 鈥渕any months,鈥 per the Telegraph, which included 鈥渞oping in friends and colleagues to conduct multiple taste tests at her home.鈥
Hard work if you can get it.
Daniela Elser is a writer, editor and commentator with more than 15 years鈥 experience working with a number of Australia鈥檚 leading media titles.