Brad Pitt Is Launching A New Drink Brand
Brad Pitt is launching a new celebrity alcohol, Gardener French Riviera Gin.
Hollywood A-lister Brad Pitt is making a new move in the celebrity alcohol business, ascending to the lofty ranks of Dwayne Johnson, Matthew McConaughey, and iconic heavy metal band Metallica in selling hard alcohol. The World War Z actor is launching an alcohol brand named The Gardener French Riviera Gin (per The Hollywood Reporter), which he co-founded with Matthieu Perrin (of the illustrious French winery Famille Perrin) and master distiller Tom Nichol. While Brad Pitt is no novice to the world of celebrity alcohol, the timing of this gin release does seem a little peculiar.
Brad Pitt and then-spouse Angelina Jolie purchased Château Miraval (a winery specializing in rosé) in 2008. While Pitt has since been active in the field, Jolie sold her stake in the company some time ago, which makes sense considering their apparently acrimonious divorce. It now seems that the Mr. and Mrs. Smith star is diversifying his alcohol portfolio, a currently very popular move among the rich and famous.
However, Brad Pitt has been very public in recent years about his struggles with alcoholism, which makes his continued association with his vineyard and his new gin brand a little complicated. Pitt has been publicly sober since 2016 and credits Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 star Bradley Cooper with prompting him to quit drinking; he apparently spent a year and a half in Alcoholics Anonymous around then.
Of course, there is no reason why someone who has struggled with alcoholism cannot continue to do business in the field of rosé wine and gin, so we give much encouragement and support to Brad Pitt in his continued sobriety. His new Gardener French Riviera Gin is a dry London gin distilled from a wheat base with a complex botanical including juniper, coriander, licorice, angelica, pink grapefruit, lemon, and Cap d’Antibes orange. To say it more simply, it sounds like a pretty complex and delicious gin.
Aside from Brad Pitt, the celebrity alcohol business includes such luminaries as Deadpool himself, Ryan Reynolds (who owns Aviation Gin), original Ghostbuster Dan Aykroyd (a spokesman for Crystal Head Vodka, no relation to Indiana Jones), and the Breaking Bad partnership of Aaron Paul and Bryan Cranston, who went from fictionally cooking meth to founding their own real-life mezcal brand, Dos Hombres.
Brad Pitt most recently appeared in the show business dark comedy Babylon, which was directed by acclaimed filmmaker Damien Chazelle and co-starred a huge cast including Margot Robbie, Tobey Maguire, Samara Weaving, and Diego Calva. While the movie was heavily promoted as a potential Academy Award contender, it ultimately flopped hard at the box office and received mixed reviews from critics.
Next, Brad Pitt will star in a still-untitled Formula One racing movie, for which he will learn to drive on the same tracks as actual professional racers. Good to know he doesn’t drink and drive.
