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EXCLUSIVE. :Kylie Minogue’s team ‘considering legal action’ against Aldi after pop princess is left fizzing with rage over rosé wine knock off
It’s certainly got Kylie Minogue’s team fizzing with rage. Aldi has released what looks like a cheap imitation of the pop princess’s bestselling sparkling rosé wine.
Customers have been quick to spot the familiar bottle on the shelves of the budget retailer.
The bottle, label and even the font bear a striking resemblance to the I Could Be So Lucky singer’s famous tipple. Since 2020, the Australian singer, 56, has made a name for herself in the wine business with her collection, including a non-alcoholic version, selling 17 million bottles globally. UK sales alone total an estimated £34 million a year.
And the German supermarket – never slow to miss a chance – is clearly keen to piggyback on her success with the launch of Rosalie Cotes De Provence Rosé.
Rosalie looks a lot like Kylie, with a near identical cursive scrawl on the bottle.
The imposter sells for £8.49 a bottle, while Kylie’s pink drink sells for upwards of £9 at most high-street stores. The Mail on Sunday spoke to one insider at Kylie Wines who said they were ‘peeved’ at Aldi’s knock-off and that legal action was being considered.
They added: ‘It is obvious to everyone exactly what they are trying to do. It is duping plain and simple.’
Aldi hardly shied away from the accusations.
It agreed its bottle was a ‘dead ringer’ for its celebrity counterpart. And more than that, a spokesman for the supermarket said that wine expert Sam Caporn, one of only 416 Masters of Wine worldwide, blind tasted both rosés. The result? She declared them ‘so similar in taste and colour, they are completely identical’.
If the dispute makes it to the courts, it will be a re-run of the Caterpillar Wars of 2021, when Marks & Spencer lodged a High Court claim against Aldi for breaching its intellectual property rights by launching a caterpillar-shaped chocolate cake called Cuthbert.
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It claimed the cake was a copycat of its own version, called Colin. The legal claim was later withdrawn as it was reported the retailers had reached a ‘confidential agreement’ out of court.
But Aldi was widely viewed to have benefited from the dispute with a savvy Free Cuthbert marketing campaign which went viral on social media.
In May, Ms Minogue celebrated her 56th birthday and four years in the wine industry by posing with some of her nine wines.
She thanked the ‘incredible growers, wine makers, distributors and partners’.