Red, white and koala blue
Eat It Too Have It Make It, Buy It, Drink It
Want to hear about the latest Olivia Newton-John release on her Koala Blue label? Expertly produced by local Sean Neylon, it’s bright, bold and lively, with a fresh feel. Designed to appeal to both a local and international market, around five million units are expected to sell. Oh, did I forget to mention that it’s a wine…?
As I enter her suite at Sydney’s Inter-Continental Hotel, ON-J is curled up like a cat in a chair in the corner of the room, soaking up both the morning sun and the sweeping view up Bennelong Point to the Opera House.
It was there, the night before, that she launched the Koala Blue Chardonnay and Shiraz to a roomful of old friends. Business partner and close friend Pat Farrar is on the phone in the next room discussing business.
The scenario seems to encapsulate the current project Farrar as the driving force of Koala Blue Wines and ON-J the venerated symbol. “I started horseriding.” ON-J explains. “One of my friends said, “You must meet this young Australian girl who’s riding in Malibu.’ I met her and we became friends, and then I met her fiancé, Sean Neylon, who owns Snowden Wines. We all became friends and stayed in touch… He called me out of the blue one day and said, ‘What do you think about starting Koala Blue Wines?””
The first step involved buying back the Koala Blue trademark, the symbol of her ’80s clothing range. The second step was to choose wine styles. With a broad local and international market in mind, chardonnay and shiraz were felt to represent the popular image Australian wines hold around the world. ON-J and Farrar then worked on label design and presentation, Sean Neylon sourced the fruit from the prolific Riverland region of South Australia and, hey prestol 120,000 cases are ready for distribution.
So, on what occasion would you whip out a bottle of Koala Blue wine? Dinner with your parents (“Such a talented young lass, I still love Let Me Be There”) would be suitable, as would your next Grease party. And what’s the wine like?
Ummm… say, wasn’t Olivia great in Xanadu, do you remember that scene…