Rap + Name Checking: The Secret Sauce to Selling Vino!

March 17 2009

Rap + Name Checking: The Secret Sauce to Selling Vino!

The common practice of referencing the names of wine and spirits in rap songs is both a blessing and a curse for wine producers.

Cristal became a pop culture phenomenon after being name-checked in numerous rap songs over the last decade up until the Managing Director of Louis Roederer, the producer of Cristal, denounced the rap set. Then Jay-Z, the Godfather of contemporary rap music, rebuked the denouncement as racism and subsequently removed the Champagne from all of his clubs, leaving Cristal to the people that drank it before hip hop—who that is exactly, I’m not sure, though.

Just the same, A LOT of ‘Cris” Champagne was sold as a result of references to Cristal in rap songs.

We often see wine-related product placement in television and movies, too. However, these are usually paid for instead of occurring organically ala Cristal. A recent blog post from winery Clos la Chance discusses this and Terlato wines were placed in the most reason season of the reality show Top Chef.

Rare is the circumstance, however, where you get a triage of rap, a big-time name-check AND humor all wrapped up in one package.

The newest name-check product placement for a wine, in this case a California sparkler, is Santana DVX, a celebrity sparkling wine from guitar virtuoso Carlos Santana.

I wonder if Carlos Santana and Mumm Napa are happy or befuddled.

This morning I got an email from a friend, @chuckgose on Twitter, and he asked me where he could buy a certain sparkling wine because he wanted to gift it for an upcoming birthday. I checked a couple of spots, sent him a note back and that is when the fun started.

Thinking it odd to be looking for a $50 bottle of Carlos Santana wine, that’s when Chuck sent me a pointer to a couple of YouTube videos.

Made by Mumm Napa, with just one vintage available, a ’99, Santana DVX gets name-checked in the lyrics for one song by The Lonely Island, a group put together by Andy Samberg, a Saturday Night Live regular, and the creator of several SNL and YouTube sensations, including a certain Emmy winning song he did in conjunction with Justin Timberlake. And, Santana DVX gets the royal treatment in a rap song of the same name that is a riot.

So, I guess the question is does a reference in a song, or on tv or in a movie sell wine? I think the answer is “yes.”

Does it move wine when it’s in a rap parody? Well, it sold one bottle and I got my laugh for the day.

- Note -

The lyrics for Santana DVX are here

The below YouTube videos are not safe for work and not safe for you if you don’t have a contemporary sense of humor that runs juvenile. For the rest of you … enjoy …

Santana DVX referenced at 1:10 in the song, “I’m on a Boat”