Nigel Barker
Invivo Wines’ Tim Lightbourne and Rob Cameron have announced Nigel Barker, former model, judge and photographer on America’s Next Top Model as the company’s new U.S. ‘Glambassador’.
Nigel was first introduced to Invivo five years ago when he was in New Zealand shooting America’s Next Top Model and immediately fell in love with Invivo’s Pinot Noir. He struck up a friendship with Lightbourne and Cameron, who began smuggling Barker’s new favourite tipples (he’s partial to their Sauvignon Blanc too) to the U.S. so he could enjoy them whenever he wanted.
“Every so often you meet someone you want to stay in touch with and occasionally that relationship becomes extra special. That is basically what happened between Invivo and me, it was love at first sip,” says Barker.
Although the wine was often stopped at customs and returned to New Zealand, they did experience some success and Barker was able to enjoy his precious Invivo for many years. When Invivo launched their wines in the U.S. earlier this year, the covert operations came to an end but their friendship with Barker did not.
“We’ve had some interesting times over the years trying to covertly get our wine personally to Nigel in the U.S. However, now having our wine available to US customers for the first time and having Nigel onboard as our first Glambassador, it’s very exciting times!” says Lightbourne. “We’re looking forward to running some unique campaigns with Nigel and having some fun reaching out to U.S. wine lovers.”
“After several years of secret admiration and clandestine deliveries, I can finally share these fabulous wines with everyone. Although I am still not sure how good I will be at sharing as with something this good it’s a sin to keep it all for yourself!” says Barker.
Invivo Wines continues on its mission to bring their New Zealand produced wines to the world, and now offers three of their most sought after wines in the United States – Invivo Sauvignon Blanc, Invivo Pinot Noir and a collaboration with UK’s most popular talk show host, Graham Norton’s special edition Sauvignon Blanc. After humble beginnings in 2008, Invivo is now one of the world’s fastest growing wine brands from just 12,000 bottles in 2014 to 1.5million bottles in 2017.
The US has quickly grown to be the number one market for New Zealand wine, exporting more than $500 million to the United States according to the latest data from Statistics New Zealand.
