Meghan Markle had a taste for the finer things in life even before she married Prince Harry and became a royal, and her favourite wine is no exception.
When she launched her famous lifestyle blog The Tig in 2014, Meghan named it after her tipple of choice, the Tignanello wine from Italy.
Tignanello was one of the first ‘Super Tuscans’ created by Italian wine makers in the 1970s, based predominantly on the San Giovese grape, but incorporating other types too.
The 2019 vintage can sell for around £160 a bottle, however the future Duchess was so inspired after she tried it she exclaimed: “It was an ah-ha moment at its finest. For me it became a ‘Tig’ moment – a moment of getting it.”
The Tig blog was shut down in 2017, the same year Harry and Meghan got engaged, yet the wine is doubtless still enjoyed at the family home in Montecito, California.
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Meghan shares her love of red wine with her stepmother-in-law Queen Camilla, who loves to wash down her favourite meal with a glass or two of claret.
Her Majesty revealed that she had been close to the wine business from a young age, explaining: “My father was in the wine business so as children we used to take wine and water and I have drunk it ever since.
“He always said it was his medicine and it kept him going – he used to take two or three glasses a day.”
The Queen told her son Tom Parker-Bowles, a food critic, in an interview what her last meal and accompanying drink would likely consist of.
She said she would start with her own homegrown asparagus, followed by Angela Hartnett’s risotto or dover sole meunière, followed by some berries and ice cream washed down with a couple of glasses of good red wine for dessert.
Camilla elaborated: “Some bitter chocolate ice cream. Plus strawberries and raspberries and lots of clotted cream. Along with a really good glass of red claret. And, seeing it’s my last supper, probably two.”
For King Charles a gin martini is his preferred beverage, and he likes to enjoy one before dinner every night.
The King is so dedicated to this ritual of half gin and half dry vermouth, garnished with an olive or lemon twist, he reportedly even brings the ingredients along with him whenever he travels, as well as his own glass.
Royal commentator Gordon Rayner told The Telegraph: “When he travels abroad he takes his own spirits with him to be mixed by his staff to his precise taste, while the Queen takes her own supply of red wine, usually from the Pomerol appellation of Bordeaux.
“The King may sip a glass of wine during dinner but his martini is effectively his only drink of the day.”
