Digby aims to drive link between wine, sport and entertainment

By Jo Gilbert

Published: 24 May, 2016

Digby Fine English is focusing on creating "experiential links" between their customers and their wines as they release their Digby Leander Pink NV into the off-trade for the first time.

The premium wine brand sponsored a Row2Rio Leander Club dinner last Thursday (May 19) where they celebrated the launch of the Digby Leander Pink NV into Waitrose and M&S.

The company has been the official sparkling wine of the top rowing association since February 2015 and Trevor Clough, Digby's Co-Founder & CEO, is keen to stress the importance of the collaboration to create a lasting link between the sport's spectators and their wine.

He said: "Wine isn't as well defined as it could be. As an industry, we talk about the wine and terroir and we forget that wine is for pleasure and experience. Everything we do is aimed towards that.

"To build a brand, you have to have a long-term vision, and be clear about who your customer is. Our customers see experiencing and discussing wine as a form of entertainment in the same way that sport provides entertainment.

"As brand trying to establish yourself, you have to know how you can give your customers pleasure. It's a long road: to get there you have to push through and make as many friends as you can."

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For Clough, sport was always going to be a good fit for their brand.

Co-founder Jason Humphries rowed at university and in between sowing the seeds of their fledgling English fizz business since 2009, the pair regularly attended the Henley Regatta.

"We felt we had to do something with the regatta," he said. "What people don't realise is that racing at a regatta is the equivalent of Olympic-level racing.

"Watching sport provides escapism and delight in the same way that drinking wine does."

Digby Fine English is now distributed in the UK by Armit Wines, which Clough hopes will increase the brand's visibility in the on-trade.

A proportion of the proceeds of every bottle of Digby Leander Pink NV sold will go to Leander Club based in Henley-on-Thames, to help train the rowers of tomorrow.

The commercial launch of the drink was celebrated at a Row2Rio Leander Club dinner attended by BBC Sport presenter Clare Balding.

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