The following essay appears in Cake Zine‘s new issue, “Spoiled Rotten,” and is co-published here with permission.
I was three hours deep into Season 4 of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, sprawled out on my couch, laptop balanced on my thighs.
It was supposed to be a ten-minute break from studying the growing regions of Italy for my upcoming Wine & Spirit Education exam. On screen, Whitney Rose and Angie Katsanevas had barely settled into their seats at “Emigration,” which, despite the name, features a largely American menu, when Whitney turned to Angie and asked, “Have you ever had the Justin Cabernet?” I nearly choked on my tea. She couldn’t possibly be recommending the Justin Cabernet Sauvignon that you can get at Walgreens for $22—whose branding is reminiscent of the men’s body wash two aisles over—to a woman who, minutes prior, emerged from a white Porsche 911 with her husband, a $7,000 Cartier bracelet glittering on his wrist.
When there is no limit to what your money can buy, what do you buy? This is the driving question that has made the Real Housewives franchise so popular since it first premiered in 2006. After nineteen seasons across twelve international cities, these women and their purchasing habits offer a fascinating window into how the 0.1 percent view pleasure. It’s hard to watch without wondering what life is like in their Jimmy Choos. If I had endless capital, how would I spend it?
After years of working in Michelin-starred kitchens and wineries, whenever I have money to burn, which is admittedly less frequent than I’d like, I spend it on the ephemeral: going out to lavish dinners at fine-dining restaurants where I order multiple bottles of wine for my dining partner and myself, waxing poetic about the growing region or grape while their eyes glaze over. If I had endless capital, I would eat and drink it. And yet, I sat there watching these women electing to drink a bottle of wine I used to get hammered on when I was a broke college student—paired with a pale chicken breast atop a wilted pile of equally beige cauliflower.
I first started watching The Real Housewives of New York after an injury that confined me to the hospital and then my couch for weeks. I lived vicariously through them, getting parasocially invested in their drama for hours on end.
I’ve never been much into fashion or glam, the hallmarks of the franchise and fandom, but I’m a certified wine specialist and the Housewives love to drink. Once I started to notice the bottles gracing their dinner tables, ladies luncheons, fashion shows and art openings, I couldn’t stop pausing the screen, trying to make out the label. Whitney’s Justin order initially seemed out of place given its relatively unluxurious price point, but it fits into the broader landscape of the Housewives’ taste in wine. Almost all of the wines they consume are mass-market, often domestic with large distributors around the country. Across franchises and spinoff shows, at group dinners that descend into brawls, the Housewives gravitate toward high-alcohol, high-sugar cabernet sauvignon, usually from California. Even when they stray from that category, they lean sweet. Mary Cosby from The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City espoused the virtues of the 2003 Dom Pérignon vintage to her guests while hosting a Met Gala–themed lunch, where the valet dressed as a beefeater and the ladies entered on a red carpet:
“In 2003 it was a heatwave; 5,600 people died and it made the best grapes of all time,” she said. The women nodded, slack-jawed. By “best” Mary means sweetest, since the heatwave ripened the grapes past their normal picking point, lessening the natural acidity of the grapes and concentrating the fruit’s sugars.
“If I had endless capital, I would eat and drink it. And yet, I sat there watching these women electing to drink a bottle of wine I used to get hammered on when I was a broke college student.”
Having worked in tasting rooms and wineries in Sonoma, Napa and Chinon, France, I am familiar with the overripe wines that the Housewives are drinking, the half-desiccated grapes that show the signs of aging, which the Housewives plump and lift out of their own faces. These wines were made intentionally sweet for the American market, in part due to the impact of Robert Parker, a law school graduate with no professional wine experience—the first American wine influencer in the ’80s, well before Andy Cohen had even conceived of the idea for a Real Housewives franchise.
In 1978, Parker created a newsletter (which later became the popular magazine The Wine Advocate) where he signaled wine vintages and vineyards that he believed would age well and were worth the price tag. His 100-point system graded wine like a spelling test, making it possible for producers to receive a perfect one hundred. The wines that did immediately sold out, in part because his influence meant they would retain resale value. Wine brands began to cater to his palate, producing bottles with higher alcohol and lower acidity, with a fruit-forward sweetness. Some have referred to this as the “Parkerization” effect, a homogenizing of flavor profiles. Today, many publications and individual critics score using his 100-point metric, but there is growing distrust in the system, as speculation brews that publications will award higher scores to brands that spend more in advertising with the magazine. (Justin’s 2022 Justification wine, for example, was awarded ninety-four points from Wine Enthusiast).
The point system told American Boomers which wines to drink, saving them the effort of developing taste. In the words of a former New York Housewife, Countess Luann de Lesseps, “money can’t buy you class.” Or in this case, taste. Take Caymus for example, a wine popular in Miami Housewife Lisa Hochstein’s enormous pinpad-protected wine room. It’s a Napa brand expensive enough to be class-signifying, with wide enough distribution that viewers can find a bottle at their local Total Wine, even if they can’t shell out $60 to drink it. In contrast, the world of collectable wines that the Housewives can certainly afford, like Pomerol and Romanée-Conti, are made by small producers and often are only available at auction or directly from the winery.
The fine wine market is at odds with the traditional hierarchy of “luxury” that fashion, vacations and real estate exist within; although most of the public would recognize a Veuve Clicquot or Dom Pérignon bottle (both owned by LVMH) as a status symbol, it takes someone with industry knowledge to notice a Petrus. The Petrus may not be worth the higher price tag to the Housewives if no one knows it costs ten times more than what you would have spent on the Dom. As the camera lingered on the waitress pouring the Justin, I thought of the countless photoshoots I had participated in for wineries. It’s a delicate art to know how to pour the bottle while keeping the label visible, an art that this Salt Lake City waitress was basically nailing. It could be a coincidence, but it also could explain the inconsistent wine choice. The Wonderful Company, Justin’s owner, has a history of product placements in Hollywood movies for other brands in its portfolio, like Fiji Water, but I couldn’t confirm if Justin was indeed a plant. The fandom often speculates about product placement, noting in particular how much Xfinity was promoted in Season 6 of The Real Housewives of Atlanta, or calling out a scene where Nivea seems to be shilled by Tinsley Mortimer of the New York franchise as the camera pans to the bottle.
“That is 👏 how 👏 you 👏 rich.”
When it comes to drinks, though, it’s much less obvious when a brand is being promoted for payment. Most people have a go-to cocktail or brand they prefer to drink and the same is presumably true for the Housewives. For the past nine seasons of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, the audience has heard Dorit Kemsley order a “Belvedere vodka and club soda, served in a short glass with three lemons, carcass out.” Has she been collecting checks from LVMH (who also owns Belvedere), or is this the drink order of a wealthy woman who knows exactly what she wants? It reminds me of the rich women who would come to tasting rooms and demand only sauvignon blanc, unwilling to try any other wines. At a tasting room. So secure in their preference, they were unwilling to be surprised.
The spoils of the Housewives’ fame inform their purchases. When Heather Dubrow, a Real Housewives of Orange County cast member with an estimated net worth of $70 million, wore a $60 Amazon dress to the Season 19 reunion, there was lively online discourse. “For someone with a SHIT ton of money,” one incensened redditor wrote, “I expect A LOT more.” In contrast, Beverly Hills cast member Jennifer Tilly wore a custom Balmain dress with her face on it. “That is 👏 how 👏 you 👏 rich” a redditor responded to the gown.
I, too, “expected A LOT more” of Whitney Rose. As a viewer who lives vicariously through Housewives’ choices, I want her to drink my bucket-list wines. I would die to see her enjoying a Maison Houillon Overnoy, Château d’Yquem, or Case Basse Soldera Brunello. I would press my face against the television screen as she takes a sip, wondering if she can surmise the tasting notes. Would she swirl the glass, sniff it, or down it in one go? Perhaps, if the ladies spent a bit more on their wines, they might not be as keen to throw them at each other.
Although many of the Housewives prefer their “cockies” (a term for cocktails coined by Miami cast member Marysol Patton, which she drinks from bedazzled tumblers at seemingly all hours of the day) a staggering ten Housewives across all the franchises have released their own wine brands. Some of these ventures are a cheeky reflection of their drinking habits on the show; Ramona Singer of The Real Housewives of New York was rarely seen without a glass of pinot grigio before she released her own “Ramona” brand using the same grape in 2011. While her brand stopped production in 2016, fellow Housewife Bethenny Frankel’s already-thriving Skinnygirl empire, which grosses almost 15 million a year, released a line of low-calorie wines in 2012 that is still in production today. In 2020 (a notable boom for the wine business for obvious reasons), the Washington state–based winery Nocking Point Wines launched a Bravo-cobranded Real Housewives line of “House” Red, White and Rosé for $30 a bottle.
A passion for wine isn’t a prerequisite for entrepreneurship. Take Lisa Rinna, who off handedly courted her own vino venture after a Real Housewives of Beverly Hills cast trip to Provence in Season 9: “Rinna Rosé? Anyone who’s interested, call me. I’m ready.” In a confessional from the same episode, Rinna admitted coyly, “I’ve been to Napa one time in my life and we didn’t even go wine tasting. I went to the spa.” But three seasons later, she had a bottle of sparkling rosé in hand with “RINNA” stamped on the label in gold, created by Prestige Beverage Group and sold for about 25 a bottle (30 if you opt for a bottle with her pre-engraved signature etched above the label).
To the folks at Prestige Beverage Group, Rinna Wine probably seemed like a slam dunk—a built-in brand helmed by a spunky saleswoman with 3.8 million followers on Instagram and millions of viewers on Bravo. But it wasn’t the resounding success they had hoped for. Less than a year after it was launched, the @rinnawines Instagram account stopped posting and Rinna appears to have moved on, although bottles are still available online. Of the ten wine brands started by Housewives, Housewives, seemingly only three remain in production: Vanderpump Rosé, Skinnygirl and Tiffany Moon’s Three Moons Napa Cabernet.
“Perhaps, if the ladies spent a bit more on their wines, they might not be as keen to throw them at each other.”
In the 2026 Silicon Valley Bank’s State of the U.S. Wine Industry report, 60 percent of respondents stated an oversupply of wine. As a result, the industry is seeing its biggest downturn since the 2008 financial crisis. Consumers are spoiled for choice, so brands discount products to stay competitive. It may not be visible in the aisles of Walgreens, but many struggling small producers are forced to sell their wines at cost, while larger wine companies with greater margins are able to stay afloat. With demand driving the market, the question becomes: What do we want? Do we want more Justin? Rinna Rosé? Do we want another season, another franchise? To me, the volume and rate of production of these shows can feel like drinking out of a fire hose, an episodic doomscroll into how wealth morphs your brain. It feels endless, but I love it; I want more seasons, more episodes and more cast members. I want another ill-fated wine brand as further proof I might live my life differently, if I slipped into their Manolo Blahniks.
According to a study published in the Journal of Wine Economics, “in a large sample of blind tastings, we find that the correlation between price and overall rating is small and negative. Unless they are experts, individuals on average enjoy more expensive wines slightly less.” Even wine professionals that I’ve worked with, when given the same white mixed with red food coloring, will state entirely different tasting notes solely based on the color. Ramona Singer herself unknowingly critiqued her own wine in a blind tasting; “it needs more flavor, it needs more citrus fruit […] my pinot grigio has citrus in it.” It’s hard to justify a $20,000+ bottle of wine when so much of the pleasure is informed by what’s outside it.
Do we love it because it’s expensive, or is it expensive because we love it?
Although Whitney Rose seems to savor her $22 cabernet, it’s possible she only chose the bottle because her husband’s name is Justin. And who doesn’t like to see a familiar name on a bottle? Not even the Housewives can argue about that.
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