If you happened to check Twitter on a Thursday night and searched for the hashstag “Scandal,” you’d see millions of viewers tweeting along with the show, but what you’d also see is that thousands of those tweets include the mention of viewers drinking wine, red wine to be specific, and many of them are drinking that wine out of one specific glass: the Camille Red Wine Glass from Crate and Barrel.
Since its debut in 2012, “Scandal” has become a massive cultural phenomenon and included in that phenomenon is the main character Olivia Pope’s love for fine wine. Even if Olivia can’t count on anything else, she can always rely on a good glass of red wine at the end of a long day, and it seems loyal viewers have taken it upon themselves to do the same. Across the country, either alone or in groups, one of the core aspects of watching the show seems to be the act of drinking a glass of wine right along with it. As viewers watch Pope use wine as a way to bond and connect with fellow characters – from sharing a bottle or two with the President’s Chief of Staff, to drinking a romantic glass with Captain Jake Ballard – the viewers bond along with them. Yet no matter what Pope and the viewers seem to be drinking, the one constant is Pope’s preferred glass.
When the show debuted in April 2012 and really took off in September of that same year, the glasses quadrupled in sales. Then the next year they quadrupled again, and sales continue to grow. For a period in late 2013, Crate and Barrel could barely keep them in stock – it’s not unusual to hear that the glasses have been placed on backorder due to demand. The glasses aren’t cheap – they’re $14.95 each – and they can’t be placed in the dishwasher – they’re handwash only – but these facts don’t seem to be stopping fans from buying as many glasses as they can get their hands on.
The glasses are large 23-ounce bulbous beauties with a long stem that’s ideal for Olivia to wrap her hands around while she ravenously inhales a delicious red – though some wine critics have called her out for this display, saying that if Pope is actually a wine aficionado she should really hold the glass by the stem, which, while technically correct, we think is a ridiculous criticism.
This is truly the first time a TV character has has such a large impact on the sales of a wine glass. Sure critics and wine personalities have moved thousands of glasses before, but to sell this many glasses, to people who aren’t necessarily wine obsessives, but rather your everyday wine drinker, is a true phenomenon. We can only hope Crate and Barrel has made “Scandal” prop master George Edman a preferred customer for life.
Header Image Courtesy ABC
