Sarah Jessica Parker institutionalized chic cocktail culture during her Sex and the City tenure. When the Emmy winner announced a winemaking foray with New Zealand–based wine company Invivo, critics pontificated about the quality. Several years into the venture, the Invivo X, Sarah Jessica Parker lineup has racked up enough accolades and high scores in blind tastings to silence the skeptics.
We frequently interview Parker—in fact, you can hear her on episode 14 of our Straight Talk podcast—and her Invivo & Co. partners, Tim Lightbourne and Rob Cameron. We’ve chatted about everything from the tasting and selection process to Parker’s direct involvement with her wines’ development and marketing and even her charming take on the ideal wine glass.
Here, our guide to Invivo X, SJP wines—including Parker’s Sauvignon Blanc, a French rosé and a new Pinot Noir—and her low-alcohol, low-calorie range, called Sevenly.
Sarah Jessica Parker Has Three Current Invivo X Wine Offerings
There’s an Invivo X Sauvignon Blanc and a French rosé, both of which were launched with the 2019 vintage. Parker’s Sauvignon Blanc is sourced from vineyards in Marlborough, New Zealand, while her rosé currently comes from the Lambesc commune in southern France’s Provence region, from the Roy René vineyards.
In 2024, Parker added the first red wine to the Invivo X wine, a Pinot Noir from New Zealand. The debut 2022 vintage blends Pinot Noir from Marlborough with a small amount of Pinot from Central Otago, which has been gaining prominence as a great region for Pinot.
What Does Sarah Jessica Parker’s Sauvignon Blanc Taste Like?
In short, pretty great. Our Wine Spectator rating of her 2022 vintage was 93 points, so good that it was poured at the 2023 New York Wine Experience alongside longtime wine stars of the world. We found it vivid and juicy, mingling notes of passionfruit, lime zest, ginger and more. (Read our full review with tasting note here.) Her 2023 vintage kept that high standard and her her first three vintages also earned outstanding scores in our blind tastings. Sauvignon Blanc was originally planted in New Zealand back in the 1970s, and typical Sauvignon Blancs from that region are made in a zingy style full of citrus and aromatic herbal notes, like lemongrass, sometimes veering into ripe tropical fruit flavors.
Parker Initially Gravitated to Chardonnay
She always thought of herself as a Chardonnay drinker, but “I think I used to feel like that slightly exposed myself as not a very complex person,” Parker told us. She added, “I've had some incredible Chardonnays, like really beautiful. But I'm not specific to that.”
Due to frequent travel to Ireland, where New Zealand wines are widely available, Parker sampled many of them and fell hard for Sauvignon Blanc, which surprised her. “I always thought of it as a much more kind of ‘littler’ wine, if that makes sense,” she told us. “It felt less round, and I always thought that I preferred kind of a bigger wine. But I've come to love Sauvignon Blanc.”
Parker is Intimately Involved in Making Her Invivo Wines
Per the Invivo founders, Parker believed in the company so much, she invested in it.
"She is fantastic," Invivo co-founder Tim Lightbourne told us. "Right from the beginning, she has wanted to be very involved and accessible. She’s smart, naturally funny and passionate about enjoying a glass of wine. She is a global star—we are just two old schoolmates from New Zealand—and we all just had a great time chatting away."
Parker worked with the founders to select the final blends for bottling, but also on the name and label. The “X, Sarah Jessica Parker” is a nod to a letter signature; Parker hand-drew the “X” on the label and had it color-matched to a teal hue that’s one of her favorite colors in her line of shoes.
Parker Blended Her First Rosé in the Dead of Winter—in New York
“It was December, which was funny to be imagining the summer," the actress told us via Zoom in spring 2020. "Though a different summer than we're probably going to have."
The biggest hurdle was getting the wine samples from the south of France, where the partners had worked with Vins Chevron Villette, to New York City. Cameron and Lightborne arrived with the potential components in a suitcase, kicking off an hours-long tasting and blending session that started in the morning. Parker is thrilled with how the final blend turned out. “I think where we landed is very much where I hoped to be. It's slightly bigger, but it retains some of those immediately recognizable hallmarks of a rosé," she told us. "Exuberant but complex."
During the Pandemic, Parker Blended the 2020 and 2021 Vintages Via Zoom
During Covid lockdowns, Parker hopped on plenty of video calls to work virtually with the Invivo winemakers. For tasting, to bridge the thousands of miles between New York and New Zealand, the Invivo team shipped Sauvignon Blanc samples from Marlborough along with flasks and cylinders so Parker could create the same blends they were tasting. (Husband Matthew Broderick pitched in to help.)
Of that remote sampling, Parker told us, "I thought the distance would make the kind of necessary communication impossible. However it was our typical fun, surprising, wonderfully perplexing moment, and an ultimately fruitful blend."
The three even filmed the sessions, so you can watch their discussions!
She Launched a Low-Alcohol, Low-Calorie Invivo Line, Sevenly, in Australia
Each of the four bottlings in the Sevenly range—sparkling, Sauvignon Blanc, rosé and a red blend—features 7 percent alcohol by volume and under 100 calories per glass. While Sevenly is not available in the United States currently, the Invivo website notes plans to bring it Stateside.
Parker Eschews Traditional Wine Stemware
“I will drink wine out of a wine glass,” Parker laughed to us. “I’m not offended by wine glasses. But I started drinking wine more in Europe, where wine often comes to the table in a little carafe, with little, short glasses. And I loved it. … There was something that took the intimidation out of it for me; it felt more familiar, more intimate, more like being at home. So that's the way we drink wine in our house. I save little jars, like jam jars, and we drink wine out of them. Any jar that's, like, three to four inches tall—perfect.”
She Also Likes to Chill Her Red Wine
Describing how her 2022 Pinot tastes, Parker said, “It has lovely berry and chocolate flavors, and you can't believe the smell. This blend has so much structure and depth … and I especially love chilling this one for 30 minutes before pouring a glass.”
Aren't red wines supposed to be served at room temperature? Well, Parker is actually onto something. Lighter-bodied, fruit-forward red wines are best served at 50 to 60 degrees F—significantly cooler than most of us keep our rooms. Serving a red wine too warm can accentuate the alcohol and make the wine feel flabby; keeping it on the cooler side preserves its freshness and bright fruit, just what you want when enjoying a glass on a warm day.
Where to Buy Invivo X Sarah Jessica Parker
You can find Parker’s wines on Wine.com—where the Sauvignon Blanc retails for $19, the rosé retails for $20 and the Pinot Noir for $25—at Total Wine & More, and on other websites such as Drizly. Parker’s wines are available in more than 40 states, so you can try her website for local stores near you.
