The man who sold legendary Auckland bar Surrender Dorothy's to the heterosexuals is having a whale of time in Australia promoting Kim Crawford's 'gay' wine Pansy! Rose. Robert Street, aka drag artiste Onya Knees and former owner of Surrender Dorothy's, is accompanying winemaker Erica Crawford on a promotional tour for the new wine. Crawford says a comment from Street was the inspiration behind Pansy! Rose. She says Street asked one night at a dinner party why no-one made wine for gays. "We thought about it," she says, "and a few weeks later, Kim (Crawford) rang me and said, 'I've made something for the boys'. It just happened to be rose. The name - Pansy! - came to me a few days later. You know how sometimes the mind just drifts." Street has no commercial interest in the brand, and is purely in Australia as a friend of Crawford. He says the gay market is very brand loyal. "We tend to spend a lot of money on entertaining. There's support for wine brands that are good. You'll always buy them when you see them on wine lists, because you don't want to buy a bad wine."
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Saturday, 12th February 2005 - 12:00pm