Posts Tagged ‘media buzz’
Squished Witch Red Table Wine
The upcoming Halloween holiday brings to mind candy and costumes and ghosts and ghouls and witches. This year, witches and witchcraft have enjoyed an additional autumnal limelight after tapes surfaced of U.S. Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell (R-DE) claiming to have dabbled in witchcraft while in high school.
Squished Witch, from Oz Winery of Wamego, Kansas, looks set to capitalize on the shared whimsy of this year’s Halloween and political seasons. The winery describes Squished Witch as a “fruity, semi-sweet Ives Noir based red.” Like Squished Witch, most of the three-dozen wines in the Oz Winery stable boast some obvious connection to the classic film The Wizard of Oz, including I’ve Got You My Pretty, The Lion’s Courage, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Scarecrow, Flying Monkey, and I’m Melting Merlot.
The Squished Witch label is home to at least one interesting legal issue. If you were looking for the class/type description and/or alcohol content and weren’t having any luck, note the smallish cursive words “Red Table Wine” nestled in a fold in the land above the fanciful name. I missed them at first, second, and third glance. Oz also has Drunken Munchkin, and it’s rare to have a reference to intoxication on a wine label.
The Witch label reminds me that a friend used to describe the Wicked Witch of the West as a misunderstood woman who was just “mad because someone dropped a house on her sister.”
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Book, Movie, Wine (or, Eat, Pray, Love & Drink)
First it was a major book. Then “A Major Motion Picture.” Now, “Eat, Pray, Love” is an Italian wine coming to a store near you. If the wine sells, too, who knows what will be next. The Wii game? EPL analgesics? I also wonder to what extent the success of this franchise is due to the power of good design and font choices; this would just not be the same in Times New Roman.
These wines, referring to the Elizabeth Gilbert book, are imported by Chateau Diana of Healdsburg, California.
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Kombucha Buzz Draws TTB Scrutiny
Mention the words “kombucha” and “buzz” in 2006 and you’d likely be referring to the drink’s growing popularity. But mention those same words today and you’d likely be talking about allegations the fermented tea drink contains a small but legally significant amount of alcohol.
As a recent TTB statement illustrates, the Bureau is working with FDA to ensure that kombucha sold as a non-alcoholic beverage—currently all kombucha—contains less than 0.5% alcohol. Some reports claim kombucha contains up to 3% alcohol. From the TTB release:
Kombucha is a fermented tea that is typically marketed as a non-alcoholic beverage, which means that it may contain a trace amount of alcohol, as long as the overall alcohol content is less than 0.5 percent alcohol by volume. In some cases these products have alcohol contents that significantly exceed 0.5 percent. At this point, TTB does not know how many brands might be affected by this issue.
[...]
TTB plans to take samples of kombucha products from the marketplace and test their alcohol content in order to determine if the products are labeled in compliance with Federal law. If TTB finds alcohol beverages that are not labeled in accordance with Federal law, we will take appropriate steps to bring them into compliance.
TTB’s kombucha inquiry received some added exposure after Whole Foods pulled the drink from its shelves at the suggestion of TTB and amid news reports suggesting troubled actress Lindsay Lohan’s consumption of the drink may have been responsible for setting off her court-ordered alcohol-monitoring ankle bracelet. Lohan, for her part, recently began serving a 90-day jail sentence a judge imposed on the actress earlier this summer as punishment for skipping mandatory alcohol-education courses.
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legally interesting/controversial, media buzz, policy
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Alcohol Infused Whipped Cream
Whipahol must be doing well, because now along comes another “Alcohol Infused Whipped Cream.”
It apparently is packed in an aerosol can. The back label says “CREAM is completely shelf stable and DOES NOT need to be refrigerated even after use.” The qualifications suggest that TTB wanted to check out this claim. This is canned by Temperance Distilling Company in Temperance, Michigan. For other advances in things whipped, there is Pinnacle Whipped – Whipped Cream Flavored Vodka.
November 30, 2010 Update: here is a good CNBC clip on Whipahol, from yesterday. It is hard to believe that this light and frothy product can be portrayed as something sinister, and whipped up into the next “controversy in a can.”
December 8, 2010 Update: the whipped booze products get so very much attention (including our extensive on-air interview with CBS radio) that TTB issues a statement, to explain how such products are regulated.
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container, dairy, media buzz, non-liquid
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97 Ounces of … Obscenity(?)
It’s been a long time since any single wine label got as much press as the one above. We don’t want to rehash the Cycles Gladiator story yet one more time; it is well told here for example. Instead, we are curious about the lines dividing art, free speech and obscenity. TTB is regularly called upon to judge these matters. Today, it’s your turn to judge. Please take a peek (if you dare) and report your opinion in the poll below. A quick view of all four labels is here (this is the fastest and easiest view, for the poll).
Another view, showing the full label approval for each product, is below.
- A. Cycles Gladiator Red Wine
- B. Toogood Foreplay Red Wine
- C. Mendielle Vertu Merlot
- D. Naughty Nancy’s Nut Brown Ale
Go ahead and vote in the poll or comment or both.
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