Have a glass of wine, literally

By Jack Heeger

The latest in unusual wine packaging comes from Francis Ford Coppola, who has introduced his Rosso and Bianco wines in reusable plastic bistro-style glasses sealed with a peel-off foil top.

They’re available with cabernet sauvignon and pinot grigio, and are being sold at Giants’ AT&T Park, where, it’s said, they are outselling screwcapped wines and wines poured by the glass. According to portfolio.com, they’re priced at $4.

They’re scheduled for nationwide release in 2008.

(If the glass is reusable, do you get a discount on a refill if you bring the glass back?)

India reduces wine tariff

India apparently has backed down in its dispute over tariffs on wine. Previously, India announced it was going to charge 550 percent additional duty on wine (yes, that’s right — 550 percent), and the European Union and the U.S. appealed the action to the World Trade Organization.

India later said it would scrap the duties, but would still raise the basic duty on imported wine from 100 percent to 150 percent, an amount that is allowable under WTO rules. In contrast, the U. S. and EU allow nearly all alcoholic beverages to enter duty-free.

As a result of India’s action, the EU said it is dropping its case, but the U.S. said it wanted to continue the investigation. A representative said India’s action was a positive step but said the case would continue until “the concerns raised in the issue are resolved.”

(Might the concerns involve proper pairing of wine with curry?)

Nutritional labeling

The U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) has proposed a new rule that would require labels on all alcoholic beverages to include alcohol content, serving sizes and nutritional labeling. The label also will have to show servings per container, calories, carbohydrates, fat and protein per serving.

Comments will be received on the ruling through Oct. 29, and if TTB makes it official, the rule would become mandatory in three years.

Wine already is required to put alcohol content on the label. But under the proposal, a serving size with under 14 percent is 5 ounces, while the serving size of wines over that amount will be 2.5 ounces.

(Looks like more ammunition for the move to lower alcohol in wine.)

Closure preferences

An item on publicbroadcasting.net told of Oregon State University researchers who conducted a study about how people felt about the stoppers in wine.

The survey found consumers didn’t like synthetic closures or screw caps, but when the subjects were given the wines in a blind tasting, they couldn’t tell the difference between a cork, synthetic or screwcap. “So it’s a perceptual thing,” the article said.

Apparently the person who wrote the story wasn’t wine savvy, or at least unaware of nuances of wine language. The headline read, “Screwcap wine tastes like corked wine, study shows.”

(Perhaps the writer had never had a “corked” wine.)

Bogus argument

One of the primary arguments wine wholesalers have given in battling direct shipping of wine to consumers is that underage consumers can order wine online.

According to ajc.com, a newsletter, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a publication of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, published a survey which indicated that liquor was the alcoholic beverage of choice by more than 40 percent of the teenagers surveyed, followed by beer. The state-by-state survey showed wine was in last place by a large margin — the choice of 1.6 percent in Arkansas and Wyoming at the low end to a high of only 3.1 percent in New Mexico.

(That sure blows a hole in their argument.)

   

Brits go to plastic

Sainsbury, a British supermarket chain, will sell wine in recyclable plastic bottles as part of a test program.

According to telegraph.co.uk, the wine will be imported from New Zealand and Australia in bulk and bottled in the UK. A standard 750ml bottle weighs about 14 ounces, while a plastic bottle weighs only 2 ounces.

A government organization said the change could reduce carbon emissions by nearly 100,000 tons. The Brits buy about 1 billion bottles of wine annually.

The Web site said not only are the bottles more ecologically friendly, they also “will bounce, rather than smash, if dropped on the floor.”

(Maybe the company hopes sales will bounce back, too.)

Quote of the week

“I only drink champagne when I’m happy, and when I’m sad. Sometimes I drink it when I’m alone. When I have company, I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I am not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise I never touch it — unless I’m thirsty.” — Lily Bollinger

Jack Heeger can be reached at jheeger@napanews.com

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