Tag Archives: wine etiquette

Winebits 754: “Healthy” wine, wine etiquette, Coke and booze

Man and woman sitting at table
“$36? I guess I can pay for half of it.”

This week’s wine news: More non-alcoholic wine “health benefits,” plus wine etiquette, and Coke inches into alcohol

• Just 110 calories! The Wine Curmudgeon, ever vigilant about health claims made by non-alcoholic wine, found another in his inbox recently. The product heralded its calorie count – just 110 for one serving. And a bottle only costs $30. How could we turn that down? Easily, of course, since one serving of wine only has 125 calories. And, because, there is no ingredient information on the product’s website, we don’t know how many of those calories are added sugars. As always, the devil is in the details.

• Splitting the check? This young people and wine thing is much more complicated than even the WC suspects; no wonder the wine business is so baffled. A woman asked a web financial guru how to split a check when her date had two glasses of wine (chardonnay and cabernet) and she didn’t have any wine because she doesn’t drink during the week. Yes, my sarcasm is intended, and aimed at the guy; how cheap can he be? But the question also illuminates the challenges wine faces in attracting younger people – increased abstention and the high cost (two glasses for $36!) among many others. Because, of course, not all of us are aging Baby Boomers eating at steak houses who drop a couple of hundred dollars for wine without a second thought.

• Coke and booze: Coca-Cola is inching into the alcohol business in the U.S., an effort that one top executive calls an “interesting experiment.” It has three products – a hard version of the Topo Chico water; a hard lemonade knockoff, and my favorite, canned cocktails under the Fresca brand. Fresca, for those of us of a certain age, still elicits giggles. The story is fascinating reading, given the company knows so little about selling alcohol. But, as the official notes, if there is a demand for it, why not?

Photo: Matt W Newman on Unsplash

Winebits 384: Odd grapes, wine glasses, wine lawsuit

wine lawsuit ? Only seven percent: Regular visitors here know the Wine Curmudgeon’s passion for odd grapes, and it’s good to know that I’m not the only one. By one estimate, eight grapes account for 93 percent of the annual harvest in California — chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon, zinfandel, merlot, pinot noir, syrah, sauvignon blanc, and cabernet franc. A group of winemakers, reports Marcy Gordon at Come for the Wine, wants to focus on the other seven percent, and is holding a couple of tastings this week to show off those grapes. This is most welcome news for those of us who care about diversity and variety in wine, as well as style and taste. That someone who makes wine isn’t intimidated by chenin blanc is some of the best news that wine drinkers can have.

? The right way: Sommelier Stephanie Miskew writes about how to hold a wine glass correctly, which always makes me smile It’s about the only thing in wine that I’m a snob about; I can’t stand to see a wine glass held by the bowl, and when I see it in TV shows and movies I want to throw something at the screen. Miskew’s piece hits all the highlights, and it also gives me a chance to link to this: Wine Curmudgeon video, in which I demonstrate how to hold a wine glass.

? Calling all lawyers: Wine’s legal experts are at it again, with a Champagne house suing a top California producer over the name of a wine. Lew Perdue at Wine Industry Insight has all of the wonderfully silly details about this wine lawsuit, including that the side are fighting over the name “Delice.” Imagine all of the time and money being spent on what seems to be a very ordinary, if not lousy, name for a wine. At least the Cristalino lawsuit was over a name that mattered.