One of our favorite themes is that alcohol beverages can be made from just about anything lying around the kitchen, and the TTB approvals tend to bear this out. Although the overwhelming majority of wines are made from all manner of grapes, a massive quantity of wine is also made from various types of citrus. Orange wines are common. Above is a grapefruit wine vinted and bottled by Revolution Wines of Sacramento, CA. A second example is Bullfrog Lemon Table Wine, produced and bottled by Jules J. Berta Vineyards of Albertville, AL. These wines do not bear a vintage date and TTB does not allow vintage dates on other than grape wines.
Ale to the Chief, Inaugural Brew
Avery Brewing is more than ready for the new president. Way back in March, this Boulder, Colorado brewer got approval for Ale to the Chief!, a Presidential Ale. Blast Magazine says it’s selling well, and in 32 states. The script on the label says:
Ale to the Chief!
A Presidential Pale Ale to celebrate
Inauguration Day, January 20, 2009
We the Brewers of Avery Brewing Company, in order to form a more perfect ale, require new leadership that can liberate us from our quagmires in foreign lands; embrace environmentally sound energy alternatives to imported oil; heal our ailing health care system; free us from tyrannical debt and resurrect the collapsing dollar.
We hereby pledge to provide him or her with an ample amount of our Presidential Pale Ale to support in the struggle for the aforementioned goals!
Hail to the New Chief!
A brew worthy of the Oval Office!
Miller Brewing Comment; Top 5 Things to Know
It is likely that all beer, wine and spirits labels will change dramatically in the near future. TTB has been working on new rules since CSPI and other groups submitted a petition in 2003. The new rules would require a “Serving Facts” panel on every container. This panel would include a lot more information, such as the typical serving size, number of servings per container, calories, carbohydrates, protein and fat. Because this is a big, controversial change, TTB has received more than 18,000 public comments during the past few years. There are far too many comments for most people to review, and so we will highlight and summarize the most noteworthy comments here. The most recent proposal and comments are here. This is comment 2 in a series; to see others, click on the “serving facts” tag below.
- Miller supports the initiative as “appropriate and timely.” This is a not-so-common instance where the big alcohol beverage companies, the anti-alcohol groups, and the government are on the same side.
- TTB should allow the information to be shown in a smaller, linear format, rather than the larger, panel format. It will cost Miller about 14 times more (as much as $39 million) to show the information in the panel format. “The dramatically higher … deployment costs for the panel display are primarily the result of higher design … costs required to begin using the display panel, particularly on bottles of beer which would require additional label space that does not currently exist on millions of bottles.”
- TTB should not allow alcohol content to be presented by way of ounces of pure alcohol and should not allow any format other than percentage alcohol by volume.
- On many containers, such as kegs, the panel format will not fit. TTB should exempt kegs, or at least allow the linear format. TTB has successfully used the linear format, on light beer, for more than 30 years.
- TTB should resist any temptation to make alcohol beverage labels look like FDA food labels, because the products, purposes and effects differ greatly.
Is Miller right?
The World's First Chardonnay Flavored Vodka
Here is dué. It claims to be “The World’s First Chardonnay Flavored Vodka.” It is made in Italy and imported by Francoli of California. Francoli also has a Merlot Flavored Vodka. Emily Haile found this approval from way back in 2001 and brought it to our attention.
The dué grape flavored vodkas are not to be confused with Ciroc. The latter is distilled directly from “Fine French Grapes,” as opposed to adding grape flavor to a grain vodka.
Lipstick on a Pi……..not Grigio
Remember when Nixon said “You won’t have Nixon to kick around any more”? Well, we bet Plata Wine Partners is bummed that Sarah Palin is not around at the moment. They jumped on the news and came out with half a dozen “Lipstick on a Pig” labels in September of 2008. They were so enthused about the prospects here, that they claimed trademark rights to this name. Plata certainly moved quickly; President-Elect Obama referred to lipstick on a pig (without pointing to or naming any person) on September 9, 2008, and Plata filed with TTB nine days later. Governor Sarah Palin may have opened the door to some of this ridicule with her famous or infamous joke about hockey moms and lipstick. But we hasten to note that Plata’s actual label does not make any direct visual or textual reference to Palin, and we further note that she looks better in lipstick than we do. The label does say: “The origin of ‘Lipstick on a Pig’ is a mystery. But it has captivated the public’s attention like few other phrases in recent history.”
Sex in a Bottle
A great many brands hint at it, but Frank-Lin has gone right to the heart of the matter, launching Sex in a Bottle. The Hula Girl is very direct and to the point, especially compared to something like Tease brand wine.
Frank-Lin has about 11 variations of this distilled spirits specialty, approved over the past year. Sex in a Bottle (above) is “luscious peach” flavor, made with grain neutral spirits, rum and flavors. Bikini Bling has a pina colada-type flavor.
