Did you ever wonder what Spanky (aka George McFarland) would drink? Neither did we, until we saw this rash of wines devoted to and inspired by spanking. It’s tough to beat Smack My Ass & call me Sally. It is red wine bottled by Clos La Chance of San Martin, California. The whole world wide web is insufficient to the task of explaining this term’s origin; the trail stops here. (Speaking of which, the small image at upper right is courtesy of All Things Spanking, and nobody should be surprised there is a site devoted entirely to “eclectic adult spanking.”) Spank Me Pink is red wine with no appellation, produced by Lac Belle Amie of Elizabethtown, North Carolina. The Sisters patiently explain “when she’s good she’s bad, and when she’s bad she’s even better.” Refusing to be left out of the action, Tyranena Brewing slaps a Spank Me Baby! sticker on its barleywine ale labels. In a stunning coincidence, we learn that long after Our Gang wrapped up in the 1940s, Spanky spent his later years selling — wine.
Continue Reading Leave a CommentWattle and Myrtle Beers
Barons Black Wattle is Australian Ale Brewed with Wattle Seed. The attractive graphics caught my eye at the beer store. And so, like Vic Cherikoff, I wanted to know: So What The Bloody Hell Is Wattleseed? It turns out that Cherikoff may well be the world’s foremost expert on this seed, and “world trends in Wattleseed use.” He explains:
For over 6000 years, Australian Aborigines in different clans around the country, parched and milled wattle seeds from around 100 of the 900 plus species of Acacia, then used the coarse flour in baked seed cakes. … Wattleseed is a great inclusion in anyone’s diet. It has an unusually low glycaemic index which means that the carbohydrates in it are slowly absorbed and therefore better for you than sugary, quick release alternatives.
Wikipedia explains that “Wattleseed is a term used to describe the edible seeds from around 120 species of Australian Acacia that were traditionally used as food by Australian Aborigines and they were eaten either green (and cooked) or dried (and milled to a flour) to make a type of bush bread.” The same brewer uses another little-known ingredient in its Witbier. Barons adds lemon myrtle leaves along with the more common coriander seeds. Lemon myrtle is:
Continue Reading Leave a Commenta flowering plant native to...
Tags: ingredients
Orgasmic Wines
It took a while, but one of us finally found a wine that hits the spot. It is G Spot wine. Turns out it’s been lurking in the Barossa Valley all this time. It is grenache wine imported by Joshua Tree Imports of Duarte, California. Over in Washington’s Columbia Valley, the Naked Winery takes it one step further.
Continue Reading Leave a CommentDisney Wines
Twenty years ago, wine was wine and Disney was Disney and there didn’t seem to be much overlap. Things change a lot. Now Disney is on wine labels, grown at Disney vineyard, and sold at Disney parks. Winesooth brought this to our attention in the form of the Ratatouille Chardonnay. It has the little cartoon rat on the front label, along with a reference to Disney and Pixar. Back in 2007, Dow Jones said:
Next up: Disney is launching a wine label via Issaquah, Wash.-based Costco Wholesale Corp. that is based on its upcoming animated film “Ratatouille,” the tale of a rat who wants to become a French chef. The chardonnay, from the Burgundy region in France and bearing the Ratatouille name and likeness, will sell for $12.99.
Five weeks later, Bizzia reported:
Continue Reading Leave a CommentThey’ve come to their senses and plan to back out of the wine market before their wine ever hits store shelves. Disney, with the help of Costco … , planned to market a wine named after their latest animated film, Ratatouille, with a label featuring the film’s main character, Remy the rat. In my post earlier this month, I questioned why the number one family and children’s brand would even consider slapping their brand name and character’s image on an...
Tags: business strategy, famous
Timberlake Tequila
The parade of celebrity beverage purveyors continues. This time it’s Justin Timberlake, with a Tequila called 901. TTB approved it in early 2009. The Examiner explains:
This past winter Justin Timberlake was “spied” wandering the Mexican state of Jalisco scoping out tequilas. We soon learned he was launching a label called 901 (as in both the area code of JT’s home state and the evening hour when the Par-taaayyy gets rolling…well, in other parts of the country anyway).
DIAB is the importer, based in St. Louis, Missouri. TTB records show exactly zero other approvals for DIAB, run by Kevin Ruder.
Ruder spent 12 years with Anheuser Busch, overseeing that company’s initial forays into spirits as well as the company’s “entertainment sponsorships and celebrity relationships,” according to the press profile. A couple of years ago, Ruder founded Diab … and spent two years developing 901 with Timberlake. They visited 10 distilleries in the Mexican state of Jalisco before striking a deal with Tequilera Newton.
A similarly famous singer was a few years earlier. In about 2007 Madonna launched a Michigan wine with her father.
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