famous

Holy smokes, change really is afoot at TTB. I was startled to see these wine labels recently, with various and sundry famous politicians emblazoned all upon them, and not in the most flattering light. I suppose there is some extra latitude for parody- or caricature-type speech, and there certainly is or ought to be latitude as to political speech. But often in the past, TTB has disallowed presidentially-oriented labels. Just two years ago, the line was drawn here, as to President Obama, and this one seemed to go too far.

The abstraction, in these caricatures, seems to help, as does the absence of the full names. The Horizon Cellars Winery, of Siler City, North Carolina has a large series of the labels depicted above. We already pointed to various labels with Former President George Bush and Sarah Palin in the past, so today we elected to highlight Former Vice President Dick Cheney, President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and Former President Bill Clinton.

But there are other reasons to revel in these labels. Any discussion of Joe Biden would be embarrassingly remiss without a fond recollection of that storied day when Joe Biden washed his Trans Am, in...

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The Seagram name still carries a lot of weight, even though the company got obliterated about ten years ago. Wiki says The Seagram Company Ltd. (headquartered in Montreal, Canada) became “defunct” in 2000. Until then it was “the world’s largest producer and distributor of spirits and wines.” The brands live on. TTB’s database shows more than 500 approvals, with the brand name “Seagram,” within the past three years. This excludes famous brands formerly owned by Seagram, such as Chivas, Crown Royal, Martell, Captain Morgan, etc. The City of Waterloo’s history makes the point that “like so many success stories,” Joseph E. Seagram’s early success was “almost accidental.” Joseph was asked to look after an Ontario grain mill, back in 1864, while the owner traveled to Europe. The main business was grinding flour. Distilling was a side issue, to use up excess grain, but Seagram began buying out his colleagues and shifting production from flour to spirits. The Bronfman family acquired Joseph E. Seagram & Sons in 1928. In another “almost accidental” quirk of history, “Bronfman” means “liquor man” in Yiddish. Here is a great song that happens to feature Seagram (in a not entirely flattering light). It is Uncle Lloyd by Darrell Scott. The pertinent lyrics explain:

He and Dad...

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The last post covered some of the most famous singers ever to appear on alcohol beverage labels. Today, we go off in search of the most famous songs to appear on such labels. Not the most famous songs about booze; that’s a big topic for another day. There are so many labels paying tribute to so many songs. I am sure the astute reader can find examples more famous than those above, but these three are mighty famous, and appear on this list of the greatest rock songs. Rosalita is red wine produced and bottled by Aspect Wines of San Francisco, California. It pays tribute to the Bruce Springsteen song. Hotel California is Tequila imported by Sipping Spirits of Glastonbury, Connecticut. It pays tribute to the Eagles song. It has no overt reference to Tequila but Henley, Frey and Felder apparently did not read CFR Title 27 carefully; they wantonly mingle wine and spirits, singing:

So I called up the captain, “Please bring me my wine” He said, “We haven’t had that spirit here since 1969”

And Margaritaville of course pays tribute to the famous Jimmy Buffett song. The song is pretty much drenched in Tequila and Buffett still owns the rights to this name.

http://www.metrolyrics.com/hotel-california-lyrics-the-eagles.html

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