· Writer sues retailer: This does warm the cockles of the Wine Curmudgeon's heart. British wine writer Martin Isark has sued retailer Majestic Wine for some £50,000 (about US$83,000) for using a wine blurb Isark had written without his permission. In 2001, Isark had called the 2000 vintage of a French wine an "incredible value." The Majestic chain used that blurb to describe the 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 vintages, which Isark said he never tasted.
· New Zealand producer touts plastic: Yealands Estate winemaker Peter Yealands has is about to release a sauvignon blanc vintage in plastic bottles. "It's not for everyone," he said. "But younger generations will get into it." Yealands touts plastic's environmental credentials, and notes that Coca-Cola when from glass to plastic without suffering in sales. And, yes, the bottles will have a sell-by date, just like Coke.
· Drink what you want, and not what you're told, for Thanksgiving: Or so says the influential San Francisco Chronicle wine writer, Jon Bonne': " My advice, then? Don't worry. Drink what you like. No one's going to put you in wine jail. It's going to be OK." When someone like Bonne write that, with all that it implies -- WHITE ZINFANDEL IS ACCEPTABLE! -- then maybe we have turned a very important corner in how Americans, and the Winestream Media, approach wine.
