Winebits 270: Maker's Mark, nutrition labels, cheap wine

• Bosses don’t know best: Maker’s Mark, the bourbon label owned by drinks giant Beam, announced it would water down its product so it could make more. A week later, the company’s chief operating officer apologized for having such a stupid idea and said that it would keep the alcohol level unchanged. Why does this matter to wine drinkers? Because big companies like Beam are more likely to do silly things like this, given how removed and insulated they are from their customers. Witness New Coke (which, amazingly, not enough companies seem to have learned from). As Big Wine continues its domination of the wine business, consumers will have to be wary of just such machinations – substituting inferior grapes, changing the wine’s formula, and the like.

• Are labels finally coming? The wine industry has largely been ambivalent about nutrition labels on wine, and the federal government has been in no hurry to do it, either. But an odd coalition of Big Spirits and several consumer groups is forcing the issue. Diageo, which has been granted permission to add a label to its Four Loko malt liquor, sees this as an opportunity to  add labels to its other booze products. Meanwhile, four consumer groups want the federal government to use the Four Loko decision to require “easy-to-read, standardized ‘Alcohol Facts’ " labels on all beer, wine and spirits. In the long run, these labels – similar to what’s on light beer – will be good for wine. The problem is that the industry can’t see past the short-term cost and aggravation of adding the labels.

• John Mariani on cheap wine: This is big news, given Mariani’s position in the Winstream Media. and that he doesn’t spend too much time writing about wine that most of us can afford to drink. But his last effort goes into great detail about $10 and $15 French wine, There are some nice wines listed, though availability may be a problem (like the Chateau Lamothe-Vincent). Maybe there is something to this cheap wine thing after all

 

Comments

[Ashley]

Do you think the Maker's Mark debacle was a publicity stunt? It occurred to me that they would never really water down the product, but they possibly just wanted to generate a conversation, which they did.

[Jeff Siegel]

No, Makers was serious. The mantra for business today is to cut costs, and what better way to cut costs then to water down the product. That's why we have 5 1/2 ounce cans of tuna these days, when they used to be 8.