Wine 2.0 comes to late night tv

Set your Tivos: Gary Vaynerchuk, unintentional spokesman for the Wine 2.0 movement, will be on Late Night with Conan O’Brien Wednesday evening (or Thursday morning, depending on your perspective). Around here, Conan airs on NBC at 12:37 am.

For those of you unfamiliar, Gary has taken the wine world by storm with his video blog over at Wine Library TV. His unpretentious, over-the-top video reviews are friendly, funny, and unique. He’s become something of a legend in Wine 2.0 circles, which includes blogs. He took his family’s wine store in New Jersey and made it approachable and fun. He started the Wine Library TV phenomenon. He formed a company and purchased Cork’d. Gary is on a roll. As Dr. Debs put it, there is probably a Food Network contract in his future.

Ratatouille Wine a Goner

Not long ago I posted about Disney’s Ratatouille wine  – a French chardonnay that was coming to Costco. I was pretty excited. What I didn’t realize is that the marketing folks behind the actual label were unfamiliar with basic laws. Let’s call it the Joe Camel Effect. You don’t put cartoon characters on the label.
Guess what? They put Remy the Rat on the label and people began to complain. Needless to say, Disney pulled the wine.
Oh well!

A Nutty Undercurrent

Some humor for your day, from Red & Rover.

Disney Ratatouille Wine from Costco

I am a Disney freak. I admit this with little to no shame. I love all things Disney. Released this Friday, the movie Ratatouille is my perfect film. It’s animated, it will have enough humor geared to adults, and it’s about food & wine. Well, it’s also about a talking rat who wants to be a chef. Once you get past the rat part (a rat – couldn’t they have picked something else?), it’s a fun concept.

So when I read that Disney is releasing a wine with a Ratatouille label through Costco, I got pretty excited. Heck, I might even join Costco to get this. (Not that there’s a Costco overly close by …) I don’t know what label they are re-branding, if any, but the wine will be from the Burgundy region and retail for $12.99.

I Must Have It.

I want two bottles. One to drink and a spare in case I screw up the label remover on the first one.

July 13 Update: Oops! Disney decided to pull the wine.

Paris: One Night in Bordeaux (Phew! It’s a joke!)

I refuse to believe this little tidbit is real. It’s got to be an April Fool’s joke, right? My brain refuses to process it. But if it is …

Why oh why? Oh Bordeaux.

According to decanter.com, Paris Hilton is set to be the new face of Bordeaux. Of all people. She has signed on to promote a summer ad campaign in the US and Europe. The tagline? Paris: One night in Bordeaux. The campaign will be launched in June at VinExpo, with Paris arriving in a golden hot air balloon.
I can’t see how her face will help Bordeaux in any way. I can’t even understand why they chose her as opposed to someone with some class. A girl who is flirting with 90 days in jail due to driving with a suspended license. A license that was suspended because of driving under the influence. A girl who is more known for her sexual acts than her acting.

Why is this the new face of Bordeaux? Ugh. I’m going to cross my fingers that this is an April Fool’s joke. And if it is, well, cheers to Decanter for having a sense of humor!

UPDATE, 4/2/07: It’s an April Fool’s Day hoax, thank goodness. Admittedly, I’m insanely gullible and fell for all sorts of things yesterday. (Truly, I dread April 1 every year.) However, it’s entirely possible that the Paris Hilton thing could have been true. People hire her as a spokesperson all the time, for reasons I can’t figure out. That’s where we are today in marketing – bad "celebrity" endorsements. Come on, you almost believed it too, right? Do you know the only thing (other than the date) that made me raise my eyebrows? That she was landing in a golden balloon. That’s the only thing that seemed a little "off" for me.