This Week In Wine–10/16/11
October 16, 2011
San Francisco Restaurants Demand Standard 25% Tip.
It’s a question regularly asked by baffled diners all over the world: ‘How much should I tip’?
Many countries have wide variations for a standard tip, often leaving even the most experienced of travellers confused.
However, restaurant workers in San Francisco, California, may be about to help by implementing a standard tip onto the bill. The only problem is that – whether your service is good or bad – it would be a whopping 25 per cent.
The Contra Costa Times newspaper claims the proposals already have support from some high-class restaurants. The plans for a standard tip in San Francisco, however, have not gone down well with those living nearby.
Click here for the full article.
My Thoughts
I don’t know if that’s the right way to go about it; although I’ve always had the opinion (at least since I moved to the U.S.), that if you can’t afford to tip 20%, you probably shouldn’t be going out to eat!
I think a much better way to make people appreciate the job that waiters and waitresses do, is for the Government to make it mandatory for everyone to have to work in a restaurant for between 3-6 months when they are younger. Kind of like military service. I GUARANTEE you they will come out of it being much better people! Just a thought…
French Appeal Court Upholds Sentences in Red Bicyclette Fake Pinot Scam
The French Appeal Court in Montpellier has upheld the sentences handed down by a court in Carcassonne in February 2010 in the fake Pinot Noir scam. However, the Appeal Court made considerable changes to their sentences.
The scam ran from January 2006 to March 2008. Some 18.5 million bottles of fake Pinot Noir were sold to E&J Gallo and Constellation Wine netting a profit of 7million€ for the fraudsters. A mix of grape varieties, mainly Merlot and Syrah, were passed off as Pinot Noir.
Click here for the full article.
My Thoughts
The thing that I like most about the whole “Red Bicyclette scandal”, is the whole time it was going on, and they were flooding the market with “fake Pinot Noir”, they never once received any complaints! The other thing I have a hard time understanding is how Californian winemakers can get away with using the minimum allowed quantity of 75% Pinot Noir (this in order for it to still be called Pinot); as well as using a bunch of different tactics to deceive people regarding the wine they are drinking, but yet they can get away with it! CRAZINESS!!!
Dave Matthews Launch the Dreaming Tree Wines
Constellation Wines US, in partnership with Sonoma County winemaker Steve Reeder and musician Dave Matthews, has launched The Dreaming Tree wines, a new series of wines founded and harvested in California’s wine country.
Reeder said with The Dreaming Tree wines, they have combined the worlds of wine and music and have created something that they personally enjoy, and enjoy sharing with friends.
Click here for the full article.
My Thoughts
I was actually very impressed with Dave Matthews’ Blenheim Vineyards in Virginia, so I hope this wine can live up-to that same standard.
Bloody Good Wine, but Apparently the Chard is Crappy…
In general, a shopper will come across the vino shelf displaying labels that strive to assert the quality of the beverages within. Bloody Good Wine packaging begs to differ. This project presents one of those rare occasions when an item is made to look unappealing in order to appeal to a specific fringe demographic.
Students Chase Farthing and Cameron Sandage took up the task of marketing the sophisticated fermented grape drink to college boys, typically uninterested in stemware as party accessories. Merlot, chardonnay, pinot gris and zinfandel were all hence relocated to beer bottles with hybrid cork-cap tops and fit for single servings. To further dispel the stigma that vino is stuffy, Bloody Good Wine packaging was branded with bold text-only labels that mark the concoctions as “cr@ppy,” “sh!tty” and “b?tching.”
Click here for the full article.
My Thoughts
Weird. In all truth, I’m not too sure why I even took the time to post this story.
In essence; 2 students thought it would be hip to put profane language on wine packaging, and badly design the label. All of this in an effort to reach out to the “new” wine drinkers. This is just another bad example of what people think Millennial’s are looking for in a wine package. Sh!tty and Cr@ppy packaging? Yes. B?tching? No.
