| Low-carb beer success inspires wine companies Wine company Brown-Forman has released their latest vintage: low-carb. The company is now distributing One.6 Chardonnay and One.9 Merlot, brands named for the grams of carbs per five ounce serving. In the first week of availability over 125,000 cases were sold to retailers. A wine is considered a hit if it sells just 400,000 cases in the first year. The wine retails at $9.99 a bottle. The major factor in deciding to launch the brands was the huge success of low-car beers, led by Anheuser-Busch's Michelob Ultra. The wines have an alcohol content of 14.5% and will be backed by a $5 million ad campaign built on the idea that the only thing missing from the wine is the carbs. The campaign's slogan is: "Life is full of compromises. This isn't one of them." To achieve low-carb status special varietals are chosen and then, according to winemaker Cara Morrison, they are fermented as dry as possible to cut the sugar. ----------------- |
Feature News from beernexus.com
| Lawsuits target beer and alcohol advertising Lawsuits have recently been filed by consumer rights attorneys in 6 states accusing Coors, Heineken, and Bacardi of using a "long running, sophisticated and deceptive scheme ... to market alcoholic beverages to children and other underage consumers." Additional lawsuits were filed that targeted Miller and Anheuser-Busch. Those suits charged that the companies intentionally place ads in magazines that appeal to males and females under 21 which push them to obtain alcohol illegally. The lawsuits are modeled after cases that were brought against the tobacco industry beginning in the mid-1980's. Those suits also focused on youth oriented ads and sought huge damages for tens of thousands of underage smokers and their parents. The Journal of the American Medical Asociation estimates that underage drinkers in American consumed over $22 billion worth of alcohol (20% of the market) in 2003. The alcohol companies point to a study conducted by the Federal Trade Commission last year that there is no provable link between alcohol ads and underage drinking. The ads, the companies say, are commercial free speech protected by the First Amendment. Also, the companies say they have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to encourage parents to talk to children about drinking and to train retailers to recognize underage customers. Miller spokesman Mike Hennick commented that "Lawsuits like these obfuscate the real underlying issues of how teens get alcohol - through parents, friends or by using fake IDs." ------------------------------------- |
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