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Home > Blogs > Uncorked > Archives > 2006 > November > 09 > Entry
Online wine retailer discovers that wine and politics are a volatile mix
What do you get when you mix politics and wine during Election Week? Trouble, that’s what.
An online wine retailer that calls itself Wine.Woot.com — a sort of Odd Lots of wine that sells a single bargain-priced wine each week — chose this week to offer a 2003 Sierra Club Chardonnay, four bottles for $40.
But here’s the sticky part for some Wine.Woot customers: A portion of the sale of this particular wine goes to benefit the Sierra Club. And some customers of the Texas-based online retailer took, shall we say, umbrage with that.
Here’s how Wine.Woot promoted its offering under the headline “Have You Hugged A Tree Today?”:
Saving the world isn’t as easy as it looks – but that’s all the more reason to avail oneself of the finer things in life. After a hard day testing water quality, raising awareness of global warming, and protecting America’s wilderness, the civilized eco-warrior relaxes with a few sustainable sips of Sierra Club Chardonnay.
The offer triggered more than 160 comments — and they weren’t debating (as I might have) whether an ‘03 Mendocino chard benefits from three years of aging. Here’s one response from a customer:
You have GOT to be kidding. the Sierra Club has a reputation as one of the more sinister and hostile wacko environmental fringe ‘clubs’ out there. There is no way in hell I will contribute to these people, they have done more to damage the ecosystem in pursuit of their ill-formed fringe positions than you could ever imagine. Do your homework before sending any money their way. I will drink water this week, thank you.
Which in turn prompted this reply from a second customer:
Rush? Rush Limbaugh? Is that you? Maybe woot should have split this week’s offering amongst the red and blue states.
And then there was this, which I think is amusing no matter what your red-blue tendencies:
Poor grapes, crushed and abused, then left to ferment. I’m appalled the Sierra Club would stand for this.
And the flame war was on. Ahh, politics and wine — an incendiary mix, at least during Election Week.
And here you and I thought wine was a uniter, not a divider.
Cheers!
Mark Fisher
Comments
By cathy
November 9, 2006 6:05 PM | Link to this
Some of the comments over on wine.woot are Too Funny. I cracked up at the baby seals quips. Laughter is good for blood pressure; my doctor thanks you for lowering mine.By Nick Troilo
November 9, 2006 1:08 PM | Link to this
If you think that’s bad try this note published by Thrillist.com THRILLIST Nation Wednesday Nov 8, 2006 Fill Your Glass With Ditka $12 -$50 Available next week at MendocinoWine.com and Costco.com If you’re still skeptical about drinking wine for fear of seeming like a dude who’s in an intramural croquet league, there’s a new winemaker in town. This week, Mike Ditka Wines charge into the hearts of mustachioed oenophiles everywhere. From his years of owning successful Chicago steakhouses, the former Bears coach has apparently gained an enormous appreciation for wine, and has thus decided to branch his merchandising in this direction (as opposed to engineering a genetically superior DitCow). To realize his grapey vision, he last year partnered with California’s Mendocino Wine Company to formulate five different blends: a cabernet, chardonnay, merlot, pinot grigio, and “Mike Ditka Kick A*s Red” — a mixture of zinfandel-syrah and petite sirah so robust, you’d be right to mistake it for blood from Ditka’s own carotid artery. Like all MCW vintages, these are organically farmed, so you can be assured Mike Ditka Wines will be of the highest quality and won’t contain grapes that were fermented in the pestilent boxer shorts of troglodytic Bears fans. The wines just rampaged into Chi-town stores at prices ranging from $11.99 for the chardonnay, to $49.99 for the Big A*s’r. Next week they’ll become available at Costco and other wine merchants nationwide. Purists may balk at a wine created by a burly, anger-prone former football coach, but they’ll soon know the score — Ditka: 10 gazillion; All Other Wines: 0.By TJ
November 9, 2006 12:37 PM | Link to this
Wine-O if they were extra saavy marketing types-they would have done what you suggested but it would be the same wine! ;)By wine-o
November 9, 2006 10:00 AM | Link to this
I for one think it is a fantastic idea! The problem is that the retailer did not balance the red with the blue. Maybe Woot should have thrown in a “Faith-based initiatives Falanghina,” or a “Wire-tapping white.” That way everyone goes home happy- it will be one of the few times in politics that everyone does go home happy.By Mark
November 9, 2006 9:33 AM | Link to this
Ann: How could you even THINK such a thing? A wine retailer, manipulating the media for personal gain? Preposterous!By Ann
November 9, 2006 8:19 AM | Link to this
Ahh…but how were the wine sales? Up? Down? It attracted attention right?