Unfiltered

Barry Manilow's new wine, more on the foie gras fight, a press release about nothing (shocking!), the ultimate Napa birthday bash and the Côtes de Bourg appellation goes canine

Posted: April 4, 2007

• "I Write the Songs," and now I make the wine. OK, so he doesn't write all the songs and he doesn't actually make the wines, but Barry Manilow, musician, performer, composer and producer, has turned wine merchant. Fans of the Brooklyn native can now go online and buy bottles of Manilow vino for between $20 and $25 each (about the price of a concert ticket … in 1973). The choices are a 2003 Napa Valley Chardonnay and Merlot (produced at Flora Springs), a Zinfandel from the Sierra Foothills (made at Macchia in Lodi), and a California Cabernet Sauvignon and 2004 Central Coast Pinot Grigio (produced at White Crane in Livermore). Unfortunately, there isn't a "Mandy Brandy." The crooner isn't yet offering wineglasses to his "Fanilows," either, who will have to settle for drinking the wine out of the Barry Manilow "on the rocks" tumblers or the coffee mugs also offered on the singer's website. While a Barry Manilow brand of wine may seem odd, it's not completely unheard of for veterans of the music industry to begin slapping their names on wine labels. But it helps to know what's inside the bottle. Just last year, celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay tricked Sir Cliff Richard into criticizing his own wines. Know thy wines, Manilow.

• In the ongoing fight between the animal-rights lobby and foie gras producers, the rule of thumb seems to be "fight hyperbole with hyperbole." In light of chef Wolfgang Puck's recent decision to remove foie gras from all of his menus, Ariane Daguin, owner of specialty foods purveyor D'Artagnan, has issued a call to action. The widely distributed missive starts out by claiming, "The animal rights terrorists are claiming another victory in the battle for our dinner plate," and asks readers to "stand with us and declare that we will not allow the animal rights agenda to dictate our diet." Suggested points of action include thanking the managers of grocery stores that stock the delicacy and asking for foie gras if it doesn't appear on the menus of your favorite restaurants. In response, Paul Shapiro, the factory farming campaign manager for the Humane Society of the United States, says, "Foie gras is not a meat-eater versus vegetarian issue … last year, the Supreme Court of Israel ruled that foie gras violates its existing laws against animal torture. Arnold Schwarzenegger has banned force-feeding in California … even the Pope and Pat Buchanan have spoken out against foie gras … if you can get the Pope, the Israeli Supreme Court and Arnold Schwarzenegger all to agree on something, you know there's got to be some merit to it."

Maybe the next Ann Colgin press release will come from an "undisclosed location."

• Unfiltered has seen its share of curious press releases, but a recent blurb from Colgin Cellars took us around the bend. The high-profile Napa producer announced last week that it has "implemented leading anticounterfeit technology from Kodak." However, citing the restrictions of a confidentiality agreement, none of the parties concerned--owner Ann Colgin, her PR firm and a representative from Eastman Kodak--would say much of anything about the technology: not what it is, not when they started using it, not even if other unnamed wineries have adopted it. Nada. In addition to apologizing for being so uninformative, Colgin did say that suspect bottles can now be authenticated with a device she has at her St. Helena winery. Well, we certainly understand that there's been an increase in wine fraud, and we applaud any effort to assuage consumer concerns. But please, no more press releases telling us about something you can't tell us about.

• What do you get the wine-and-food gourmand that has ... everything? If you've got $60,000 burning a hole in your pocket, you can check out Cliff Lede Vineyards' and Poetry Inn's "Ultimate Birthday Bash." It's a weekend for five couples that includes three private nights at Poetry Inn in Napa Valley's Stags Leap District, and a birthday dinner cooked at the inn by chef Thomas Keller and his French Laundry staff, paired with Cliff Lede wines. The idea came to winery and inn proprietor Cliff Lede, who recently celebrated his own 50th birthday and wondered what his ultimate, luxury celebration would be. There aren't any takers for the package yet, but once you get over the sticker shock, the price is not that unreasonable if you think about it. Even getting a reservation at the French Laundry is a feat, and Poetry Inn is one of the swankiest--and most expensive--places to stay in Napa. And for 60 grand, who knows? Maybe chef Keller will throw in some birthday spankings.

Don't I look thrilled to be the Côtes de Bourg mascot?

• It seems that winegrowers in the Côtes de Bourg appellation of Bordeaux have decided to take the saying, "Every dog has its day," a bit literally. The producers have adopted a debonair-looking beagle dubbed Bob de Bourg as their new ambassador. Bob kicked off 2007 with the launch of a calendar featuring 12 black-and-white glossy close-ups of several winegrowers and their real-life best friends, confirming that people--well, French vintners, anyway--really do look like their pets. It's hard to say if consumers will have any connection with Bob, but this is definitely a step in the right direction toward making French wine more consumer-friendly. It's sure better than the nude calendar rolled out a couple years ago.