Comes time to belabor the point. Syd Abrams, now 84 and feisty as ever, calls it nothing short of scandalous. A former legislative director for the California Wine Institute, Abrams complained four years ago that one winery in particular, Franzia, was inaccurately (and illegally) labelling its boxed wine product as "Table Wine with Natural Flavorings" rather than "Flavored Wine Product." If it's table wine, it's wine. If it's just a flavored product (water, industrial alcohol, artificial flavorings), then it's not wine.
And if it's not wine, then it's illegal to sell it as "wine," right?
Now, it's a reasonably safe bet than not many readers of this blog are purchasers of the product in question, though it does make one wonder why the Liquor Board's investigator would have resigned before the issue was heard (without minutes) and why Attorney General's office would have sent a neophyte to argue on behalf of consumer protections.
Hearing aid be damned, Abrams, courtly and patient, is still waiting for a satisfactory answer.
Meantime, a reminder (for wine drinkers, restaurant goers and "bargain hunters" everywhere): driving down prices does no one any good, least of all the wine growers and restaurant owners. But it also means that consumers get crappier and crappier wine, worse and worse food. When times get better and you think you can afford to drink "better" wines or eat in "better" restaurants, there won't be any left.
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