[wine] Zinfandel at Oddfellows

Greetings, Our plan B for this week is Zinfandel at Oddfellows, 4th and East Hennepin. Parking in the lot on the corner of 4th and 1st. Bob left a message on Monday, but they're not open Mon/Tues. Bob will let us know when they confirm. Next week, Cabernet Sauv at the St Paul Grill. Bruch, 5/22 at Bobino Oddfellows / Boom 401 E Hennepin Minneapolis, MN 55414 612-378-3188 Yes: (mostly guesses) Annette S. Brian Bob Roger Jim Nicolai Betsy late Russ Cheers, Jim April 27, 2005 Luring Women With the Chick Lit of Wine By PATRICIA LEIGH BROWN ST. HELENA, Calif. IS it wine for "Desperate Housewives"? Soccer moms? Or for when Carrie Bradshaw has dinner with Rachael Ray? The wine industry's seduction of the American female consumer has begun. Not to be outdone by Victoria's Secret, laundry detergent and countless other products, the "girlie" wine has dawned, dressed in gift bags resembling see-through organza negligees and bearing cosmetics-counter names like Seduction or hip-cute ones like Ros� the Riveter or Mad Housewife. Contrary to wine's male image, in which men score vintages and then hoard them in cellars, women buy 77 percent and consume 60 percent of the wine in America. In response, Beringer Blass Wine Estates, which is owned by the Foster's Group, is introducing a low-alcohol, low-calorie chardonnay called White Lie Early Season Chardonnay. The wine, its pedicure-red label and romance-novel cursive lettering - to flaunt on supermarket shelves - has a promotion involving Jennifer Weiner, a best-selling chick-lit author. The corks carry messages, familiar white lies like "I'll be home by 7" and "It's my natural color." The chardonnay comes from Santa Barbara grapes that have been picked early, when the sugar content is lower, and then further "de-alcoholized" to 9.8 percent. It is also the product of extensive market research, which included tasting dinners in three cities and informal conversations with book clubs, largely female phenomena that often involve wine as much as literary analysis, said Tracey Mason, director for innovation of Beringer. "As women, we understood how busy we are," said Ms. Mason, part of an all-woman team, including a winemaker, Jane Robichaud, that developed the wine. "Women also tend to give up things, whether it's time for themselves, or a gooey desert or that second glass of wine." To lure them, Beringer is promoting White Lie on cooking, travel and golf Web sites and blogs, and in a writing contest to be judged by Ms. Weiner, whose second novel, "In Her Shoes," is being made into a movie. "I saw 'Sideways,' " she said. "I thought, man, I've been drinking merlot all these years. I'm an idiot!" That kind of snobbery on display in the movie - the image of swirling, sniffing connoisseurs - has been one of many deterrents to mass consumption of wine, regardless of gender, said Robert Smiley, a professor and director of wine industry programs at the graduate school of management at the University of California, Davis. Only 10 percent of Americans drink wine regularly he said. And at the supermarket, where about a third of wine is bought, consumers "go to Safeway and see hundreds of different bottles, which makes them confused and nervous." The soft drink, beer and coffee businesses are dominated by huge brands like Anheuser-Busch, he said, "which spends more than 10 times on promotion than the entire wine industry." To compete, he added, winemakers "have to get innovative." So, with Freudian intensity, producers are finally delving into the female psyche. Women have a more sophisticated palate, said Barton O'Brien, whose O'Brien Family Vineyard makes Seduction, a Napa Valley red, described as "a voluptuous wine with sensual flavors and a velvet kiss" on the label. "Women are into mouth feel and a long finish," he said. In other words, seduction. To conceptualize Mad Housewife, which made its debut in January, Mike Lynch, a founder of Rainier Wine in Seattle, did Internet surveys with 250 women. "Our concept was the edgy housewife," he said. The label reads as if written by Hallmark's evil twin: "Somewhere near the cool shadows of the laundry room. Past the litter box and between the plastic yard toys. This is your time." Leslie Sbrocco, the author of "Wine for Women" (William Morrow, 2003), said that more than men, "women look for the experience" in wine. "We think about who we're with, what we're eating," Ms. Sbrocco said. "Women buy visually, paying attention to packaging. They look for a transition between day and night, work and play." Eric Asimov, the chief wine critic for The New York Times, called White Lie "wan and diluted." "But," he said, "there's some good flavor underneath." Not surprisingly, the very notion of a woman's wine has already generated a mini-backlash. "I find it demeaning," said Kris Curran, of Curran Wines in the Santa Rita Hills, near Santa Barbara. "It's implying that women don't have as sophisticated a palate." Ann Colgin, owner of Colgin Cellars in St. Helena, which makes collectible, small production "cult" wines, said she would find the idea of a male wine "a little silly." "Women enjoy fine wine as much as any man out there," she said. As for calories, she added: "I'd rather have one great glass of wine and a small piece of dark chocolate than a whole box of SnackWells." -- ------------------------------ * * Dr. James Lee Ellingson, Adjunct Professor jellings(a)me.umn.edu * * University of Minnesota, tel: 651/645-0753 fax 651 XXX XXXX * * Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *