question about Mateus Rose wine I don't know for certain that the inquiry was genuine (others have sometimes been otherwise), but it may have been and anyway, in case of historical interest, here is some background I wrote a couple of years ago. -- The poor reputation of rosé wines in the US, which innovative wineries and restaurants now struggle against, was established in the 1950s and 60s after they were marketed hard to a largely wine-unfamiliar audience as wines that "go with everything" (which Liebling in his 1964 Appebreaste for Paris answered that unless a wine has quality it "goes" with nothing). The reputation was strengthened by young men on the make in the 1970s with polyester leisure suits and mustaches who, following instructions on TV, ordered Mateus or Lancer's Rosé to try to impress their dates. The reputation of such wines was entrenched, a little later, by sweet dull forms of white Zinfandel. (After a query from an astute wine consumer who enjoyed a recent pink wine -- Bonny Doon's "Gris de Cigare" -- and wondered why more restaurants do not promote such.) Some of these wines are very fresh and agreeable, and I have seen some US wineries moving that way, and some regions of Europe have always made good, and bad, ones. Bonny Doon's unusual product name is a combination of the firm's longtime flippant red blend -- "Cigare Volant," flying cigar (French counterpart of US idiom "flying saucer" -- the Italian is Disco Volante by the way, which was also the name of the sinister Emilio Largo's hydrofoil boat in the novel and film Thunderball, in case you were curious, and even if not); and the "gris" from the European tradition of "grey" grape names -- which sometimes spills over into the naming of pink wines in various places. == Max Footnote: The fictional hydrofoil motor yacht "Disco Volante" figured in a posting about heavy use of brand names, likened to the writing of Ian Flaming. Newsgroup rec.audio, 1989. 
|
|||||||
