March 12, 1999
NEWSWine labels & Health-Freedom of Speech at Last!
The Government wants to protect us from ourselves. And the government regulator of the beer, wine and spirits producers in the United States is the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms, a branch of the U S Treasury Department.
Every label on every bottle of wine or booze or can of beer, produced, imported and ultimately sold in the United States has to be approved by the Bureau. They have been afraid of health claims, or nudity, or pornography somehow creeping onto a label and subsequently impinging on our lives! But ironically U.S. wines cannot be exported to Europe with our warning labels on the bottles; the governments of these very civilized European nations don't like warning labels, or at least ours!
After about ten years of requiring the government warning label on alcoholic beverages, last month the government decided to let us know the truth about wine and health-that wine, in moderation, has definite health benefits, especially for the heart. Moreover, the government is acknowledging what I have believed all along-that wine is food to be consumed with food, and one of the new labels allowed reads, "To learn the health effects of wine consumption, send for the Federal Government's Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, USDA, 1120 20th Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20036 or visit its website at: www.usda.gov/fcs/cnpp.htm."
The key word here I think is "USDA." Let wine be regulated by the Department of Agriculture, not the BATF. Wine has a lot more in common with wheat, bread and cattle than it does with automatic weapons and Marlboros.
Now that wine labels can legally extoll the health benefits of wine consumption, though, two points come to mind I want to share:
First, if you don't drink wine, maybe you shouldn't start drinking it, especially if you don't like the beverage. There is a difference between use and abuse, and I speak from experience- I abuse wine and cocktails more than I should. A friend of mine once said (because of blood pressure levels and hypertension) that we need to drink all the red wine we can! That's wrong, and I'm sure it's that type of thinking that raises the hackles of prohibitionists.
Second, as I drink a few beers in the afternoon at home on an occasional day off, cutting up cardboard boxes with an X-acto knife for recycling, I have thought from time to time, "this knife isn't exactly like heavy machinery as referenced on the current warning label, but... it is certainly dangerous, and it would make me bleed profusely if I were to cut myself."
I think what I am saying is the warning label at least makes me aware I am getting a little looser and perhaps sloppier the more beers I drink, and is therefore doing what it is supposed to do. So maybe having a warning label isn't such a bad idea after all, especially now that there can be "equal time."
Oak trees vs. grape vines
As residents of the county we know the controversy afoot regarding oak tree removal from vineyard land, and you thought it was just here. Wrong! Last month, there was a page one story in the Los Angeles Times with a Paso Robles dateline. Even up there, and along much of coastal California between San Jose and Santa Barbara, there is growing opposition to vineyard development. Perusing the Times feature piece on line I noticed the analogy of rows of young vines to rows of headstones in cemetaries. And one source quoted in the piece felt housing development was preferable to vineyard development, because, at least when houses were built, trees were planted!
The problem is this-pasture land may be bucolic and pretty to look at, but if raising cattle can't pay the bills, then the rancher has to produce something that will! It's a business just like anything else.
Where I live the pasture next to my house is in escrow. It's supposed to be planted as a vineyard. The speculation is the buyer is from the Central Valley. Personally I'm hoping the buyer is Gallo. If it's Gallo, there will be no pesticides or herbicides used in the farming. According to a report I heard several years ago on National Public Radio, E & J Gallo is the largest organic farming company in the United States.
AU REVOIR
A fond farewell to David Russell. In the summer of 1985, I reported in this column that David Russell had just been hired as the manager of the Montecito Wine Cask. (That store is now the Wine Bistro.) After over 13 years as the wine buyer for the Wine Cask, David Russell has left. David and his wife Diane will remain in Santa Barbara. We wish him great success in future endeavors.
Bon appetit!
Bob Senn writes The Independent's monthly wine column, "Grapevine," lives in the Los Alamos Valley and owns the Los Olivos Wine & Spirits Emporium.
Publishing Note: Since 1986, the Grapevine has been scheduled to run in the last Santa Barbara Independent Issue of the month. Beginning with this column, the Grapevine will now be scheduled to appear in the second issue of each month.
