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Send to KindleAlcohol content labels coming to a head
Distilled spirits have to be put in any of ten bottle sizes from 50 mL to 1.75 L. There is the same prohibition against using a bottle design that "misleads the purchaser."
Freelove explains that about the only time the ATF has objected to a bottle has been in instances for example where a ceramic bottle might look like it holds 750 mL but really contains 300 mL. "We saw more ceramic bottles 15 years ago" she says. "You do not see as many these days." So the ATF gives bottles wide berth. Then why hasn't the alcohol industry learned the lesson of Vini Pescevino?
Harvey Posert spokesman for Robert Mondavi Corp. admits that the redesign of bottles for that company's four wineries was evolutionary. A slightly wider lip was added to the mouth of the bottle. Posert says that bottles for all four Mondavi wineries (RM Napa Valley Woodbridge by RM Vichon and Byron Winery) will all have the distinctive lip as of this fall.
Posert admits "When you think that the wine bottle and cork go back 250 years you have to acknowledge that not much has happened to the design. We did not want to scare off the traditional wine buyer by giving a little uniqueness to our bottles."
It is hard to tell whether Mondavi was the leader or the follower with the swollen lip. James G. Bonanno president of Francis A. Bonanno Springboro OH the importer of Italian Francesco Chianti says that his chianti bottle has had a fat lip for about 2 1/2 years.
Bonanno imports about 80 wines from ten Italian wineries. That includes grappa a distilled spirit made from the skins of grapes which Bonanno admits "is a pretty harsh drink." That may be why the bottles are attractively decorated with a ship and sometimes with floating fruit usually grapes. Grappa might be hard to sell otherwise.
Bonanno points out that it probably isn't surprising that much of the minimal bottle innovation comes from the Italians they of the Renaissance spirit. When asked why American companies are so averse to innovation he asks back "Why do Americans drink wine coolers?"
Karen Kurylo manager of packaging at Hiram Walker & Sons Inc. Southfield MI told me I was being too critical of booze bottles. "They look just as nice as the bottles that perfume and cosmetics come in very upscale." In the industry's defense she notes that people are less likely to spend $20 on a sherry cognac or even a good vodka simply because they think the bottle looks cool. She also points out that Harvey's Bristol Cream was repackaged this year in a cobalt blue bottle that is longer and more elegant than its previous incarnation. "It is quite a departure" she says.
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