The wine world – particularly in Europe – has been hit hard by the painful blows struck to the international economy. Producers and sellers have had to deal with increased competition, changes in consumer behavior and deleterious farming factors caused by global warming. As a result, France is overhauling several regulations governing its wine production.

Some of the revisions can be seen as a positive step toward updating the country’s rigid and slightly antiquated rules. For example, in 2009, vin de table wines – the bastard bottlings sitting at the bottom of the French viticultural totem pole – were granted permission to list both vintage and grape variety on their labels. Continue Reading »

According to a directive issued by Mayor Gavin Newsom, all calorically sweetened beverages are banned from being sold in any vending machine on city property in the entire city of San Francisco. The directive includes non-diet sodas, sports drinks and artificially sweetened water. Juice must contain 100 percent fruit or vegetable juice with no added sweeteners. Even diet sodas are not completely safe from the ban. According to the directive, diet-sodas must not exceed 25 percent of the items offered in the machines. Continue Reading »

Apparently guns and Starbucks don’t mix.

According to KOMO news:
An anti-gun group is urging Starbucks to ban weapons at all of its retail locations… Earlier this month, the group’s president Paul Helmke sent a letter to Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, claiming there has been a “growing frequency” of gun owners openly carrying guns in public places, especially in California, where open carry weapons are legal as long as they are unloaded and holstered. Continue Reading »

Check out this story on how by using simple techniques described in Orwell’s “1984” can lead to healthier children. “A ban on fast-food advertising to children would cut the national obesity rate by as much as 18%, according to a new study conducted by the National Bureau of Economic Research and funded by the National Institutes of Health”, the article says.

Well, not surprisingly, the Wine Mutineer has some proposals of his own: Continue Reading »