Sometimes things are wrong on so many levels, it's hard to figure out where to begin. Case in point - Slender Wine. Apparently, some folks in Indiana thought it would be a good idea to make "Sweetened Wine" with a sugar substitute called Zerose. And if that isn't bizarre enough, there's this - the wine will be in the gift bags at the Oscars!The wine comes in three varieties - white, blush and red - and is produced by a winery called Chateau Thomas outside Indianapolis. Apparently, the winery itself has been around for 24 years but after 2 years of "research and experimentation," Slender Wines were born. And how did that happen? Well, check out the most surreal winery video ever...
From the website:
Sweetened with Zerose® , a natural sweetener which has zero calories, a zero
glycemic index, no carbs, no fats.
The world's only naturally sweetened wines. A wine for those who don't
want or
No Sugar
No Carbs
No Fats
No After-taste
No Kidding!
Our question is why would anyone want "naturally sweetened wine" in the first place?
Looking at the website, it's unclear if they are removing natural sugars in the fermentation process and replacing them with a sugar-free product or just adding the sugar substitute to make the wines more palatable to sugar addicted Americans. We're not talking chaptalization here (adding sugar to grapes before or during fermentation if they don't fully ripen enough to produce alcohol on their own, a procedure used in parts of France and Germany), but rather sweetening wine with an organic no-calorie product that "has no side effects because it cannot be metabolized by the human body!"
Clearly the target market - just look at the name and label - is diet-conscious women (with suggestions for diabetics - we'd like to hear a doctor's opinion on that). But since when is wine a diet product? Especially with fairly normal alcohol levels around 12% (although today on the lower end for wine). Isn't alcohol consumption supposed to be bad for your dieting resolve? At any rate, while the sweetener is supposed to have no calories, carbs or fat - the wine still has calories from alcohol, etc. So don't go running to the wine store looking for a calorie free-wine.
Even more unfathomable is the marketing coup of launching the wines at the Oscars. Do they really think Hollywood stars and moguls would be into zero-calorie/carb/fat sweetener sweetened wine? (Okay, better not answer that.) It's all just a marketing gimmick, isn't it?
Somewhere out there Alice Feiring is sharpening her pencil...
Clearly the target market - just look at the name and label - is diet-conscious women (with suggestions for diabetics - we'd like to hear a doctor's opinion on that). But since when is wine a diet product? Especially with fairly normal alcohol levels around 12% (although today on the lower end for wine). Isn't alcohol consumption supposed to be bad for your dieting resolve? At any rate, while the sweetener is supposed to have no calories, carbs or fat - the wine still has calories from alcohol, etc. So don't go running to the wine store looking for a calorie free-wine.
Even more unfathomable is the marketing coup of launching the wines at the Oscars. Do they really think Hollywood stars and moguls would be into zero-calorie/carb/fat sweetener sweetened wine? (Okay, better not answer that.) It's all just a marketing gimmick, isn't it?
Somewhere out there Alice Feiring is sharpening her pencil...
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