Watch out for the next letter…
Interesting. I was curious how the other wines would stack up, sugar-wise, but there is only technical info available for the Pinot.
I disagree. Constellation is large enough to have its own in-house legal team. They’re mostly likely the ones who directed Seyfarth to send this letter. So, they’re the ones who really should know.
Plus, there’s a chance they did know. If they knew that Adam was making a false claim in the ad, they probably would have said so outright. But they instead chose to put it on Adam, and stuck with the implied threat, probably to get him to back down. Which Adam correctly didn’t do.
In that way, Constellation has little to no downside, other than the barbs of wine nerds online.
2 Likes
The claim was not how much RS Meiomi contained. It was the relativity to Adam’s wine which is unknown to the legal eagles. Is it Adam’s burden to provide the data ( which he did)? Or should Constellation test his wine to make n sure it’s not a false claim??
1 Like
I don’t think there is any defense here. The question is should Adam go on offense for being bullied in an effort to repress his freedom of speech??
if i can’t bill for this im going to defer to some of the elderly folk who hang around these parts and are also jet fans.
1 Like
Anti-SLAPP statues don’t apply until a lawsuit is filed. If Constellation did file a suit here, Adam could move to strike the suit, but as of now there’s no basis for him to act.
2 Likes
Not commenting on the rest of the post, but for those wondering if it’s just a request for information, it’s perhaps telling that they reference a dispute and invoked Rule 408…
That said, Adam’s response may have already put this to bed? I’d be interested to see if he hears anything back.
Isn’t that normal CYA language in any formal communication?
He won’t
Well, Mega Purple is 68% sugar. 
There you go
I don’t think you can pick that ripe, consistently in mass quantities, to get a 15 ABV with 21 g/l RS. Unless they’re harvesting in December. LOL
They’re not winemakers, they’re chemical engineers.
4 Likes
Oh you definitely can. But from logistical, quality, and financial standpoints it’s preferable to ferment to dryness and then dose in concentrate to hit your target profile in the final blend.
3 Likes
Exactly my point
1 Like
I get the sense that the Constellation lawyers just knew the claim was so over the top, it was ridiculous and potentially defamatory. I’ll bet they never sought out anyone at the winemaker level to ask them if the ratio could be that high. Knee jerk reaction by the suits to try and squelch negativity. Tell a small winemaker to stop with the outrageous claims. Now, it’s blown back in their face when he delivered the facts. Oops. Time to do a little internal review, quietly back away, and hope no one reads the SF Chronicle. Or worse, a national outlet picks up the story.
1 Like
I guess you didn’t see my response yesterday?
Apparently 21 grams of sugar if converted into alcohol would add around 1.2 degrees. If the alcohol was 15-16% to start with, assuming bags of sugar were not added, it’s possible to reach that level naturally. To each his own. A non wine friend told me about this wine he discovered.”A bargain; try it”. The things I do for friendship. I didn’t spit it out, although every fiber in my body wanted me too.
Nevertheless, if that is what they made, own up to it. Or it would have been a more intelligent strategy to ignore it. It’s a frigging shelf talker for God’s sake, Thanks to this idiotic letter sugar levels are a topic of conversation in the San Francisco Chronicle, and worse still being dissected by the denizens of Wine Berserkers. Streisand effect indeed.
Should you all be interested, here is the lab report on the 2021 vintage (the one that inspired my first post):
free sulfur dioxide 16 mg/L 1/5/24 A2LA Accredited Test - SOP# A024
molecular sulfur dioxide 0.13 mg/L 1/5/24 A2LA Accredited Test - SOP# A024
total sulfur dioxide 32 mg/L 1/5/24 A2LA Accredited Test - SOP# A024
titratable acidity 5.2 g/L 1/5/24 A2LA Accredited Test - SOP# A022
pH 3.91 1/5/24 A2LA Accredited Test - SOP# A022
volatile acidity (acetic acid) 0.69 g/L 1/5/24 A2LA Accredited Test - SOP# A006
glucose + fructose 19.4 g/L 1/5/24 A2LA Accredited Test - SOP# A012
ethanol at 20C 13.66 % vol 1/5/24 A2LA Accredited Test - SOP# A022
ethanol at 60F 13.62 % vol 1/5/24 A2LA Accredited Test - SOP# A022
Adam Lee
Clarice Wine Company
4 Likes
Nice. Dump all the facts before they try to make some move to block it.
It will be most useful if we can see these numbers in comparison to some other popular wines, geeky and non if that is possible.
I may only have geeky. Here’s my 2023 Clarice Garys’ Vineyard Pinot Noir:
free sulfur dioxide 37 mg/L 8/4/23 A2LA Accredited Test - SOP# A024
molecular sulfur dioxide 0.69 mg/L 8/4/23 A2LA Accredited Test - SOP# A024
total sulfur dioxide 98 mg/L 8/4/23 A2LA Accredited Test - SOP# A024
titratable acidity 6.8 g/L 8/4/23 A2LA Accredited Test - SOP# A022
pH 3.53 8/4/23 A2LA Accredited Test - SOP# A022
volatile acidity (acetic acid) 0.61 g/L 8/4/23 A2LA Accredited Test - SOP# A006
glucose + fructose 0.3 g/L 8/4/23 A2LA Accredited Test - SOP# A012
ethanol at 20C 13.51 % vol 8/4/23 A2LA Accredited Test - SOP# A022
ethanol at 60F 13.47 % vol 8/4/23 A2LA Accredited Test - SOP# A022
2 Likes