Wally's uses celebrity to promote a wine, then has to "clarify."

WINE TALK
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From this morning’s email from Wally’s:

Subject: “Invictus” Star Morgan Freeman’s Favorite New Cabernet

"There is life other than Pinot Noir in Oregon!

Count yourself lucky if you get your hands on the 2006 Viola V, a 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from Oregon. Among the converts, actor Morgan Freeman, who calls it his new favorite Cabernet. Having tried it for the first time last November, he has re-ordered it several times since! Only 100 cases were produced, so there is a precious little to go around. The husband and wife team Lloyd and Lois Piercy have found and developed a gem of a vineyard site on a steep, windswept vineyard near the town of Echo in the Columbia Valley in northern Oregon, which lies just south of the famed Walla Walla appellation of Washington State. (Leonetti and Quilceda Creek are two close-by superstar Cabernet producers that leap to mind. Nice company!)"

Followed by this clarification just in:

“Wally’s accurately reported in this morning’s E-Club write-up about actor Morgan Freeman’s fondness for the Viola V Cabernet Sauvignon. We wish to make clear, however, the fact that Mr. Freeman has not officially endorsed this product.”

Bruce

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classy.

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And they better stay that way.

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I thought it was going to be a BDX offering with a wine blobber celebrity.

Seriously, that is pretty absurd.

I would assume that Jonathan Newman’s ratings have more street cred than Morgan Freeman’s house wine selections.

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In all seriousness, I thought the exact same thing.

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Depends on the intended audience…

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Roberto,

You sell wines to all of Hollywood’s finest, would you ever use one of their names to sell?

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NO, we do not do that. EVER. But Wally’s has a very different business plan based in part on being “sommeliers to the stars”.

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I thought that was WineExpo’s niche, what with all those “models” you get. But how does that explain Leve?

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[popcorn.gif]

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Bob, Wally’s is about “above the line talent” and we have a large clientele of more creative folks: writers, character actors and / or British and continental actors who are NOT “movie stars”, cinematographers, musicians, directors, set and costume designers, ect. But, being so close to MTV and several record labels as well as many TV commercial houses, we get a lot of model types too.

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I think that Bob was talking about this kind of “model”…

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Again, it’s because of MTV and record labels. Porn and Music biz joined at the hip these days. Same model agency supplies girls for lots of Hip Hop vids and Woodburn Productions.

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More importantly, your inventory consists of wines VERY DIFFERENT than the wines Wally’s carries (and vice-versa). Perhaps there’s a slight overlap on the Venn diagram, but it’s a very slim wedge.

Bruce