cuvee and meritage?

"Some cynics said at the time that the EU only listed claret with the intention of giving it up as a bargaining if push came to recall reading at the time."

Fascinating, Peter. The upshot though may be that the word "Claret" would have to be taken off the labels -- for example, the private label brands -- unless the wine is a very light red wine from either Burgundy or Bordeaux.

So if the press office is right, the officially sanctioned "Claret" need not be from Bordeaux at all, and certainly would NOT be in the dark red color [colour] stamp collectors and upholstery manufacturers would think was meant.

What an odd turnabout!

BTW, on another subject, the Meritage Association is asking for more time to respond to our question about whether Meritage can be used on labels in the EU.

Thanks for the info on Esme Johnstone and Martin Krajewski -- they were just names to me.

I spent the past three days offline, reading Shakespeare, and drafting a little pastiche involving Shakespeare, Peter May, Coppola and claret -- needs some polish, but I'll post it soon.

Thanks for the feedback.

Regards, Bob

Note: edited to correct typo that changed meaning.

"And how does one define a colour that is darker than rose but 'far lighter' than regular Bordeaux?"

Perhaps this bit of poetry will help, Peter. Around 1600 the meaning of the color apparently changed from a light yellow/red to a light red.

Philip Sidney described Penelope Rich's [perhaps Shakespeare's Dark Lady] cheek as a 'kindly claret.' According to the Elizabetheans, that the tint described by Dante as being 'less then that of the rose, but more than that of the violets'; it is the ripe red that has the purple of peach-bloom in its dye, and is only seen in the deep complexion—hardly ever found with golden hair.

Of all complexions the culled sovereignty
Did meet as at a fair in her fair cheek.

See Gerald Massey on Shakespeare's Sonnets.

Whoa!!!!

If we're getting into Shakespeare here, that opens up all sorts of cans.

How about

For I have sworn thee fair and thought thee bright,
Who art as black as hell, as dark as night.

from #147?

Maybe Old Will in the World got hold of some Cahors and was writing about Malbec?

The mind doth boggle.

You're a dangerous man, Bob Ross.

Hoke, you'll be happy to learn that so far I've only found one reference in Shakespeare to "clarett", in all his plays, poems and sonnets. But it is a doozy -- led me down dozens of pathways.

That could be Malbec, I suppose.

Following up on one of the byways of this thread on the Cola wars. Peter, the New York Times Book Review gave a favorable review to [url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/04/books/review/Goldstein.t.html?ref=review]THE REAL PEPSI CHALLENGE
The Inspirational Story of Breaking the Color Barrier in American Business. [/url]

The following extract shows how deeply soft drinks go into the fabric of American culture:

“The Real Pepsi Challenge” begins with a creative, dynamic white New York businessman, a politically connected, progressive Republican turnaround specialist named Walter S. Mack Jr., who took over Pepsi in 1938. Mack, in his own words “an unrepentant capitalist and a liberal” who enjoyed playing, as Capparell puts it, “scrappy David to the Goliath that was Coca-Cola” (Pepsi’s 1939 sales were under $5 million, compared with Coca-Cola’s $128 million), decided to strengthen Pepsi’s hold on the “Negro market.” Pepsi’s 12-ounce bottle, twice the size of a Coke, sold for the same nickel, which made it more popular among poorer people; according to Capparell, Pepsi had “survived the Depression by appealing to Negro consumers.”

Mack more or less invented the business internship in 1940, with a nationwide essay contest for college graduates. Two of the 13 winners were black; they traveled through 21 states and “thousands of miles by car, train and bus, selling Pepsi” and, by implication, Pepsi’s commitment to African-Americans. World War II interrupted the program, though not Walter Mack’s racial activism: Pepsi opened three integrated military canteens that served 29 million servicemen during and after the war, while “the government’s canteens — like the Army itself — were segregated.”

Capparell deftly portrays the optimism of the immediate postwar years, especially regarding what she calls the “dizzying number of firsts for African-Americans” — in business, education, politics, entertainment and, of course, baseball — in the banner year of 1947. That year Mack hired the 33-year-old Edward F. Boyd, a National Urban League staff member working on housing issues, with a promise that Boyd could hire a dozen African-American salesmen. A slump in the soft-drink market kept Boyd to just four hires at first; his staff grew to eight in 1950, and finally reached 12 a year later. The book mostly recounts the story of Boyd’s special-markets team — the employees’ backgrounds, how they sold the cola, the coverage they received in the black press — and Pepsi’s shifting fortunes in an often volatile market.

Hoke, you'll be happy to learn that so far I've only found one reference in Shakespeare to "clarett", in all his plays, poems and sonnets. But it is a doozy -- led me down dozens of pathways.

That could be Malbec, I suppose.

Now you have me thinking "claret" in music/opera/sea songs etc! Where is Paulo when you need him?