New Gay Winery Begins To Generate Headlines

by Kevin Coupe

There's a new wine slowly finding its way onto store shelves - a 2001 Rainbow Ridge California Alicante Bouschet that retails for around $20.

There are a couple of things different about this wine. To begin with, the hybrid varietal Alicante Bouschet isn’t exactly as popular as, say, merlot or cabernet. It reportedly is quite good, though. Wine Enthusiast gave it 91 out of 100 points, and said it was "quite good - one of the best of that variety" that the reviewer had ever tasted.

Also of note is the winery that created it. Rainbow Ridge is a gay-owned winery that is quite literally out of the closet - the owners are proud of who they are, but say that the wine just happens to be made by gay people, and their primary focus is on creating a quality product.

Dennis Costa, one of the co-founders of Rainbow Ridge, told us that the winery started when he and his partner, Tom Beatty, decided that they wanted to develop a business that would take advantage of Costa's upbringing in the Napa Valley, where he grew up on a vineyard that was a contract grower for Sutter Home.

From the beginning, he said, "we knew that we wanted to have a premium quality product, not just ripple in a bottle."

Costa conceded that the company is walking something of a tightrope in its marketing strategy. One the one hand, he doesn’t want the product only to appeal to gay people, and there is no place on the label where the word "gay" is used. For purposes of marketing, he said, the fact that ownership is gay should have no more impact on a consumer than the fact that Francis Ford Coppola's vineyard is owned by an Italian.

Still, Costa knows that the gay marketplace could be a profitable one, and he plans to exploit the wine's heritage by selling it to gay-and-lesbian cruise lines. The company also has pledged to donate a portion of profits to gay-and-lesbian oriented charities, especially AIDS research.

While the company only is making Alicante Bouschet at the moment, there are plans afoot to make a chardonnay, and then maybe a Merlot. And national distribution is a must; right now, the company either has won approval or is in negotiation to have it available in some 20 states.

Ultimately, Rainbow Ridge will have to abide by a simple truth that faces all winemakers. It will have to survive on the quality of the wine, not on the identity of the vintners.

Redefining The Health Food Store In An Atkins World

The San Francisco Bay area reportedly is home to a new trend - health food stores that sell items such as soy snack chips, diet soda, and cinnamon-butter pork rinds. Just call them the next generation of retailers that have followed in the path of Home Depot: Lo Carb Category Experts!

These stores are keyed to the specific carbohydrate-free life advocated by the late Dr. Robert Atkins and brands like Keto, and used by tens of millions of Americans looking to lose weight b y eating bacon and eggs.

There are more than a dozen in the San Francisco area alone, and perhaps as many as 200 around the country; some experts believe this number could double in 2004. In fact, it has gotten to the point where more traditional health food stores are converting to a no-carb format.

There's one thing that the no-carb stores have in common with the ‘original’ health food stores - they tend to be owned and staffed by people who are living the life, and who can answer questions and proselytize with the best of them.