Fred Franzia, the wine entrepreneur who brought us Two Buck Chuck, has been in court in a go around with the California Alcohol Board. Seems Fred bought Napa Ridge and Napa Creek wineries and proceeded to fill all his bottles with central valley grape juice. California does not like that with the name Nape on the bottle so they told him to stop. The Feds grandfathered the two wineries in because they were in existence before 1986. He has federal permission to use the label but California says no no. Good old Fred also built a wine processing and bottling plant in the town of Napa and now all his central valley wines have "Cellared and Bottled in Napa" on the label. It is projected to take 80 days to get a court decision.
- posted
19 years ago