2017 Entwine Pinot Grigio

How much of a good wine is marketing? Wine snobs will say it is all about the wine, but follow the money. The average cost of a label design is between $2,000 and $30,000. Add focus groups and printing to that. Think of that. That has nothing to do with the actual wine. Entwine Pinot Grigio was a passable wine, but the on-shelf marketing effort did not go unnoticed. The label said it was like green apple drizzled with lime juice and honey. So they put a green apple colored foil cap on the bottle and a matching green apple strip on the bottom of the label. Truthfully, I did not taste any green apple or honey or lime juice, but I wanted to. The off-white label had a raised, shiny cursive "entwtine" that went from edge to edge. It was light and feminine. I'm guessing a pricey focus group said that would appeal to the women that drink this kind of light wine. There was a shiny gold seal on the label that hinted at an award that was bestowed on this little feather-weight. If you looked closely, that seal was just a marketing blurb that said, "Love your wine. Love your food." The synthetic cork had generic writing on it, so you could include it decoratively in your cork collection. All that, just to get you to pick it off the shelf instead of the one next to it. It didn't change the taste one bit. It changed the customer. In all fairness, if it was served cold, I could successfully wash down cheese on toothpicks with it. In this case, it paired perfectly with food for thought.