by Andrew Chalk
According to Total Wine & More, this Becker Iconoclast on their website is from Texas. However it is not. The site is wrong. The wine label contains the weasel words For Sale in Texas Only. They are there to hide the origin of the grapes. If they were not, the wine could be placed in interstate commerce and Federal law would require the origin of the grapes to be on the label. Adding the phrase restricts distribution to Texas, and places the labeling under state law - which is more lax, not requiring the origin to be stated.
So, if the producer wants to get the price-premium that Texas wine commands in state, but does not want to pay for Texas grapes, what do they do?
I. Put Texas iconography on the label to mislead the consumer into thinking that this is a Texas wine;
2. Put a touching story on the back label about the image on the front label. In this case we are told the figure is a Texas artist who lived in The Hill Country. God bless his soul.
3. Stress the producer’s address, because that is in Texas;
So where do the grapes for Becker Iconoclast come from? I have repeatedly asked Becker this question and they have never come clean. So we are forced to guess. My guess is that this is bulk wine made from grapes grown in California’s hot Central Valley (around Modesto). Online this would wholesale for less than $12/gallon. The iconoclastic thing about Iconoclast appears to be the way it smashes the price ceiling up to $11/bottle at retail.
Of course, that Texas wine the consumer did not buy would have been made from Texas grapes and contribute to Texas farm income, so the Texas wine industry is harmed financially by the existence of For Sale In Texas Only, as well as by the ‘stolen valor’ of having the Texas name stuck on someone else’s bulk wine.
Iconoclast is in supermarkets and liquor stores, but Becker refuses to reveal what percent of their volume is Iconoclast, or other wines sold under the For Sale In Texas Only restriction. Given its prevalence, my guess is that 90% of Becker wine, by volume, could be California bulk wine. I urge them to release audited data to prove me wrong, but I am not holding my breath.
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