As a few of you know I run a very small wine blog dedicated to reviewing cheap juice sold at Trader Joes's. I never thought I would cross-post from there to here, but this calls for it.
It's been nearly a year since I've addressed the issue of buying blue wine on my wine blog. (short version: drink Gallo, believe it or not.) Since then, I've mostly kept my political views separate from my thoughts about wine.
But recently, it's come to my attention that a major proponent and financial backer of California Proposition 85 is Don Sebastiani, owner-founder of Don Sebastiani & Sons, former CEO of Sebastiani Vineyards and winery, and former CA state assemblyman.
Follow me over the bump to learn a little about Prop 85 and one of its principal backers.
Here's a little background:
In case you don't know the two wineries motioned above, Sebastiani Winery, based in Sonoma, has been around since the turn of the twentieth century. Don Sebastiani & Sons, started after Don left the family business near the turn of this century, has quickly become one of California's leading négociant wineries, a company that buys bulk juice, blends it, and packages it with catchy names and label designs. I have often noted on my wine blog the proliferation of decent juice in clever packaging at both TJ's and traditional grocers and wine stores. Several wineries are doing this very well in the current marketplace, which is marked by a confluence of a both a wine glut and an expanding market. Nobody is doing it better than Don & Sons.
Don Sebastiani is also a former republican state legislator, who now gives large amounts of his money to political causes, including $500,000 to help pass California Proposition 85.
Prop 85 is a parental-notification bill, regarded by critics as an end-run around Roe. Its backers say that they just want kids to have help before making a serious decision. But it is really a way of chipping away at the right to choose. The bill is basically a rehash of Prop 73, which lost by 5% a couple years ago. Now the "life begins at conception" language from 73 is gone, and Sebastiani and his crowd say they're just trying to protect the health of young women.
Yeah, right, Don, that's why you also dumped a bunch of money into the campaign against Prop 71, the stem-cell research intuitive that passed in 2004.
Much more on 85 is available from No On 85
Now I'm not a huge fan of consumer boycotts. I buy blue when I can, but not exclusively. In fact, I'm typing this on a Dell. I don't see the point of boycotting Disney for that stupid-ass 9/11 movie one week, when they're the guys that broke the Foley scandal story the next. But when it comes to a smaller, family business using my money to push a wingnut agenda, well then I think it's time to take a stand with my buying choices.
I will no longer spend any of my hard-earned drinking money on Don Sebastiani's wines. If you agree with me, please avoid purchasing all of the following brands.
Smoking Loon
Pepperwood Grove
Aquinas Napa Valley
Used Automobile Parts
Mia's Playground
Fusee
Screw Kappa Napa
Gino Da Pinot
Le Bon Vin de La Napa Valley
Plungerhead
Hey Mambo
White Knight
Footnote. Not all that relevant but interesting: From an article in the archives of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat:
"During his six years as a state assemblyman he earned a reputation for being outspoken and sometimes outrageous. He angered women, Democrats, minorities and even Republican Governor George Deukmejian during his colorful career in Sacramento.... Sebastiani once quipped that female astronauts should only take one-way rides into space. He also refused to support an Assembly resolution honoring slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King, saying he respected King but believes such laudatory resolutions were not the business of state government. "