Date: Fri 27-Sep-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Illustration: C

Location: A11

Quick Words:

Grateful-Dead-red-wine-Merlot

Full Text:

(story on non-alcoholic Undead Red Wine, 9/27/96)

Grateful Dead Is Undead In Red (Wine, That Is...)

(with photos)

BY SHANNON HICKS

It may not make the cover of Wine Enthusiast any time in the near future, but

among collectors of Grateful Dead objects, the recent release of Dead Red

Unwine surely sent some Deadheads scrambling to their local liquor store.

One lone bottle of the non-alcoholic wine sat waiting to be purchased on the

front counter at Steve's Liquor Store in Newtown last Friday afternoon, and

surprisingly, on Monday it had yet to be claimed. However, the store - the

only one of the nine liquor stores within the Newtown/Sandy Hook lines - had

sold 11 bottles of its one available case within the first week of its

September 6 arrival at the Main Street South store.

The wine, the first in a series of Dead Red Unwine to be released by Celebrity

Collectibles of California, celebrates the spirit of the pioneering band The

Grateful Dead. The drink is produced and bottled by the Long Strange Trip

Beverage Company in San Francisco.

The wine inside the deep black glass bottles is a non-alcoholic Cabernet. The

series will include five different bottles, each of which will boast labels

with a different icon from the band's various albums. The first Dead Red

featured the red, white and blue skull and lightning bolt "Steal Your Face"

icon. The image, the band's best-known, was first seen on the group's album

from 1976 of the same name.

A San Francisco-based rock group with music that captured the spirit of the

1960s, The Grateful Dead released its first album in 1965. It continued to

record for over thirty years, and its concerts consistently sold out within

minutes of tickets being presented for sale. Members of its devoted following

were dubbed Deadheads, and fans were known to devote months, sometimes years,

of their lives at a time following the group from show to show.

In 1995, lead singer Jerry Garcia died and the band subsequently disbanded,

but the group's popularity has not waned. Collectibles have always been

popular among Deadheads, with this wine no exception.

According to Earl Parent, manager of wine sales for the sterling division of

Brescome Barton, Inc., a wine distributor in North Haven, CT, Dead Red is a

hit.

"Every part of this, people are keeping... the corks, the bottle. Most people

aren't even opening the bottle.

"Brescome Barton just got it [the first week of September], and it is already

completely gone [from the warehouse]. We presold all the wine. We even had

fifty cases as a safety measure, and those went in a couple of days.

Everything is out in the marketplace; we aren't getting any more.

"We will presell all four of the rest," he predicted.

Labels on the four remaining bottles in the series will feature the skull and

roses icon; dancing skeletons; skeletons and roses; and Space Your Face.

The next edition of Dead Red should be available within the month, said Mr

Parent, as each bottle in the series is due to be released in four- to

six-week intervals.

"[Celebrity Collectibles] made this non-alcoholic so parents could buy it for

their kids," added Mr Parent.

Celebrity Collectibles is a company started by Frank Sinatra's agent. Dead Red

is not its first foray into the wine business. Last summer, the company

released a Marilyn Merlot, which sold out immediately.

"I never even got to see a bottle [from the Merlot] series, it sold out that

quickly," Mr Parent said.