Has anyone else nearly shot their TV?

[tomstevenson]

The Korbel ad sounds funny. At least you make it sound funny! It sounds to me as if Korbel is perfectly aware that intelligent, sophisticated people know that Korbel is not Champagne, otherwise the parrot's line wouldn't be funny at all. So, you're right, the ads are playing on people's insecurities, but as Jerry and Brad point out, that is their right in the land of the free. The only thing they should not do, of course, is lie, but until ATF respects other country's legitimate appellations Korbel cannot be accused of that. However, why not release a harmless virus on the net that pops up as an animated parrot repeating "The Korbel's not Champagne, the Korbel's not Champagne's ...... See, I told you, you should have bought Champagne!"
Brad, many thanks for the welcome and for the nice words about my Sotheby's encyclopedia. I say rather more about Korbel in my Christie's fizz encyclopedia, where I give the brand a 68 point rating. If you look at the explanation of my global ranking, you will see this is two points below "interesting". To be fair, they are remarkably consistent at what they do and I get the feeling that if Korbel hired someone like Raphael Brisbois they could make some interesting cuveés. There are many sparkling wines out there that are much worse. I think the lowest-ranked fizz in my Christie's book is 38 and that's pretty dire for a technicallly correct wine!