Cameron Diaz quit acting to get a normal life. So what does she do now? She sells wine. In cans. She doesn't grow grapes. She doesn't have a vineyard. She doesn't make wine. She doesn't blend wines. She sells the wines others make for her in Europe. She sells them in cans and in bottles, too.
Very interesting concept. Essentially, cans make it easy to ship and recycle, and it's less expensive than glass. As one critic describes it, it's basically plonk in a can. Just rose and white. The brand Avaline is available in some 5000 retail outlets in the US. I suppose it helps to be Cameron Diaz when you are looking to get into a new market.
She recently ran into trouble with the feds when she and her business partner, Katherine Power, claimed that Avaline is 'clean wine'. The Federal Govt didn't like that it suggested health benefits. So they now promote it as just organic wine. They buy from vineyards in Europe where organic wines are commonly produced. It's curious that the US market for organic wines is limited.
Meanwhile, the natural wines business has apparently been proliferating unchecked in the US and remains undefined. While in France, they've decided to add a natural wine category to the defined types of wines -- biodynamic and organic. Natural winemakers will be able to get official, though voluntary, certification of natural wine in France. Wines that join the approved trade syndicate and follow its rules governing viticulture and winemaking will be able to label their wines with the logo of Vin Méthode Nature.
Apparently, the different categories are defined by their sulfur content...
