Sorry I spilled it:
"Drew Bledsoe goes on lobbying blitz for wine bill" by Jim O'Sullivan | Globe Staff, March 22, 2013
In a visit that considerably raised the athletic pedigree of the lobbying corps, Drew Bledsoe conducted a round of media interviews and legislative sitdowns, pushing for a House bill that would require the state to license out-of-state wineries to ship wine directly to consumers, instead of what Bledsoe calls the “three-tiered system” involving wholesalers and retailers....
The legislation backed by Bledsoe and a coalition called Free the Grapes! has had slow going on Beacon Hill, despite what Bledsoe calls “bipartisan support, to the extent that that matters in Massachusetts.” Governor Deval Patrick, something of an oenophile himself, said he was a strong supporter of the bill and had personally encountered the blockade against wine shipments when he vacationed in Napa, Calif., and was unable to send cases back to the Commonwealth.
“I like wine,” Patrick said. “I have friends who are serious collectors and complain about it. And I’ve traveled with people where we’ve done vineyard tours and want to ship it back and they say, ‘Where do you want to ship it to?’ And when I say where, they say, ‘We can’t do it.’ ”
Despite support in high places, concerns for the local wine industry have hobbled the bill’s progress.
Bledsoe says, however, that these concerns are misplaced, arguing that once consumers contract the wine bug the way he did – “got a little bit older, got married, and discovered that beer wasn’t the only thing out there” – they will start sleuthing for brands and flavors, buying more wine regardless of the venue.
The Walla Walla Valley cabernet sauvignon, the sole kind that Bledsoe sells, comes from a burgeoning wine region. When he graduated from high school in 1990, there were five wineries in an area that now has 120, Bledsoe said. He can go into fine detail about the region’s grape-growing benefits, talking at some length about tannic structure and how the grapes in the valley reach a pleasing maturity partially as a result of Ice Age glaciers leaving behind a “porous but mineral-rich soil.”
The guy who wore Number 11 for the Patriots, picking apart AFC East defenses, and engendering the rally cry “11 equals six,” now scrutinizes acidity and talks about the pressure of picking a wine during blending trials.
“At least you can make it sound like Drew knew what the hell he was talking about,” he said over lunch at a Beacon Hill eatery.
The valley, where he grew up, is a key part of the business strategy and helps explain the name of Bledsoe’s wine, Doubleback. “Our story is not about the football player guy, it’s about Walla Walla” and “doubling back” to come home, he said....
--more--"
Related: Red wine ingredient’s antiaging ability backed by study
