We’re glad to hear that a certain wine purveyor on the Upper West Side chose our Cycles Gladiator when it came time to recommend a good value American wine. It’s unfortunate that he did not know it would be available in UK, but certainly was not his fault. The fact is Cycles Gladiator is widely distributed in Europe, which is a testament to the reasons he recommended it to you.

And thank you for commenting that the Pinot Noir tastes “annoyingly” good. We’d venture to say you’ll find the Cabernet Sauvignon equally “annoying”!

We would like to set the record straight on the conclusions of some conspiracy theorists that this was a publicity stunt by the winery however. The Cycles Gladiator label bears a replica of an antique French poster created in 1895 to advertise bicycles.(Originals of this poster are valued at fantastical amounts.) When our president first saw the poster many years ago he realized this would be a great wine label, and thus the Cycles Gladiator wine brand was born.

We’d been selling the wine in Alabama for three years before being notified by the Alabama ABC that the wine had been banned there after one complaint from a consumer regarding the “pornographic” nature of the label. We immediately complied and distributors around the state pulled the wine from the shelves.

This ban sparked a nationwide debate about artistic freedom and consumer rights. Two things that our winery strongly supports. And yes, we did see a spike interest in the product as a result of the controversy, but it would have been impossible to have instigated such a plan. No one could possible dream up such a far fetched ploy.

In any case, we’re glad that you enjoyed the wine and hope that you’ll continue to look out for it on a store shelf near you.

For further reading on the era of the Cycles Gladiator poster (and why they depicted women in this way) we’d suggest:

http://www.annielondonderry.com/womenWheels.html#_ednref3

and

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~UG02/hendrick/women.html

Cheers,

Philip Woodrow
Hahn Family Wines

But Cycles Gladiator brand has been available in the UK for a couple of years at least. They’re in Waitrose and TWC and even my local independent — who also has the ’serious’ Hahn labelled wines .