Disney pulls Ratatouille wine
July 30, 2007
Adam Lechmere, and agencies

The Disney Corporation has pulled out of the wine business before its wines had hit the shelves.

Disney has cancelled its Ratatouille wine, a tie-in with the much-lauded Pixar animation of the same name about a haut-cuisine-loving rat, which was to be sold in Costco stores from August.

A 'trickle' of enquiries and complaints made the corporation decide not go to ahead with the promotion, Disney spokesman Gary Foster said.

Foster told the Los Angeles Times that the California Wine Institute had pressured Disney to pull the wine. The fact it is French wine upset domestic vintners, he said.

'But the entire movie is based on a French restaurant and French food and wine,' he added.

The Institute said the appellation was not a problem. They complained to Disney because the label showed the film's star, Remy the rat, holding a tiny glass, which could violate advertising ethics.

The advertising code bans advertising that might appeal to children by the use of cartoon characters or very young models.

'We basically shared the code with [Disney],' Institute spokewoman Nancy Light told the Times.

Disney was going to sell 500 cases of Ratatouille in Costco. The wine was sourced from Macon estate Chateau de Messey. Owner Marc Dumont produced it from grapes in his Cruzille vineyard and put the movie label on his regular Bourgogne Chardonnay.

Have your say... To post your comment on this story, email us at news@decanter.com, making sure the relevant headline is in the subject field It's more likely that Disney pulled the plug on the Ratatouille project because the label, and the Rat character from the movie, appeal to children: A big no-no in the U.S.A. market. Anon Ah, the American values of protectionism, puritanism and fear of litigation. Makes perfect sense, though. My 5 year old daughter has a large collection of cute toy Kangaroos, and I can't keep her out of my Yellow Tail Shiraz. Just the other day I caught her mixing a bottle of the Cabernet-Merlot with a bottle of Grenache-Shiraz. Disney knows us yanks well. If Ratatouille has a good run in Europe, perhaps the wine can be sold there, where sense is a common thread, however it is probably sitting in warehouse in Washington State (Costco). Chick Wells, Atlanta, GA, USA It is ok for the american children to look at all the marketing of bad products such as : Coca, McDonald etc… but god forbid that a bottle of wine with a rat logo is going to make them all alcoholics…..When this nonsense is going to stop ? La sommelière Better get the auction houses warmed up. This will be a classic collector's item especially if the wine is up to the usual standard. Geoff Broadfield, Australia American sensors should concentrate on problems like stopping the spread of fear among it's own people through violence in the media (eg. COPS, etc, etc)! Europeans start drinking when they are very young but their parents teach them to respect and enjoy wine in moderation....! Nick Disney made a mistake in pulling the launch of Ratatouille wine. An image is worth a thousand words, so following that logic they really should have canned the whole movie. Personally I think they panicked due to all these jobless, bored and bitter people that need to sue for an income. Get a life! Alvaro Covarrubias L, Casas de Maule Estate, Talca, Chile

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