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And now for Holy Expletive wine: You fill in the blank

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Great minds sure do think alike.

When I recently wrote up Terravant’s new Scratchpad line of wines featuring what they’re calling the world’s first interactive wine label, it wasn’t long before I got a message from Linda Grasser Sakane of Holy Expletive wine. She wanted me to know that she’d come up with the idea for an interactive wine label three years before. A 2011 YouTube video seems to substantiate her claim. Her bottle too has a writing implement (a marker) hanging around the neck of the bottle and a place to write in your own phrase, er, expletive.

Holy Expletive? What kind of name is that?

The bottle says Holy and then there’s a space for your very own expletive. “You can be as creative or tasteless as you choose,” says Sakane.

Sold only online, the wine (either Chardonnay or Merlot from the Central Coast) is popular at weddings, fundraisers and conventions, she told me. “People just can’t resist scribbling sayings or doodling on the label. Sometimes at weddings, the bride and groom will have the empty bottles boxed up so they can read what guests wrote later.” Presumably after the honeymoon.

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How’d she ever come up with the idea? Sakane said she was walking through Costco and somewhere she saw the word “expletive.” By the time she got to the wine section, surprised by the number of bottles on display, she spontaneously burst out with the words “holy crap!” Bingo.

“Holy expletive,” she thought, “that would be a funny name for a wine.”

She went home that night, got on Google and typed in “holy expletive.” Nothing. She kept gnawing on the idea and finally decided there are so many expletives that people could just fill in the blank and write whatever they want.

And that’s how the possibly first interactive wine label was born.

Among her favorite renditions of Holy Expletive: Holy “Naptuals”, Holy Marry Me, Holy Guacamole, Holy Smokes (with a drawing of a rat smoking a cigar instead of the words). “There have been so many that are R or X rated but that are truly very funny,” she says.

Follow @sirenevirbila for more on food and wine.

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