BITES : Cha^teau Hagen-Dazs

Bordeaux winemakers worry that they’re losing the younger market, reports the Wall Street Journal. Eight years ago, people younger than 35 made up 22% of Bordeaux wine buyers in France, but today that figure is only 17%.

So the Bordeaux Wine Council has hired an ad agency to promote the idea of Bordeaux as fun wine for fun people. The ads, running on billboards and in trendy magazines in Europe, show glasses of red and white Bordeaux with pizza, French fries, green beans and even (in Germany) ice cream. To maintain Bordeaux’s sophisticated image, the food is always presented in the shape of a bow tie.

They’re Serious About Rice in South Carolina

The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from a woman who claimed that she suffered a nervous breakdown because her recipe for a rice dish was published without her permission.

Bobby June Griggs sued South Carolina Electric & Gas Co., which had sponsored a rice cook-off in 1989. The recipes of all entrants were published in a cookbook, but Griggs demanded that hers be removed. She was told it would be and was sent a copy without her recipe, but she later found that copies containing the recipe were distributed to the public, and this, she claimed, forced her to seek psychiatric help. In 1992, she sued the utility for negligent infliction of physical injury and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Her husband, Peter Harvey Griggs, sued for loss of companionship.

South Carolina state courts rejected her suit but ruled that since the couple was claiming unauthorized publication, state court suits were preempted by federal copyright law. On April 22, however, the Supreme Court ruled that a single recipe cannot be copyrighted and that, anyway, copyright law does not cover infliction of emotional distress.