I’m a fan of Cycles Gladiator Wines

I like a good glass of wine. It is one of my little pleasures. Recently my local wine store did send me a mailing with Cycles Gladiator wine on sale. I normally get a lot of these in my mailbox and hardly take a look at them. This time was different as the reason the wine was on sale was that Cycles Gladiator was banned from restaurants and retail establishments in Alabama. Why? The Alabama Beverage Control Board has deemed the wine brand label as “pornographic”.

Take a look and decide for yourself. The Cycles Gladiator label bears a replica of an antique French poster created in 1895 by Georges Masssias to advertise bicycles. It features an artistic rendition of a nude woman flying alongside a bicycle across a star-filled night sky. Do you think this is pornographic?

My first reaction was something like: That is a silly thing to do; this is art, certainly not something pornographic. Then it hit me. It all depends on the values and culture you live in. I live in The Netherlands, Europe and a nude picture is quite normal. Where I live we have more explicit photos than Cycles Gladiator on billboards and no one is complaining about them. Maybe people in Alabama, or their law makers, have other values.

I guess it’s all about your conditioning, the way you are raised or “programmed”. There are countries that allow less than Alabama. Wine itself may be illegal to drink!

The funny thing is that this conditioning is not only a product of how we are raised or the country we live in, but also a matter of when. What is illegal now may be allowed 20 years later. It’s funny how our human values change over the years.

As expected, since the ban, Cycles Gladiator has sold more bottles then ever outside of Alabama. They now have there own “I’m a Fan of CYCLES GLADIATOR WINES” page on Facebook: I decided to join and order some bottles of their Cabernet Sauvignon.

Cheers!