How could an assembly of wealthy dirtbags like the Trump administration understand the consequences of the government shutdown for federal employees? Perhaps this will finally drive the reality home for Ivanka Trump, at least, as former head of a middle-of-the-road women’s lifestyle brand: The shutdown is interfering with shipments of rosé.
Oh, GOD! Not rosé season!!!!!!!
Wine Spectator reported on this latest piece of fallout from the shutdown, just one example of the consequences spilling further and further out the longer this drags on. But perhaps this—unlike the fact that many Americans have to turn to food banks if they miss multiple paychecks in a row—will actually hit home for an administration composed largely of people who can probably name every helicopter landing site in the Hamptons:
Benovia winery in the Russian River Valley was planning to label and release its first Blanc de Noirs sparkling wine this spring, but the partial government shutdown has put those plans on hold. Due to the lapse in funding, the government agency responsible for approving Benovia’s wine labels, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), has shut its doors and suspended its approval process for new alcoholic beverages, leaving the winery in a bind.
“Until you have label approval they won’t let you label and ship the wine,” Benovia co-owner and winemaker Mike Sullivan told Wine Spectator. “It’s sort of in limbo until the government opens up.”
“Without label approval, some winemakers may have to wait to bottle their wines currently sitting in tanks and barrels,” the publication explained. “Those delays could eventually mean financial consequences for winemakers and fewer choices for consumers on store shelves.”
Of course, as with all the rest of their decisions, it’ll be the winemakers that actually have to face the financial consequences, not Ivanka or anybody else in the Trump administration.