A poster of a nude nymph on a bicycle, from 1895, has been deemed pornographic.

Earlier this week management at MBC United, a Birmingham-based company that distributed the wine throughout the state, was informed by the ABC that the label on Cycles Gladiator wines had been deemed pornographic, that the label hadn’t been properly approved by the board and it would now have to be removed from stores. The offending label carries a reproduction of an art poster done in 1895 by an unknown Parisian artist introducing the Cycles Gladiator bicycle. The poster depicts a nude woman with flowing red hair essentially flying through space with a bicycle.

Just thought I would share, because this is one of my all time favorite wine labels. Story here, and best comment from bama_in_hawaii:

To continue with the recent penny farthing posts, the penny farthing being the first “true” bicycle where a reasonable distance was achieved in a realistic time-period, here is a great looking wine from PennyFarthing Wines.

The name of the bike, Penny Farthing, is from two British coins where the latter is worth 1/4 of the earlier: one wheel much larger than the other. In the wine world, perhaps, the “penny” could be the wine barrel, and the “farthing” the wine bottle. That would be an interesting idea for a combination wine / bike image. If you take that idea and run with it, do credit me as a source.

link

I found this in the $4.99 bin tonight.

To answer your inquires in chronological order: 1) Yes, I purchased this bottle of wine because it was in the bargain bin. 2) Yes, I also purchased it because there is a bicycle on the label. 3) Yes, I know that I should stop buying wine simply because the labels are neat looking. 4) Yes, I am a pawn to the ploy of wheel marketing. 5) No, this wine is not really very good at all.

There, are you happy now!