It’s officially white whine season.
Vintners and aficionados are up in arms over the glaring absence of an official white wine emoji on iPhones and Android devices, despite a yearlong campaign by maker Kendall-Jackson to convince Unicode (the organization that “controls” emojis) to add the symbol.
“I’m outraged,” said NYC wine auctioneer Charles Antin. “The lack of a white wine or rosé emoji is our Mueller Report in the wine business. It’s the thing everyone is focused on.”
Mark Oldman, wine expert and author of “How to Drink Like a Billionaire,” said Unicode’s oversight “discriminates against some of the world’s most exciting and coveted wines.”
“I was at a wine auction two weeks ago and we were drinking an amazing Domaine Leflaive Montrachet — which is not only one of the world’s best white wines, it’s one of the world’s best wines. And we wanted to Instagram about it and there was no way to do it,” Oldman lamented.
“For wine people, if I’m tweeting about a Duckhorn Sauvignon blanc, it’s a slap across the face to use a red wine emoji.”
He added: “Think about all the Real Housewives [who love white wine and texting]! Lady Gaga has a song, ‘Grigio Girls.’ If Lady Gaga is in her home and her phone is cranking ‘Grigio Girls,’ and she’s tweeting about it, she’s not going to use the red wine emoji!”
Alcohol emojis run the gamut from a red wine glass and champagne flutes, to a whiskey tumbler, martini (with olive and stirrer) and frothy beer mug. But no white wine.
Ami Opisso, general manager at Lieb Cellars, a winery in Cutchogue, NY, said the slight is discussed “all the time” among her colleagues.
“Social media is now our most important marketing tool,” she said. “Any time we’ve got to post something about our Sauvignon Blanc or our Chardonnay or our rosé, we say, ‘Damn it! Why is there no white wine or rosé emoji?’ ”
Emojis include red wine, champagne, cocktails and champagne — but no white wine.
And with rosé being so in fashion, industry titans say it’s sacrilege not to illustrate a boozy #roséallday Instagram post with the appropriate pink-filled stemware.
“It should be recognized alongside other beverages of choice [when it comes to emoji],” said Sacha Lichine, maker of the ubiquitous Whispering Angel.
But white wine lovers might finally be getting their shot.
In 2018, Kendall-Jackson winery of Sonoma County, Calif., sent Unicode a 15-page proposal outlining the necessity for a white wine emoji. (Maggie Curry, the winery’s director of marketing, points out that Chardonnay is the most popular wine in the US.)
On July 24, Kendall-Jackson will go before Unicode to present a keynote to the organization’s 12 voting members. Even if the emoji is approved, Curry said, it could take two years to get to phones.
“We get to carry the weight of the wine world on our shoulders as we present this injustice.”
