Trump wines are pretty good, but they can't be put on menus

Charlottesville, Virginia

TWO weekends ago, US President Barack Obama weighed in on one of the pressing issues in the campaign for the Republican nomination to succeed him in the White House.

No, not how to stop Donald Trump - but whether the wine that bears his name is any good. "Has anybody bought that wine? I want to know what that wine tastes like," Mr Obama said at a Democratic Party fundraiser in Dallas on Saturday. "I mean, come on. You know that's like some US$5 wine. They slap a label on it. They charge you US$50 and say it's the greatest wine ever." As those of us who live near the winery know, though, the real shame about Trump Winery is not that its wines are not good. It's that some of them actually are - but these days, their association with the GOP frontrunner is likely to keep them off wine lists they otherwise belong on.