Does This Make Good Business Sense?

And if these wines fail, will the government step in to stop the bigotry?

Wineries are coming out loud and proud in their support of gay marriage. They're putting it right on the label.

"Little by little, we're breaking down the barrier," says Gary Saperstein of Out in the Vineyard, an events and tour company based in California's Sonoma wine country that caters to gay travelers.

One of the barrier-breakers is Same Sex Meritage, a red blend that sends its message on the bottle and at the cash register — $1 for every bottle sold is donated to the advocacy group Freedom to Marry.

"It's the right thing to do," says Matt Gold, who is based in Chicago and teamed with Josh Stein of Stein Family Wines in California to make the wine, which launched last December. Meritage is a brand name that refers to a Bordeaux-style blend. And, of course, it sounds a lot like marriage.

Gold and Stein see their business partnership as a way to make wine and make a statement. "Everyone should have the right to marry. Everyone should have the same rights as anyone else," says Gold.

Same Sex Meritage isn't the only wine reaching out to the homosexual community.

Egalite, a bubbly from the Burgundy region of France, was launched earlier this year with the name — French for equality — reflecting the wine's origins as a Burgundy cremant (sparkling wine) and its support for the gay community. Each quarter, a portion of profits is donated to a LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transexual) nonprofit organization chosen by fans of the wine on Facebook; $15,000 has been donated since the wine's January launch.

From Stand Tall Wines, there's Genetic Pinot Noir, which refers to sexual orientation having genetic origins. Stand Tall Wines was founded by Larisa Stephenson and partner Dana Sabin. The wine is being made in California's Napa Valley using grapes shipped from Oregon's Willamette Valley and 1 percent of Genetic sales is being donated to the Napa LBGTQ Project (which is the process of changing its name to LGBTQ Connection).

And though it doesn't have a message-specific label, Barefoot Wine & Bubbly has been supporting same-sex marriage for 25 years, donating to local LGBT centers and other organizations, investing in Pride Week events, even putting up a 20-foot-tall inflatable wedding cake in front of San Francisco's City Hall to show support for gay marriage.

"We definitely love to celebrate the LGBT community and all of its progress," says Jerime Black, Barefoot's national LGBT sales and marketing manager. "Barefoot really is all about fun. It's taking the stuffiness out of wine."

OK, so not too many major wine companies have an LGBT marketing manager. So far as he knows, Black is the only one of his kind. "I like to say I have the gay man's dream job," he jokes. But there has been a growing awareness of the importance of that community.

The piece goes on to suggest that these sorts of campaigns aren't gimmicky and will prove ultimately to be successful.

Time will tell.