Dr Vino's wine blog

We saw the still version before but now we’ve got a four minute video clip from the outdoor, communal spas in Japan where you can take a bath in red wine, sake, coffee, green tea and even chocolate! (Do them all to complete the cycle.) The wine and coffee baths reputedly have anti-aging properties. A pale British reporter has the story–and provides a brief scare when he threatens to get in the bath himself.

(reading this in a feed reader? Click here for the video.)

“It’s no wonder Britain’s middle classes are getting wasted,” Trish Groves, of the British Medical Journal, told the BBC.

Why? Could it be the economic slowdown? Posh & Becks living in America? The fact that the Grammy for best album went to Herbie Hancock instead of Amy Winehouse?

No, it’s the 750 ml bottle!! “It’s all too tempting to finish the bottle there and then to avoid waste,” Ms Groves continued. Those frugal Brits are plunging themselves into the abyss just so they don’t waste 250 ml of wine. Someone airdrop them some of those vacu-vin stoppers!! And just keep them away from magnums!! Or giant bottles on the street!

Related: “Big wine glasses make you drink more: poll”
(image)

Peter Liem found this gem of a video (54 secs). Funny, this is the EXACT SAME way that I open my 1996 Cristal! What a coinkydink! Valentine’s Day grandstanders can really impress with this method of opening–and have two bottles open to boot.

“Oversized wine glasses in British pubs cause worry among pols, health officials,” blared a headline in the NY Daily News. I have to admit that when I saw that, I feared that there had been a Riedel war in a London pub, perhaps a jousting match with broken stems.

But it turns out that “big glasses” are being blamed on binge drinking! Roll the tape:

“The glasses are larger and the wines are a lot stronger. It’s a minefield for anyone trying to keep tabs on what they’ve had,” said Srabani Sen, head of Alcohol Concern, a charity.

While binge drinking is no doubt unfortunate and apparently has risen to worrying levels in Britain, are big glasses to blame? Have your say in the latest poll!

poll now closed
UPDATE: now with intel from London in the comments – Golly and StuckatLGW
Image: John Joh, with permission

This seen by our undercover operatives at Pottery Barn: a bag of 55 wine bottle corks for $14. Not a wine stain on any of them! Stumped by why they were being sold (home winemakers wandering through the store perhaps?), our agent then spotted a square vase filled with the display corks. A good look, but a little sterile since the corks were mere props.

Just think that 55 bottles of $10 wine is only $550 — pleasure, memories, and, yes, corks, included. Then you can apply the $14 saved toward the cool vase. I’m looking forward to the bag of 55 screwcaps, due out soon.

What do you do with your used corks?

Related:
-Reduce, reuse…recork?
-13,500 bottles of wine ARE the wall
-To Cork or not to Cork, a giveaway

Had a bad wine experience lately? At a shop or a restaurant or at home? And you don’t have a blog of your own to bitch about it? Consider this your open mic thread and let us know your wine disappointments. Hopefully we can collectively offer some advice or suggestions–or just laugh with you to ease the pain.

Vent! Rant! Bring it on!

(Image, cropped, resized)

What would you think if I told you that an armed robbery was averted because of wine? No, not a broken bottle waving sort of thing. But a sipping leads to a change of heart sort of thing. Sound implausible?

One evening last month, just such an event occurred in Capitol Hill. Read the astounding and bizarre full story here in the Washington Post. Truth sometimes IS stranger than fiction.

Wouldn’t that be great if everyone kept a bottle of wine at home to foil would-be attackers? Too bad the story doesn’t state the vintage of this Malescot St-Exupéry.

It’s a tough week for fashionistas (and it’s only Monday!). Paris Hilton is in jail. And Tyra Banks doesn’t like wine but orders it to look sexy. Roll the tape from her personal website [via M&C]:

I recently went to Napa, California, and I learned how to pair wines with certain tastes, how red wine tastes good with salt and bitter things like lemon. So, every now and then I’ll order some wine at the table. I’ll only take two sips, but I’ll keep holding the glass cause it makes me feel sexy, but I still don’t drink it because it still tastes kind of nasty to me. (emphasis added)

Wow, the classic pairing of red wine and lemon–no wonder the former top model thinks wine’s nasty! Help her out with some newbie wine suggestions in the comments. I’d start her off with a sangria if she wants to give red wine with citrus another try.

Hey, can this magician do this with $2,000 bottles of Petrus? If so, he’s invited to my next party!