Dr Vino's wine blog

Have you ever tried to return beer bottles for a deposit in New York State? I have and it ain’t pretty. The last time I did it, I brought 12 bottles in to the supermarket and left after much grinding and crashing in the machine with six bottles and a receipt for a 20 cent credit. Woohoo! It made me want to drive to Michigan for their ten cent deposit a la Seinfeld!

Bottle or container deposits are a hot topic now. Eleven states require some sort of deposit, mostly on beer and carbonated soft drinks. But former New York Governor Spitzer and now Governor Paterson have now proposed a “bigger better bottle bill,” which would expand the five cent deposit system to single serving sport drinks and water. The goal of this policy proposal is to increase recycling–as well as revenues to the state.

I was not surprised to learn after my experience that there’s a lot of deposit money that is not collected. In fact, it was $100 million last year. But I was astounded to learn that that uncollected deposit money goes to distributors of beer and soda, not the state. Shocking! In the new legislation, these funds would go specifically to New York’s Environmental Protection Fund.

It’s funny that wine bottles have not been included in a bottle bill in New York. They aren’t included in Oregon either, which enacted the first container deposit laws in 1971. But reforms are afoot in Oregon, where many single-serve, noncarbonated beverages now have a deposit as of January 1 of this year. Further, a task force has just recommended adding all beverages except for milk by 2013. HB 2184 proposes changes to the bottle bill based on these recommendations and is scheduled for a hearing on Thursday.

What do you think: should wine bottles also have a deposit? As the program currently stands in New York, I don’t think so. Five cents might have been enough when the program was first enacted but now it would just be another tax, not an incentive to return any bottles. And the redemption process for beer is not very effective since not every store accepts bottles from every brand. Further, wine is mostly consumed at home or restaurants/bars, which tends to lead to high levels of recycling. Unless we all start drinking wine in the park, that is.

In 2005, the EU and US reached a bilateral accord to end a round of negotiations that had lasted twenty years. One of the significant parts of the agreement was that American wines could no longer use place names such as Champagne, Chianti, or Port on new wine labels (for the complete list, see the press release).

While labels that had used the terms previously were grandfathered in, what’s a new wine label to do? Such was the problem that confronted Peltier Station, a winery in Lodi that wanted to release a port-style wine from Zinfandel grapes last year. They knew they couldn’t call it “port” so they decided to call the wine simply USB hoping that consumers would make the connection (aha!) with that and the USB ports found on computers. Just to drive the point home, the back label reads, in part “United States Bureau for trade signed an im____ant agreement with the European Union to protect ____ugal’s geographical indication of this type of wine….”

Peltier Station’s idea was clever and, after getting a mention on wired.com, the wine sold rapidly. But is there an equally clever name that producers of port style wine could call their product in general? Hit the comments with your thoughts. The top suggestions will be selected for your voting and the winner will win a bottle of USB ___, courtesy of Peltier Station. Take your time to think of an idea this week and next Monday; we’ll start the voting next Tuesday.

Sales of three-liter box wine are growing at a 32% clip. Compare that to 4% growth in the overall wine market. Sign o’ the times!

Why not make that box all fancy? Site reader Damon writes in to say he has made some hardwood cabinets for box wine: take the plastic bladder out of the box and drop it into an oak model that sits on the counter ($200) or a floor-standing model made from purpleheart and birch ($250). He describes them further: “The interior of the cabinets has a stone finish with a sloped floor, which keeps the bladder flowing until it is empty. I will make these custom for people out of any hardwoods that you want, with any finish wanted.”

Would you, could you in a fancy box? Or same old box wine in a new container?

Related: “Best box wines of 2008”
UPDATE: After a couple of requests via email and with Damon’s approval from Whitefish, MT, his email address is fosterfitness@centurytel.net.

Reading about wine may be fun but there’s a lot to be said for tasting it. Many wine stores offer tastings, which are always free in New York and may be the best priced tastings for our times. But if you can rub two shekels together, there are some other paid events that offer some good opportunities in the near future.

February 21 & 23: natural wine Nirvana. Hirsute and Birkenstock-clad natural wine wine producers, vignerons, and “nature’s assistants” will descend on NYC next weekend. The first, smaller (and cheaper) event will be at Astor Center, which will feature seven natural wine producers. (Feb 21, 3:00 PM – 6:00 PM; $15)

The main event is the Return to Terroir tasting of 76 biodynamic wine makers from thirteen countries. They will be pouring what are some of the most exciting wines made today. It’s principally a trade event but it does open to the public from 4:00 – 6:00 PM on Feb 23 for $100 admission. If you’re curious about the slow-motion collapse of the French appellation system that I discuss in my book, Wine Politics, the iconoclast Nicolas Joly of Coulée de Serrant will be giving a talk mostly about biodynamics and perhaps a bit of appellation politics at 4 PM. I will also be signing copies of my books there from 4:00 – 5:00 PM and earlier in the day (if you’re in the trade). Stop by and say hi! Registration (For DC readers, the event will be held there the following day.)

March 7: At $1,400, my initial reaction to the La Paulée Burgundy bacchanlia is, “Holy crud! People still have that kind of scratch to blow on one evening?!” But fortunately the festivities also include a tasting of top Burgundies Saturday afternoon from 12 – 3. Even though it is still pricey at $300, Daniel Johnnes, the force behind the event, has lured Jean-Francois Coche to these shores for the first time ever, which means the big three of Meursault will be pouring that afternoon–Coche, Lafon, and Roulot–along with many others (see the complete list). Given what just one of those wines would cost, it actually might just be a bargain–and a must for Burgundy buffs. (reservations and details)

March 12: I’ll be signing copies of my practical guide, A Year of Wine, at Pasanella & Son, a wine shop at 115 South Street. Drop by, sample some of the free springtime wines and see if the 1967 Ferrari is still in the store! Map it

For more NYC wine events, be sure to check out localwineevents.com.

SPIT: Robert Parker
Business Week announces that Nick Passmore will be writing a twice-a-month wine column for the magazine. Robert Parker will no longer be contributing to the magazine. But what will US Airways do with all those tray tables?!

SPIT: Champagne saber
American skiier Lindsay Vonn may be out of World Cup ski competition, despite being the overall leader this season. Why? A Champagne injury. “Vonn received four stitches in her thumb after picking up a bottle of champagne opened with the edge of a ski and trying to spray it over guests attending a private party on Monday following her victory in the downhill at the World Ski Championships.” [Telegraph]

SPIT: water
Deadly forest fires in Australia have encroached n vineyards; 15% of the crop could be lost. [Decanter]

SPIT: water, part 2
A lack of rain plagues California vineyards. [KCRA]

SPIT: Luxe
Profits at LVMH were dragged down by slumping Champagne sales [AP]; the Naples charity wine auction brings in about $5 million, a third of last year [Decanter].

SIPPED: supermarket wine
Tennessee also may allow wine sales in grocery stores. [AP]

[Update] SIPPED: Chianti and lubrification!
“Our data shows that women who reported drinking 1-2 glass of red wine daily have higher FSFI scores for both sexual desire, lubrification and overall sexual function.” [Sexologies, thanks reader Bill!]

Last Friday, there was a sleepy little site called This is why you’re fat that welcomed eight visitors. Today, the site will have over one million visitors!!

But that vertiginous traffic spike is not the only thing that will leave you feeling woozy; such dishes as the Turbaconducken (a chicken and a duck cooked inside a turkey, which is, in turn, covered in bacon), the 60-pound Rice Krispie treat, the seven pound breakfast burrito, or the meat ship (made from bacon, sausages, pastry, franks and pork mince) ought to do it as well.

There are so many things on there that are impossible to pair with wine we should really have it as the sister site to our impossible food-wine pairings! But in the spirit of Valentine’s Day, let’s just tackle a chocolate one: the mega double stuff Oreo, photographed at right. So just which wine would you pair with that blend of hydrogenated soybean oil, high fructose corn syrup, soy lecithin, and chocolate? Or is it…impossible? Or feel free to weigh in (ahem) on any of the other delicacies on the site that strikes your fancy.

Buying crudité and rosé at the same time might help New York solve its budgetary woes. Or so Governor Paterson thinks.

That’s why he has proposed to allow food stores to sell wine, a subject we discussed the day the idea was floated. To recap the budgetary logic, he proposed to more than double the excise tax on wine and increase the points of sale beyond the 2,400 wine and liquor stores in the state and allow the 19,000 grocery stores to sell wine. The Governor’s office estimates that it will bring in an additional $150 million over three years, presumably from new store license fees and excise taxes rather than an increase in overall purchases. The deficit for next year alone is forecast to be $15 billion.

Shortly after I moved to New York State from Chicago four years ago, I was looking for a supermarket wine for a story and wondered where you found “supermarket wine” in New York. The answer is epitomized in this store I saw the other day, which we can call “Wines & Liqu” since that’s the only part of the neon sign that was illuminated. It’s these stores, uninspiring package stores, that don’t much invest in human capital and stock high-volume brands that will be most threatened by the impending change.

But alongside the Wines & Liqu stores are thriving boutiques that is probably the best concentration of wine stores in the universe. Read more…

It’s been a long, cold 2009 here in the northeast. All the more reason to have a little winter garden. In a wine bottle.

Last fall, I discovered and was immediately inspired by the work of Paula Hayes, an artist in the East Village. What captivated my attention were her beautiful terrariums, exquisite miniatures of nature (which you can see in excellent photography on her website).

So I did my best to replicate her art using my own medium: wine. My five-year-old son and I went into the woods last fall and collected two kinds of moss. He made his own terrarium in a glass cookie jar; I made mine in a bottle of Domaine Tempier rose 2007, my favorite rose from last summer. Unlike most wine bottles, rose bottles are clear to show off the eye-popping color of the wine. This also makes them better terrariums!

I first added dirt to the bottle. Then I ripped off chunks of moss, compressed them and shoved them through the wine bottle’s neck with a chop stick leftover from a previous takeout. A few pokes and prods later, I had them all lined up. The only problem was a bit of schmutz and condensation on the upper part of the glass; I’ll have to drop by Paula’s studio and ask for tips on terrarium schmutz removal. But now at least all the moss pieces have actually grown together to form a rich green carpet. And there you have it: mossage in a bottle.