Dr Vino's wine blog

In an effort to solve two of wine’s largest problems, the food pairing conundrum and the carbon footprint, Franzia has today announced the ideal solution: wine in an edible box.

The box is made from lightweight materials, which reduce the carbon dioxide emissions during transportation. But the packaging materials are also edible since they are made from a corn-based corrugated cardboard with a soy-based plastic bag on the inside. The wine brand is called Food n Wine Box.

“We wanted to do more than have a low carbon footprint,” said Anthony J. Franzia, Senior Vice President of Product Development, in a press release. “We wanted to have zero need for recycling the box and bag. With the packaging of Food n Wine Box, whoever squeezes off the last glass has the first dibs on digging into the delectable box.”

The boxes of the wine are available in different flavors. Robust Red has a hint of BBQ sauce embedded in its molecules. The Summer Sippin’ White has notes of grapefruit.

Chef Homaro Cantu was a consultant in the product design.

For more details, click here.

Wine Madness continues to the Final Four! Thanks to your comments, we now have the finalists! Vote here and now to decide the winner! (We are dispensing with the semifinals and the final four will be ranked in their vote order here.)

UPDATE: poll closed: The wine with the most votes as of Monday April 7, 11:59 PM will be declared the winner!

See previous rounds

SIPPED: discussion!
Eric Asimov of the NYT had a thoughtful article in Wednesday’s paper about exposing teenagers to wine in the home. It’s great to see a constructive discussion (325 comments long!) on his blog about fostering wine enjoyment in the home rather than the usual discussion of excesses. Related: we’ve discussed kids at wineries and how appropriate is the drinking age of 21 here. [NYT]

SIPPED and SPIT: NYC wine bars
Closing tonight is Divine Wine Bar East. Zagat reports they have having the Mother of All Happy Hours tonight to liquidate (ha) the inventory. Opening: Bowery Wine Company and the new wine lounge at Le Cirque. See the action on the NYC wine bar map!

SIPPED: The audacity of nope
French President Sarkozy, a self-proclaimed teetotaler (although see here and here for evidence to the contrary), has the nerve to ask to see the wine list at Windsor Palace before a state dinner. [Times of India]

SIPPED: resveratrol
“Researchers at the University of Rochester have shown for the first time that resveratrol, a natural antioxidant found in grape skins and red wine, helps to destroy cancerous pancreatic cells by crippling the diseased cells’ mitochondria, the minute organelles found in the majority of living cells which provide them with energy.” [FT.com]

Image: fair-use is made of a reduced size crop of an image that appeared in the NYT attributed to Lisa Adams.

Wine critic and blogger Wolfgang Weber sent in this picture from his travels. Where in the wine world was he? Hit the comments with your thoughts!

Wine Madness, the tournament that has captivated the dozen people who like both wine and sports, now moves to the quarterfinals thanks entirely to your votes and hilarious comments!

For this round, you need to vote the wines you want to see in the next round by commenting on this post. After the jump, see the remaining eight teams and post a comment to decide the Final Four! Read more…

What wine lover doesn’t love the “reefer”? Simmer down, I’m talking about the refrigerated shipping container. Jancis Robinson had a piece in the FT about this chilling topic on Saturday.

As if that didn’t spark your interest in this aspect of logistics, it reminded me of a conversation I had a few weeks ago with a bigwig at a large Australian wine producer. He told me that they track the temperature fluctuations in their transportation containers via sophisticated thermometer. They have data–hour by hour if necessary–for the duration of the voyage. Sometimes the container gets “trans-shipped” and can lie around for weeks on a dock Singapore, a locale not at the top of everyone’s “cool and dry” places.

Here’s the really interesting part: in Japan, the importers demand the data and refuse the wine if it has been cooked. In the US, no. He also said they have different blends for different markets but that is not exactly news.

The only thing worse than having wine be corked is when it is cooked!

Related: “Wireless message in a bottle” (image)

Mrs. Vino is having a bountiful harvest so far this year–and it’s only March! Over the weekend, we got the best Easter present in the form of a baby boy, our second. So if my blogging is somewhat intermittent, consider it a parental leave.

But Mrs. Vino’s (re)productivity doesn’t stop with babies. The fifth book in her series of children’s books has just been published: Eco Babies Wear Green. Just in time for Earth Day!

It all started last week on a lark, but now we move on to the second round. Over the weekend, play occurred in far-flung arenas and I report the results here. Now it is up to you and vote the teams/wines through that you want to see in the next round. It is all in your hands! Hit the comments of this post for the Parkerized wines and Natural wines brackets; the previous post for the Riesling and Supermarket wine brackets. Read more…