I love that this white-wine decanter has an ice chamber designed to keep the wine cool without letting melted ice dilute the wine at all. From the looks of it, the melted water won’t spill out when you pour the wine, either, so long as you’re reasonably careful.
Plus, it’s made from recycled windshields, which is why it has that green tint.
It’s $50 on Uncommon Goods, which is a little pricey, but not really that far-out. Unfortunately, it is currently sold out. Must be popular!
Love wine but hate corkscrews? This Bosch power screwdriver comes with a corkscrew attachment so you can power that pesky cork right out of the bottle.
Two thoughts come to mind — first of all, that this would be great not only for manly-men who want a powerdrill-corkscrew, but also for arthritics. And secondly, that this is miles better than my current scheme of sending a drill bit deep into the cork and then smashing the bottle in a rage against the nearest brick wall and slurping the wine out from the shards of glass.
(Amazon, via OhGizmodo and tdw)
There’s nothing particularly earth-shattering about this wine stopper that is also a wine pourer — I’ve seen similar versions made of plastic for years — but I really dig the fact that this one’s made from cork.
Sadly, it is €20.
My personal solution — it keeps wine as fresh as possible — is simply to finish every bottle the same night you open it.
(via Coudal)
Amy and I are in the (lengthy and frustrating) process of moving into a new house just before Christmas. Although we’ve had amazing help from several friends (shout-outs here to Kent, Shane and Noto) there are still dozens of things to do.
One of the issues we’ve tackled has been rebuilding the trap door that’s in the kitchen, which leads to the basement. It still needs to be shaved down a little bit and I’m trying to figure out how to mortise the hinges and the ring pull without effing up the floor.
In Googling about those problems, though, I came across the wonderful idea above — a spiral wine cellar, which can be dug underneath your floor and hidden with a trap door. Essentially it’s a spiral staircase with shelves, and it’s all cement-lined, so it’s both very sturdy and nicely cooled for your wine.
Of course, it’s tens of thousands of dollars.
And Amy I and pretty much drink our wine as we buy it. Hmmm, that sounds bad. We buy our wine as we drink it. There.
However, if there are any bored millionaire oenophiles reading this blog, you could do worse than a spiral wine cellar. Check them out at Spiral Cellars. There are also other blog posts at TheKitchn.com and at HomeTone.org.
Can you open a bottle of wine with a shoe? The French can!
At first, I thought this was going to go really badly, and then I thought it might be a joke. And then, whoa - I’ve gotta try it!
(via BB)
Thank God this video wasn’t a “this wine is great, try this vintage” style of helpfulness. Instead, Gary Vaynerchuk gives you general rules of thumb to follow. Of course, the best advice (I think) he gives is simply to try lots of wines, and figure out what you like. Then, try something new!
According to his Wikipedia page, Vaynerchuk seems to be a bit of an enfant terrible in the wine world, but I like his style.
Now, who’s up for a bottle or three?
Last weekend, in the Labour Day Classic, the Saskatchewan Roughriders thumped the Winnipeg Blue Bombers by a score of 29-14.
(For readers who don’t know, the Canadian Football League hosts a number of particularly nasty rivalries on Labour Day weekend, including Winnipeg/Sasktchewan, Calgary/Edmonton and Hamilton/Toronto.)
The week after the Labour Day Classic is often a time for the rematch, giving the other team home field advantage. In the case of Winnipeg/Saskatchewan, this rematch has been christened the Banjo Bowl. And it’s today. (Live stream from the Winnipeg Free Press)
Seeing as how my dad is from Winnipeg and my mom is from Saskatchewan and my last name is Hamilton, I spent my youth trying to find a CFL team to root for. Although I live in Manitoba, we’re about half-way between Bomber and Rider territory, so I could legitimately lean either way.
Finally, though, my dad’s apparent waning of interest in football, combined with my uncle’s (on my mom’s side) ever-green exuberance, has won me over to the Roughriders’ side. Plus, although the Riders play in Regina, I’m heartened by the fact that they play on behalf of the whole province — unlike the Perimeteritis-afflicted Bombers.
To make amends for not supporting my paternal football team, I do tend to occasionally pick up Labatt Blue, as far as I know the only beer named after a sports team in the world.
Now, though, there’s competition for my alcoholic team loyalties — yes, Rider Pride, the wine.
Although it apparently comes in a Chardonnay as well, I was lucky enough to get a sample of the Merlot. It’s a 2008 vintage, from Chile, and if you pay attention to the label, it was actually imported through Alberta, so I don’t know what you can say about the Saskatchewan bona fides. Some suggest that a chokecherry, rhubarb or dandelion wine would have been more a propos, and I worry about the “whine” homophone plus the fey attitude of the beverage as a whole, but I guess not every team can have its own beer. And I’m not sure that’s it’s legal to sell liquor-soaked watermelons.
That said, a good wine has two or three times the alcohol content of most beers, and a robust red could be just the thing with a thick tailgated steak. Even the Chardonnay would be a fine accompaniment to a spicy plate of nachos.
The deep colour of the Rider Pride wine was promising, but right from the start, the wine’s nose, or aroma, was on the vinegar side. It was quite sharp, and a little off-putting. (Rider fan jokes go here, for all of you Bomber fans.) I decided before sampling that I would read what the back of the bottle said.
After some standard “Riders fans are the best” suck-upping, the wine promises “ripe tannins and a long finish …. Fruity undertones and a rich and creamy texture.”
Well, that sounded pretty fine. And the proposed accompaniment — light meat dishes — sounded like it would go well with the barbecue we had planned.
But there was still the small issue of the not-all-that-great aroma. Time to put it to the test.
Well, this tester described the wine as having a taste like old shoes. Perhaps it’s a locker room allusion?
I wouldn’t go that far. But there was little enough to recommend about this wine. It’s unfortunate, because I would really like to crack open a bottle and enjoy it as I watch the Riders thump the Bombers. But this Merlot had a harsh, almost chemical taste to it. It was strong, sure, and it would stand up to spicy football foods — even a smokie with sauerkraut, I’m sure — but it wasn’t a delight to quaff at all.
Perhaps we just had a bad bottle. Or perhaps this was a bad year, and next year’s bottling will be superior.
But I can’t shake the feeling that this wine — at $15.64 a bottle — is simply an inflated cash-grab by a money-hungry Albertan.
