Cool
Box + Decent Juice = Cool Pool Wine
The
first thing I said when I opened the shipping
container was: “Wow! This is cool!”
Quite a rave from someone who is on a first-name
basis with his UPS and FedEx drivers, who
bring me many wines to sample on a daily
basis.
Unpacking
boxes of wine is part of the drudgery that
is my job. Wineries regularly send me wine,
accompanied by fluffy press releases touting
their wine’s supremacy, in the hope
that I will spill some glowing words about
it in these columns. Alas, I don’t
use these wines very often. First, I more
typically come up with my own ideas and
make requests for specific types of wine.
And second, even if I wrote a column every
day (and nobody wants that), I would still
fall far behind.
Every
once in a while, I am charmed by an unsolicited
sample, but rarely am I moved to interjection.
What was so cool about this shipment from
Revelry Vintners?
The
chardonnay, merlot and cabernet sauvignon
comes in cylindrical boxes that are tapered
at the top. It has hip graphics on the outside
depicting beautiful young people in celebratory
poses (revelry, get it?). But that is not
what makes it cool. Inside the cylinder,
which resembles a gift container, is not
a bottle of wine, but a bag of wine. The
airtight bag, with a concealed spigot at
the bottom, contains the equivalent of two
standard bottles. This struck me as revel-lutionary
(I swear I did not get that from the fluffy
press release).
I
did my own scientific consumer polling on
this packaging. My wife, Eleanore’s
response: “Cool!” Friend, Gina
Joiner-Bly, who happened to be my kitchen:
“Wow! Way cool!” Several parents
of the Decatur Gators Swim Team: Various
interpretations of “Cool!”
The
packaging concept, according to the fluffy
press release, was the idea of the 26-year-old
winemaker Jared Burns. This also came as
a pleasant surprise as the wine industry
is overrun by corporate fuddy-duddies, who
wouldn’t recognize an innovative idea
if it bit them on their quarterly earnings
report.
Ah!
I hear you saying, but what about the wines
inside? I was so enamored by the packaging
that I wanted the wines to be good—and
I did find them better than merely palatable.
Skeptical of my own objectivity, I asked
Eleanore and several Decatur Gator parents
who concurred: interesting, pleasant wines
that taste great in a plastic cup at a swim
meet. What’s not cool about all that?
2006
Revelry Vintners Chardonnay,
Columbia Valley, Wash.
•
$20/1.5 liters
•
Two Thumbs Up
•
All three Revelry wines (chard, merlot and
cabernet sauvignon) were tasty, but the
chard, with its aromas of orange, lemon,
lime and faint vanilla, was a tad tastier.
Nicely balanced with flavors fresh citrus
fruit and a touch of cinnamon, nutmeg and
jalapeño.
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