A few days ago, we wrote about our first encounter with plastic wine bottles with a 2008 Beaujolais Nouveau from Labouré-Roi. This winery thinks it’s understood that plastic wine bottles have a lower impact on the Earth than glass ones. But do they? That is, all aesthetic issues aside, is there a real environmental motivation to using plastic wine bottles – do they really reduce the carbon footprint of the wine they hold?

This question leads to more questions. How much carbon dioxide (CO₂) is produced during the manufacturing of each? Clearly, plastic bottles weigh less than their glass counterparts and therefore generate less CO₂ as they are transported, but how much less? And what about disposal? Are both glass and plastic wine bottles recyclable and, if so, how much CO₂ does the recycling process produce? (And as always when recycling comes up, you must ask how likely the bottle is to actually be recycled.)

So when you take all these factors into account, can using plastic wine bottles really help you sleep better at night because you’re helping the Earth? [click to continue…]

With Thanksgiving having just passed by, the wine-drinking world has also seen the release of the 2008 Beaujolais Nouveau wines. Experienced drinkers each have their own take on this well-marketed, commodity wine made from the Gamay varietal. Being an intermediate wine drinker (that’s right – I’m no longer a beginner!) who’s been paying attention to wine for nearly a year, I was anxious to try one of these wines that has the reputation of being more fun than fine.

When I went shopping for one here in my temporary home of Morgantown, WV, the local grocery store had only two available. One of the two was the Labouré-Roi Beaujolais Nouveau 2008 ($11). It was packaged in a plastic bottle with a screw-top, so I just had to pick it up – since one of our main topics is low-impact wine. As a bonus, one tree is planted for every bottle sold of Labouré-Roi Beaujolais Nouveau 2008. [click to continue…]

I am continuing my slow walk toward membership in the De Long Wine Century Club. This weekend, I shared a bottle of 2006 Statti Calabria Gaglioppo ($23) outdoors at Mandola’s Italian Market in Austin. This wine is made from the Gaglioppo grape, which was light and refreshing, with plenty of fruit and a little spicy mint to boot. Modest acid and 12.5% alcohol make this a perfect drink for a fall Sunday afternoon.

My wife was so impressed that I am going to buy a few bottles to keep at the house. Once again, the De Long challenge has led me to try a grape varietal that would not necessarily have made its way into my glass, and I am a happier wine drinker for it. [click to continue…]

As the holidays approach, WineEnabler.com is making every effort to keep you up to date on the best wine values available in Austin. In a previous post, we listed wine suggestions from the Austin-area experts from The Austin Wine Merchant, Grapevine Market, and Central Market.

This week we have wine selections from Molly Sheehan at Twin Liquors on Balcones and Jen Powell from Whole Foods on Lamar. Molly offers three white and red wine suggestions, and Jen offers three red. [click to continue…]

With the election capturing everyone’s attention, it is hard to believe that the holiday season of Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa is only a month and a half away.

If you are like me, you have not bought a single Christmas present, and you’re going to be pressed for time. Making matters worse is the current economic situation. If I wait until the last minute, I spend more on presents than I do if I plan ahead. Fortunately, many of the people on my Christmas list are wine drinkers, and I have some gift ideas.

Here are a few holiday gifts that I am considering as presents. If you are buying holiday gifts for a wine lover, this list is a great place to start looking. [click to continue…]

Now that wine is making its way into the online community, folks have begun to tinker with the idea of an online wine sommelier. In theory, it sounds like a wonderful idea.

You grab your iPhone or Blackberry, connect to a site, and enter your dinner choice. The mythical program then determines your location via the GPS function of your handheld device and hunts up the online version of the wine list or wine inventory at your current location. The program then cross applies your specific taste profile and your meal information and recommends the best wine.

What a great idea! However, there is nothing even close to this available yet on the internet. The programs we’ve experimented with fall into two categories. Programs that require the end user to have lots of knowledge about wine to use, or programs that return information that is of little value unless you know a lot about wine. [click to continue…]

True craftsmanship is in the details, and for me, Michelle Obama’s announcement that the future First Pooch will be a rescue dog is, while not the furthest reaching, perhaps the most fine-tuned detail of a campaign truly run to perfection. They are a family that walks the walk.

In fact, I took the opportunity offered by a brief pause in the geyser of joyful tears running down my face today to google the issue of the Obama puppy, simply to verify my instinct that the Obamas would choose to adopt a dog in need rather than support the shameful practice of breeding living things with the intent that they be paraded around in celebrities’ designer purses.

And indeed, it was true; once again in this past 24 hours I experienced the wholly forgotten sensation of vindication. Lord, I could get used to this! But I digress… [click to continue…]

I keep a close eye on my wine prices. That doesn’t mean that I won’t pay for good wine, but I want to be sure that I know a bargain or a rip-off when I see one. Unfortunately, these days, bargains are harder to find. It seems that all the wine that was ordered when the Euro was worth more than $1.50 is making its way to America just in time for the Holidays.

My shopping survey suggests that the price increases are steepest for Italian and Spanish wines. From Spain for example, Constano’s 2004 Hecula is a good drink that was $9.99 this summer but is now $12.50 or more. Another Spanish wine that has been under $10 forever that is taking a big jump is Marques de Caceres 2004 Rioja Crianza Red, which is now $12.50 or more. From Italy, I bought Tomaresca’s 2006 Puglia for $9.99 about one month ago, and this weekend it was $12.99. And Inama’s 2007 Vin Soave Classico has increased from $14.25 to $16.25. I could go on and on, but I think you get the point. [click to continue…]

I just returned from Santa Rosa where I had the fortune to witness the beginning of a revolution (code jockeys would call it an emergent property) at North America’s first Wine Bloggers Conference. The name does not seem to suggest anarchy or shifting tectonic plates, but the people and companies at last weekend’s conference are starting a revolution in the wine industry.

On its surface, the Wine Bloggers Conference was a group of hobbyist and industrial folks getting together to drink wine and exchange ideas, but the whole is often larger than the sum of its parts. During the conference, I met many wonderful people and had a great time, but what impressed me the most were the love, knowledge, and respect the attendees showed for wine. [click to continue…]

When Neil and Michael proposed writing a wine blog about a year ago, my inner hillbilly reared her head. I found the term “beer snob” a delightful oxymoron, and “wine snob” just plain redundant.

As a proud member of the beer drinking class, whenever I was asked to pick up wine on the way to a friend’s house for dinner, I was happy to spend just enough time in the wine aisle to locate the Rosemount Shiraz and move on. Once in the state-run liquor store nearest the University of Utah, an effete graphic design student from the East Coast had tutored me in its pronunciation and informed me that it was “marginally drinkable”.

And indeed, it was nectar compared to the ubiquitous Rolling Rock beer stashed into the sock drawers of every other non-Mormon on that dry campus. I already felt classy enough drinking out of a glass instead of a green bottle or a Nalgene, and to my mind, fussing any further about the subject of wine was suspiciously Yankee. [click to continue…]