What Kind of Wine Are You?

It never ceases to amaze me the amount of money that is wasted on frivolous research. While half the world is starving to death researchers are telling us what kind of personality you have based on the type of wine you prefer. And marketers just love it. You will be debonair, smooth and smart when you eat our pretzels or any other product they want to promote on TV. OK, they tell us that it will allow them to figure out why the Western world has so many obese people and solve the problem. I think not.
Ah, but trust those Texas tasters to figure it out. The wine division of the Texas department of Agriculture think we have it all backwards. Check out the pdf version of Texas in a bottle to see the wine wheel or click on the image below. Wine drinkers describe a wine having character or personality. No, no, that is backwards. Its people that are a lot like wine.

So what are you? A Cabernet, nice and dry? Or a Muscat, so sweet?
I guess I must be a certified wino. I like them all. It depends on the mood I am in, what I am planning to eat and most of all the people with whom I am sharing that bottle of wine.

Roll Out the Barrel or Make that Wine Bottle Plastic !

Another year, another vintage. Some wine regions are reporting that harvesting of early ripening grape varieties has begun. So, as in my previous post, is it time perhaps to stop and think about the grape's journey from vineyard to bottle? Yes, the Torres video ends with an ad for their wine, but it is very well done and worth watching.
So now the push for plastic wine bottles is on. The Boisset family of fine wines has been at the forefront of introducing wine drinkers everywhere to this new concept. And for my every day drinking wines, I can live with that.
A couple of years ago wine drinkers in Ontario were introduced to Boisset's Yellow Jersey series of wines by the LCBO of Ontario. The Yellow Jersey of course is the iconic jersey made famous by the Tour de France. Not available to us in British Columbia but through the kindness of Boisset I received samples of these wines. As you can see, I did my bit of recycling and leaving no carbon footprint when I replaced my water bottle with a Yellow Jersey wine bottle.
But I have to question the barrel concept described in the below video. I know Tod Nagle and he is a fine fellow but after the initial charm wears off for the patrons to your restaurant, what are you going to do for an encore? What are you going to tell those who want a Chardonnay, a Riesling, a Cabernet or any other wine? Will you be lining up a whole series of barrels? Green is good and this was good marketing and received some media attention but realistically not a sustainable project.
Are the marketing gurus tripping over each other to see what novel 'green' idea they can come up with to get that extra bit of media coverage? Or is there some exploiting of the green concept?