What's on tap? Wine NOT beer!?!?!?!

[Roy Hersh]

Interesting possibilities for the future of wine drinkers, but sadly this will become a way to sell high production, low cost wine and not necessarily wine that is truly well made. We'll have to wait and see before passing judgment. I do like the thought of a refillable container (as offered by Whole Foods).

Your thoughts?

http://www.winespectator.com/webfeature/show/id/45801

[Peter W. Meek]

If they can supply wines that I like, why not?

I could even use something like this at home. We take a couple of hundred bottle to the recycling every few months. If these barrels hold about 26 bottles and can 'live' for more than a week or two, I could even use them for every-day wine. Certainly I could use them for parties - typically 30-60 bottles. A tap and a tank of nitrogen or argon and I'd be all set.

One question would be: where could I buy them locally? Given Michigan's alcohol laws, I probably could not buy them directly from the winery.

[Eric Menchen]

I'd be up for it at home so I can have a glass without opening a bottle. Then again, I'm already set up with a keg system, so it isn't a big step for me to add in a keg of wine.

Neal also discovered that the tubing used in beer keg systems was gas permeable—it let oxygen in—so he switched to tubing with a gas barrier.

Hunh? Oxygen is bad for beer too, and all the tubing I'm aware of has very low permeability because of this.

[Eric Ifune]

In Italy, you can drive up to one of the local coops and buy by the liter using a pump exactly like a gas pump. Some wines are actually pretty good!

[Ray Barnes]

Viva Italia!