For The Love Of Port

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

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.

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.

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!

Viva Italia!