The wine headache

During my morning newspaper reading, I came across a story about a vintner that destroyed thousands of gallons of wine because of poor sales in the United States.

The Wall Street Journal reported in its Monday edition that Australian maker Treasury Wine Estates Ltd. had to destroy $145 million worth of wine that was past its prime.

They poured out what?

The first thing that popped into my mind when I read this was John Belushi kicking a car in the parking lot of the Delta frat house as Dean Wormer’s henchmen empty the contents of the house and drop a case of Jack Daniels, breaking all the whiskey bottles.

But in this case they’re breaking more than 45 million bottles —  aaaaggghhhhh!

Is this really necessary? Think of all the thirsty people in the world.

There are day-old bakery shelves – where are the 10 year old wine bins?

Mark the price down to cost and let me take my chances – I’ll even sign a waiver if they want me to.

They should partner with Harry and David and get a package deal going with cheese, crackers and deli meats nearing expiration.

Wineries have marketing people, don’t they?

Maybe they need to hire some new ones before the next 45 million bottle breakdown occurs.

Re-purposing: Part Deux

What do you do with your empty bottles?

You can put them in the recycle bin on the curb for pick-up — they'll put them to good use and it's better than contributing them to the local landfill.

But what will the neighbors think? 

I read a story recently about concerned wine drinkers who would drive around the neighborhood and "share" their empties with their neighbors' recycle bins after dark to avoid potential suspicions about their imbibing patterns. 

Don't waste your gas — there are many other, more practical ways to use those empties.

Bottle trees are on option. 

I have some that have a variety of bottle types planted on them.

I've made some bottle bushes by jamming pieces of rebar in the ground and planting different bottles on each rebar stem.

Some bottle trees hang like a plant from a beam outside.

My favorite bottle tree is a metal arch.

I picked it up at a flea market and I've covered it with blue and green bottles.

Remember — your plants get thirsty, too.

Poke a hole in a cork, fill one of your empties with with water, then return the cork to the bottle and place the bottle cork first into one of your plants. 

It's both decorative and useful. Thirsty plants will appreciate the time-release refreshment.

But at some point, you'll have to explain to your neighbors why your plants drink so much.

Re-purposing

Isn't everybody doing this now?

It's easy to think of reasons to do it ranging from the environmental to the creative.

Why wouldn't you do it?

Those reasons range from being lazy to too busy.

Results of a "wine cork art" Internet search can lead you to some very ambitious re-purposers' very ambitious projects.

Portraits, letters, pieces of art, globes, picture frames, bird houses, wreaths ...

Maybe I'm a little bit too lazy and a little bit too busy with my wine gardening - otherwise known as a passive re-purposer.

But even passive re-purposers can create interesting objects.

This is one of my favorites.

A big empty jar, a little paint, a few (hundred) corks and voila — re-purposed art for a bar or kitchen.

Consider a collection of interesting bottles filled with wine corks to keep the big red wine jug company.

A crate and an old label can give a wine bottle an official winery look.

Fill it with corks and it looks even more official. 

Corks can be added to bottles of all shapes and sizes. 

  

Another reason to re-purpose: It gives you something else to contemplate as you're enjoying a nice glass of wine on a nice summer evening.