There is an answer to this question, but you’ll have to read on to find the answer (don’t cheat)…

Needless to say, the glass wine bottle reigns supreme. There has, however, been an increase in the types of containers storing wine in recent years. And it keeps on evolving.

For a long time, boxed wine has been looked down upon. But the quality of the wine has recently risen. Eric Asimov of the NYT explains the reasons in his piece, ”Reconsidering Boxed Wine.” Greater acceptance of the boxed wine notion is also good news if you’re counting carbon footprints–according to the Journal of Wine Research, shipping boxed wine produces half as many gas emissions as transporting heavier glass bottles.

Along with boxes, came the can. In a recent article on nytimes.com, “Cans of Wine Join the Boxed Set,” Bonnie Tsui provides great information on some of the newer, and finer, wines–drinkable not from a Bordeaux or Burgundy-shaped bottle, but rather from a specially-lined aluminum can.

Wine in a can isn’t entirely new, Tsui points out, and was “first sold by Barokes Wines, an Australian winemaker that invented a patented process called Vinsafe, which lines the aluminum to prevent any reaction that would impart flavors to the wine or degrade the container. The techniques are similar to what some craft brewers have been using, but wine’s high acidity and alcohol levels require a thicker lining.”

I wasn’t surprised to learn that Francis Ford Coppola was the first American winemaker to sell wine in a can–small, pink ones housing Sofia Blanc de Blancs, named for his daughter.

Wines on tap at Colicchio & Sons

I was surprised, however, when I ate recently at the latest of chef Tom Colicchio’s New York restaurants, Colicchio & Sons. The bar had an extensive selection of craft beers, as well as five “eco-friendly” wines…on tap. That’s right. On tap.

I’ve since learned that there are several advantages for serving wine on tap:

-Better for the environment. While bottles are recycled, wine served on tap is stored in environmentally friendly, air tight mini tanks that are reused.

-Cost-effective. Producers aren’t adding on the cost of the bottle, the cork, the carton and the transportation it comes in, so the restaurant owner pays less and so does the consumer.

-Freshness. Wine left over in a bottle used to pour wines by the glass is often discarded as it doesn’t last for more than a couple of days at most. Wine served on tap always tastes fresh, lasting for up to 60 days.

So I guess that’s what’s next…

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Not sure about you, but I’ve been frisked going into concerts and football stadiums and it’s not fun. Why would anyone sneak booze in when you can buy it inside, right?

Well, it seems that enough people would to demand a new sort of product on the market–an alternative route for women–and it’s called the WineRack.

This is no joke–the website selling the WineRack ($30) boasts that that “the advantages are obvious.” It is actually a black sports bra (fits sizes 34C-D, 36A-D and 38A-C) that lets you carryup to 750ml (equal to the contents of one bottle of wine, or 25 oz.) of any beverage. The bra sports a polyurethane  bladder and a drinking tube long enough to route as you wish, along with an easy-to-use on/off valve to control the flow.

The big question: If the frisker feels the tube, what will she ask you to do–spill out its contents or remove your bra?

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For those of us who have watched–and enjoyed–the epic frat party film, Animal House, it’s easy to see that these boys are having one good, drunken time throughout. According to a recent study, the alcohol-induced male elation is not purely fictional.

The study, published in Biological Psychology, shows that men experience greater pleasure form drinking alcohol than women do. Apparently, liquor triggers the male brain to release a higher amount of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that causes euphoria and pleasure.

When the high subsides, however, it’s not all fun and beer pong. Researchers say that the additional dopamine may help expain why men, especially those who can hold their liquor, are twice as likely as women to become alcoholics.

“It’s not just that people who release more dopamine like it better,” says John H. Krystal, chair of the Yale University psychiatrity department and one of 11 authors of the study. “They also learn to want it more.”

On two separate days, the researchers tested how the brains of 21 young social drinkers reacted to alcohol. On one day, the men and women were given juice mixed with a tiny amount of alcohol. Then the researchers used PET scanners to measure the dopamine release in the subjects’ brain. They expected the effect to be minimal, Krystal says, and it was. But they wanted to control for the possibility that people would feel euphoric just because they thought they were getting drunk. On the second day, when the subjects were given stronger drinks, dopamine levels were higher–and the men’s brains released more than twice as much dopamine as the women’s.

The researchers’ goal is to develop ways to “damp down” dopamine release in the brains of people predisposed to alcoholism. With the use of medications and other treatments, young drinkers with a family history of alcoholism may be able to lessen their chances of becoming problem drinkers.

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Last week, the following book deal was announced on Publishers Marketplace: Caren Osten Gerszberg and Leah Odze Epstein, eds.’ DRINKING DIARIES: Women Serve Their Stories Straight Up, a collection of essays covering the wide and wild range of relationships women have with alcohol — from lamp-swinging humor to bottle-under-the-bed despair.

This Drinking Diaries blog has been a true labor of love, and it’s been your encouragement and willingness to share your experiences, comments and advice that has supported our journey to acquiring this book deal.

We are excited to to compile nearly 30 original essays that will make up this anthology, and want to thank all of our readers who have been supporting us along the way. Our goal remains to bring out the stories that cover a spectrum of experiences relating to women and drinking, varying in age, background, culture and perspective.

Drinking Diaries: Women Serve Their Stories Straight Up will be published in September 2012 by Seal Press (part of the Perseus Books group), an imprint whose tagline proudly reads: Groundbreaking Books. By Women. For Women.

Our blog will continue with new postings, essays and interviews each week, and we will keep you up to date on any book-related events. Thanks again for your support!

All the best,

Caren & Leah

Perhaps I was born kneeling,

born coughing on the long winter,

born expecting the kiss of mercy,

born with a passion for quickness

and yet, as things progressed,

I learned early about the stockade

or taken out, the fume of the enema.

By two or three I learned not to kneel,

not to expect, to plant my fires underground

where none but the dolls, perfect and awful,

could be whispered to or laid down to die.

Now that I have written many words,

and let out so many loves, for so many,

and been altogether what I always was—

a woman of excess, of zeal and greed,

I find the effort useless.

Do I not look in the mirror,

these days,

and see a drunken rat avert her eyes?

Do I not feel the hunger so acutely

that I would rather die than look

into its face?

I kneel once more,

in case mercy should come

in the nick of time.

Anne Sexton was an influential American poet, known for her highly personal, confessional poems. She won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1967. Themes of her poetry include her suicidal tendencies, long battle against depression, and various intimate details from her own private life, including her relationship with her husband and children.

Cooking, cleaning, laundry…brewing beer. Traditionally, these tasks were considered women’s work, so it makes sense that women are gaining a foothold in the exploding craft-beer industry. So much so that there’s a Women and Beer event on May 12 in Vancouver during Craft Beer Week. Here in America, we have the Beer Chicks, beer sommeliers Christina Perozzi and Hallie Beaune.

Our long history with beer begins in ancient Egypt, when women were the brewers, according to Leslie Fenn, co-owner of Howe Sound Brewing in Squamish (Vancouver region of Canada). Many ales were used as herbal remedies, as they were full of vitamins and herbs.

Claire Connolly, brewmaster at Big River brew pub in Richmond, Vancouver explained that brewing beer was the women’s job because it sterilized the water and made it clean for the homes.

Men took over brewing during the Industrial Revolution when it became a paid job, says Connolly. From then on, mass-produced beer dominated, and men—the ones who worked outside the home—ran those businesses.

Unlike craft beer, which is created with local farm products, fruits and herbs, mass market beer tends to be low in flavor.  As Connolly explains, women are better equipped than men to identify threshold levels of unique flavors, and appreciate the fruitier, more complex taste of craft beer.

Have you ever tasted craft beer? If so, do you have a favorite? What makes it unique?

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Happy Holidays!

To celebrate the New Year, we’re giving away 3 Drinking Diaries t-shirts to three lucky commenters chosen at random. In your comment, please let us know what you’d like to see here on Drinking Diaries in the New Year.

If you tweet about us we’ll enter you twice!

Many thanks for your support and please keep on reading,

Caren & Leah

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About 10 years ago, my husband and I were invited to our friends for dinner. We stopped at a local liquor store to pick up a bottle of wine for our hosts, and one in particular caught my husband’s eye. In big, block letters, the label read, “CHEAP WHITE WINE.” Our friend hasn’t stopped talking about it since.

Now, it seems the people who once put out those Swanson TV dinners (how I enjoyed those when I was a kid and my parents went out for dinner!) have put their money into wine AND labels. Frozen food trays have thankfully morphed

into Swanson Vineyards, makers of a fine, flavorful Cab-Merlot blend.

Developed by the winery’s creative director, with some help from Andy Spade (husband of Kate), the bottles have a unique sense of taste and style. While the wine inside each bottle is the same, the labels come with a message–”Mazel Tov,” “Lucky Night,” and “Merci,” just to name a few. So if you need a hostess gift, or just a reason to say, “Thrilled For You,” it may be worth checking out.

Tomorrow will mark ONE year since the Drinking Diaries‘ first post on June 16, 2009. This blog has been a labor of love for both of us, and we are proud of the many talented contributors, poignant and funny essays, and interesting readers’ comments that have made their way onto the site.

In celebration of its first anniversary, we invite YOU, our readers, to please let us know in the comment box below what it is you like, dislike, or would like to see more of on the Drinking Diaries.

To show our gratitude, we will enter the first 20 names into a CONTEST and the winner will receive a signed copy of one of our contributor’s books (This will be a surprise!).

Thank you again for visiting us, and we hope you will return with great regularity!

Cheers,

Caren & Leah

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On a recent trip to Rome, my family of five fell upon a wonderful, homey trattoria called Matricianella. Checkered cloths covered each table, where families–large and small–gathered for a Friday night out on the town.

We were the sole Americans in the place, which only added to the authenticity of the experience. I was happy in my little trattoria element.

When the waiter approached with a basket of crusty peasant bread, my husband quickly ordered a bottle of red wine to get the meal’s festivities going. While we discussed how many carciofi giudea (fried artichoke Jewish style, a Roman specialty) to order, the waiter returned with the bottle of vino, four glasses in hand.

Peering over us with little patience, the waiter asked our daughters if they wanted glasses for wine. They are 16 and 14 years old, and they each peered across the table in slight wonderment. With our known approval, our eldest said, “Si,” and our younger one declined. I supposed it made sense that he didn’t offer a glass to our 9-year-old son.

We are completely comfortable with our daughter having a few sips of wine with us on vacation–though she really doesn’t like red wine. And the Italians clearly think nothing of it. But this is such a stark contrast to the ways of the land from where we come, that I am still always amazed that they offer. 

I honestly can’t say what the statistics are about problem drinking in Italy, or declare whether or not it is an issue among Italian teenagers. But I do know that my husband and I are okay with the laissez-faire attitude. And so, we will let our children drink il vino a Roma. Cin-Cin!

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As temporary home to the Olympics, Vancouver has been crowded with throngs of tourists for the past two weeks. With the excitement and thrills come lots of celebrations in the city’s bars, many of which have been spilling out into the streets.

So it’s only fitting that drinking should also make its way onto the art scene. In a recent article in the New York Times, Charles McGrath describes a new exhibit at Vancouver’s Playwrights Theater Center on Granville Island (the artsy area of town), which looks at the fine line between drinking and “drinking” and between the “bar as mere watering hole and as self-activating performance space.”

The installation, created by British neo-conceptualist Theo Sims, is set in a 12-by-20 foot plywood box, and recreates the Candahar, an Irish pub in Belfast, fully equipped with beer taps, a brass rail, and a TV tuned to Irish horseracing. The bar is tended by two Irish men wearing fedoras and thick Irish sweater—two real bar men (and brothers) who are also scripted performers for the exhibit.

“The purpose of the installation,” said the artist in the Times piece, “is to stimulate social interaction, encourage people to re-examine their preconceptions and start cross cultural conversations.”

It all sounds so civilized when you look at it this way. And it makes me think about the purpose of bars and the community gathering that must’ve been so integral for communicating and sharing events years ago. Now with Facebook and Twitter, people can “gather” virtually and video chat while sipping ale in their pajamas. Not quite the same.

*Photo source: Kim Stallknecht for the NY Times

Nope, it’s not the 1970s but it is about to be the start of a new decade, and why not bring feminism and wine together? The California National Organization for Women (NOW) and Bottlenotes, a website covering all things wine-related, have joined forces to launch the Feminist Wine Club.

“All wines in the Feminist Wine Club have been carefully selected by Bottlenotes to showcase some phenomenal wines made or imported by women, or produced at wineries owned by women,” says the Feminist Wine Club website. “All proceeds from the Feminist Wine Club go to the California National Organization for Women.”

The founders say the new wine club aims to provide subscribers with “an easy, enjoyable, non-intimidating way for women to learn about wine, build community, and support women winemakers and causes as well.”

Mona Lisa Wallace, a spokeswoman for the group, told the San Francisco Business Times that the effort is meant to celebrate “women succeeding in business and breaking into areas previously dominated by men.”

Do you ever wonder what to do with your leftover wine? (Or is leftover wine an oxymoron in your house?)

According to the Waste & Resource Action Programme, British households are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars worth of wine down the drain every year. One can only imagine how much wine Americans are wasting.

Is this as common a scenario in your house as it is in mine?–You’d like a glass of wine with dinner, say, but your spouse (or partner, whoever) doesn’t, or perhaps you live alone and don’t really want to finish a bottle by yourself.

Halfway through one glass, or two, you feel sufficiently sated. So what do you do with the rest? Do you A) Pour it down the drain, B) Let it sit on the counter all night because you feel too guilty to waste good wine, then throw it down the drain the next day, or C) Pour the wine back in the bottle, where it sits until you feel like having another glass of wine a week later, at which time it has turned to vinegar.

It’s a perennial question–what to do with leftover wine…

Preserving your wine not only helps your budget, but it also helps reduce your carbon footprint. Though some wines last longer than others (a big cabernet will last longer than a young red, for example; and dessert wines such as port can last for a year), all wines will last at least a day if you recork them and put them back in the fridge. Most wines will go three days.

So what else can you do? Here are some answers:

* Freeze it in ice cube trays and use it in sauces and casseroles. But don’t drink the defrosted wine–yuck!

* If you know you can’t drink a full bottle when you open it, decant half into a smaller container as soon as you open the bottle, then seal with a screw cap to keep oxygen out. Keep a few half bottles around for this purpose. Wash, and reuse. The wine should be fine for at least a week, if not longer.

* If you want to keep the leftover wine in the original bottle, you can cork it up as soon as you’re finished and keep it in the refrigerator for two or three nights. (When you take a red out of the fridge, let it warm at room temperature for ten minutes before drinking).

* Make mulled wine syrup to drizzle over ice cream, or other desserts.

Some additional tips:

* Don’t worry about week-old wine being unsafe to drink. You’ll know if you’ve kept your wine too long because it won’t taste or smell as good, but it won’t hurt you.

* The more wine you leave in the bottle, the longer it lasts. A bottle with a few inches of wine has more air and oxidizes faster.

And one last tip:

* If you didn’t like the wine the first day, you probably won’t like it the second day, either, and it won’t taste good in your soup or stew. Pour it out!

What do you do with your leftover wine? And then there are the corks….

On the morning after that spectacular Yankees World Series win (sorry, Phillies fans), I was wondering: Do sports fans, in general, drink more than non sports fans?

Apparently, college sports fans do. A Harvard study from several years ago – the first national study of the drinking habits of college sports fans — says that more college student sports fans binge drink and have alcohol-related problems than non-fan students, and that targeted marketing and advertising by the alcohol industry is a huge influence. The study also concluded that schools with higher proportions of fans are more likely to have high rates of binge drinking.

The study, which appeared in the 2003 journal Addictive Behaviors, compared the responses of nearly 3,500 student sports fans (those who indicated in a survey that attending sports events was “important” or “very important” to them) to those of over 8,000 non-fan students. “We know that student athletes binge drink more than non-athletes…it turns out that fans are similar to athletes in their extreme drinking behavior,” said Toben Nelson, the study’s lead author.

So what about you? Does rooting for a team inspire you to drink, and drink more? Does watching a sporting event live make you drink more than you would if you watched it on TV?

P.S. A random twitter search of Yankees and drinking returned plenty of women drinking something (free beers, wine, etc.) while watching last night’s game, though some were just drinking lattes!