For those of you who like coming up with names, here’s your chance to give one to a wine grape. Or two. And today, August 6, is the last day to submit your proposal.

Scientists at Cornell University have asked the public for names for two new grape varieties that will be released from their breeding program in 2013, according to an article on Cornell’s Chronicle Online. Grape breeder Bruce Reisch, who is accepting name submissions at bruce.reisch@cornell.edu, came up with the two new varieties—”a cold-hardy white wine grape and an innovative organic dark red.”

The scientists are looking for names that are unique (a potential challenge with some 7,000 other grape varieties), marketable, reasonably easy to pronounce and conjure positive connotations, said Reisch. Currently, the new varieties’ names are NY76.0844.24 and NY95.0301.01. Shouldn’t be too difficult to come up with something a bit more inspiring.

Cornell, with a host of new grape varieties in development, has been breeding grapes since 1888. It’s not a quick process, though, and can take 30 to 40 years for a new variety to be released, and several more before the grapes appear in commercially available wine.

Asking the public to participate and creating a social media campaign are Reisch’s effort to create some buzz about the new varieties, according to the Chronicle Online piece. “There are so many different flavors. Why shouldn’t people get excited about new varieties?,” said Reisch. “They keep things interesting for the consumer and are often better for growers.”

The winning names will be announced at the Viticulture 2013 conference in February in Rochester, NY.

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Some places seem to lend themselves to wine. In recent years, there’s been a growing number of wine bars cropping up in New York, and there are plenty to be found in Northern California and most major U.S. cities. But it came as a surprise to me while strolling through Lenox, Massachusetts on a hunt for coffee and pastries, that wine is proliferating in this small town of 5,000, and perhaps others like it.

As I made my way past the Patisserie Lenox toward the food market, I couldn’t help but notice a window with a sign announcing art and wine. The Wit Gallery of Art and Wine features decorative and fine art in all media from over 30 artists. Opened by Lynda Strauch in the 1998, the art at the Wit covers all types of fine art, from photography and painting to sculpture and mixed media. To add to its eclectic mix of work, the gallery recently added an array of artisanal wines from small, family owned, small production vineyards.

I peeked in the window, looking past the paintings and sculptures—a common sight along Church Street with its numerous galleries–and there it was, the wine counter. Bottles of wine were strewn on top, and I thought how lovely it must be to peruse the art while sipping a glass of pinot noir. (Note to self: come back when it’s open.)

As I rounded the corner, I noticed The Bookstore, Lenox’s local bookshop located on Housatonic Street. It, too, was closed as it was Sunday, but I pressed my nose against the glass and spotted a long wooden bar along a sidewall. The Bookstore now houses the Get Lit wine bar, and I could see the bottles of red and white on the wooden bar, facing the rows and shelves stocked with books. Another great combination, I thought, and a place where I’d love to spend hours sipping and reading.

Matthew Tannenbaum has been selling books (new and used) here for the past 34 years, and decided to sell wines by the glass to add some income and a different spin on a precious, dwindling commodity–the independent bookstore. The notion, he explained to the Rural Intelligence newsletter, came after taking a trip to Europe. “I only got the idea when I went to visit an old friend in Prague. Every night, we would go to the symphony or a jazz club, and afterwards we would go to the same cafe. I loved going to this cafe, and I thought this is what I should have at home. It’s not separate from the bookstore—it’s an extension of the bookstore.”

Lenox, and many parts of the Berkshires, are devoted to sharing culture with locals and visitors alike. Art, music, theater and literature—and sometimes, a glass of wine too.

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In Ireland, they’re calling it the “epidemic of chardonnay housewives,” where women slip into alcohol dependence without realizing it, and without others realizing it until they’ve hit rock bottom. It’s easy to fool yourself and others by telling yourself you’re just having a glass of wine, when really it’s two, then three, then the whole bottle. Rehabs in Ireland are starting waiting lists, with affluent women making up the majority of those who seek help.

You don’t actually have to be a housewife to be a “chardonnay housewife.” (And you don’t have to live in Ireland). You just have to be a woman who uses wine to deal with stress.

The Economic Times recently reported that women in high powered positions drink twice as much as those in manual jobs, reflecting a rising “cocktail and business card culture.” So there’s drinking all around.

Typical of the women Dr. Gareth McGovern, a Dublin doctor who specializes in addiction, sees is the one who had engaged in “social, sitting at home, bottle of wine” kind of drinking, which at first seems harmless. The problem is when the ritual moves into a habit, then a full-blown craving, and finally, a need.

In the U.S., bloggers and advertisers court and cater to the chardonnay crowd, with kicky, tongue-in-cheek sites like “Moms Who Need Wine” (There’s even a t-shirt!).  The Facebook page has half a million followers. And note: It’s not “Moms Who WANT Wine,” it’s “Moms Who NEED Wine.”

There’s even a wine on the market called Mad Housewife Chardonnay. The tagline: “What’s domestic bliss without a little wine?”

The advertisers walk a fine line, though, careful to cover themselves.  While they suggest that wine is “something you can look forward to at the end of each and every day,” and that it gives you “time to enjoy a moment to yourself” (read: it’s okay to drink alone, if you can’t find a buddy), they also point out that wine should never “create a new line item in your budget.”

Just because the media has moved on from the “cocktail mom” phenomenon doesn’t mean women have stopped drinking.

I don’t mean to be a buzzkill, but given the prevalence of alcohol abuse problems and given the Russian Roulette nature of addiction (you don’t know you’re an addict until you’re hooked, and then the denial kicks in), it might be a good idea for women to learn to untangle wine from need, and make it a weekend treat instead of something to look forward to “each and every day.”

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By Susan Rosson Spain

First, let me say this: I love wine. I really, really love it—how it sparkles in the glass, its velvety feel on my tongue, the delicious tickle it creates in my brain. I love looking forward to “Wine-o’Clock,” which for my husband, who works out of the house, comes as soon as his agenda for the day clears, and for me, whenever that happens for him. Because who can write when your partner has raised the party flag?

My husband is a dedicated oenophile. We have two wine refrigerators where he stores the bottles he collects, plus a wine rack for our more pedestrian bottles. I think it holds twenty or so. On our first formal date, we split a bottle of Opus One. He has trained me not only to love wine, but to love good wine.

And now I’m taking a year off from this lovely pleasure—all of 2012. Why? Well, for several (what I consider to be) very good reasons.

The first and probably most important of these reasons is productivity. I am a writer, and even though I am brilliant after a glass or two of pinot noir (just ask any of my writer-friends who’ve retreated with me, and they’ll tell you this is so true), I do not actually write when this brilliance shows up. I talk a good game, offer insights into their work, delve deeply into topics like using setting as character, unreliable narrators, and the magic of well-written dialogue. But I do not write.

Secondly, writers need also to be voracious readers. I love nothing better than to sit down in a comfy chair with a glass of wine and a good book. But once glasses two and three come on the scene, whatever I have read goes to some nether region of my brain, never to be heard from again. I open the book to my bookmark the next day… and flip back a page… and another page… and think to myself, what the heck is going on? I don’t remember any of this!

The third problem (notice how I have to get to number three before I call them problems?) is that my mother became an alcoholic in her forties, and I have some very bad memories of what that was like. Though she was what they call a “functional alcoholic” who showed up for work every morning without fail (she was a highly regarded executive secretary), and wore a very responsible public face, she missed out on so much with regard to relationships and personal growth. By this phase in her life, she wasn’t interested in anyone or anything but getting through the day, doing what was expected of her, and going home to that first Manhattan of the evening, or Whiskey Sour, or later on, beer. All of her creativity—and she had been so very creative—vanished, buried under layer upon layer of numbness.

I don’t want to be her.

This is the second time in my adult life I’ve “taken a year off.” In 2003, I needed to prove to myself that I could do without my wine. (Not to mention that my liver needed a break.) That year, I finished and revised my first novel. I was able to concentrate on research, plot layering, and getting everything woven together perfectly in my head and on the page. And yes, I attribute that mostly to the fact that I wasn’t drinking.

This year will be tough at times, I know. Particularly hard will be the trip my husband and I are planning to wine country. But there are other things I look forward to when we visit wineries: the calming scenery, the wonderful little trays of crackers with fig jam and goat cheese and artisan bread, the conversation that never seems to happen at home with the television on. I’ll be the designated driver, of course, a proposition of which I’m not especially fond; but I’m on board anyway, because there’s an upside: we’ll be safe.

Now. Just so you’ll know that I don’t love everything about my year of abstinence, I’ve found a disturbing downside. I used to wake up in the wee hours and stare at the ceiling. But during that wakefulness, many times a perfect phrase or idea for my book would pop into my head and I’d scribble it on the pad I keep on the nightstand for use the next day. Some of my best ideas happened that way. But now I’m sleeping through the night. Ah, well.

Today, it’s been 32 days. I’m one-twelfth of the way to my goal. By December 31^st, I will have another finished novel under my belt, another thirty-plus books crossed off my to-read list, and will have chosen the perfect bottle of petit verdot with which to ring in 2013.

Cheers!

Susan Rosson Spain is the author of a young adult novel, The Deep Cut, as well as a picture book, The Twelve Days of Christmas in Georgia.   The mother of four grown daughters and ’Nana’ to seven-and-a-half grandchildren (eighth due this month!), Susan lives in Conyers, Georgia with her husband Dave and two very rambunctious shelties.    She is currently at work on her next novel, a young adult dystopian tale.

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I love to travel. I’m the person that gets a pit of excitement in my stomach, knowing I’m hours away from getting on an airplane. Once in the air, I’m happy to pass the hours, reading, watching a movie, or just looking at the clouds below.

While I’ve never associated the two, I also love wine, but understand that the wine served tens of thousands of feet above the ground–in coach class, that is–in those mini twist-off bottles is simply drinkable, at best, and nothing more. I’ll rarely spring the 5 bucks for a mediocre, miniature bottle of wine.

Part of the investment for first and business-class passengers must be the wine, because they are drinking a whole different calibre of beverage (full disclosure: I’ve been one of those passengers on two occasions. It’s really nice up there.) Chosen from a selection of several reds and whites, business class wine is poured from a traditional 750 ml bottle. No twist offs for those folks.

As a matter of fact, the wine chosen for business class passengers has become such big business that there are awards for the category–the Wines on the Wing Airline Wine Competition. According to Global Traveler, a magazine for business and luxury travelers, in the most recent competition, 26 airlines submitted 46 white wines, 49 red wines, and 23 champagne or sparkling wines currently on their international Business Class and North American premium class wine lists for a blind taste test. Global Traveler is the only U.S.-based publication to conduct such a survey in the United States (see 2011 competition results here).

But things are looking up for domestic-flying wine drinkers in economy class. Airlines have recently begun offering more interesting selections, as listed on the Bottlenotes blog. And if you’re really particular about your vineyard and vintage, bring your own on board. You’ll cruise right through security with your own 50 ml (1.7 oz) bottles from the TastingRoom’s wine samplers.

Cheers. And safe travels.

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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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There’s no doubt that grapes have the monopoly on the moniker, “fruit of the vine.” Once they are picked, crushed, fermented and aged, they are bottled and enjoyed in a myriad of flavors and colors–pink and red, white and orange.

Well, speaking of orange–today, on Halloween, when pumpkins represent all things autumn and we enjoy them in foods like soup and pie, why not try some pumpkin wine?

In fact, you can take this giant orange squash, roll up your sleeves and make some wine yourself. Needing only eight ingredients, pumpkin wine can turn out dry or sweet depending on your preference and some added ingredients like ginger, clove and cinnamon sticks. Here’s a recipe from the blog, Washington Winemaker.

If your focus today, however, is costumes and candy and you’d rather not be the winemaker, you can go to Wisconsin’s Three Lakes Winery website, where a bottle of pumpkin wine will only set you back $10.

Who knows–you may really like it, and then perhaps it’ll be an add-on to your Thanksgiving menu.

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A few times a month, we invite friends to our house for dinner. The hours pass as we linger over the meal, sometimes followed by a game of Scrabble or a moonlit walk. By the end of the night, clean up often involves picking up the collection of empty bottles. At least two, sometimes more.

Although we recycle the bottles, I’d feel a whole lot better if I knew that my drinking their contents was somehow contributing to a greater purpose–other than as an accompaniment to the food or a lovely buzz. Well, now I’ve discovered a way to do that.

Launched three years ago by a group of eight friends, ONEHOPE began initially as a personal mission for the group to help a friend who was waging a fight against cancer. Working from their living rooms and selling wine out of the back of their trunks, the friends turned their efforts into a thriving business which is founded on a basic, but compelling principle: giving back is good business. Since its inception in June 2007, the company has grown from 0 to well over 20,000 cases sold. To

date, ONEHOPE  Wine has raised over $400,000 for a wide range of charity organizations, and donates 50% of its profits to partner charities benefiting a variety of causes, including autism, cancer, the environment and AIDS (causes are listed here).

Another organization, Greater Purpose, sells a selection of wines from which  55% of profits give back to a greater cause. The current mission of Greater Purpose is to build and sustain villages for orphaned and abandoned children–providing food, water, shelter, clothing, and education. Check out their award-winning wines here.

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I was surprised to see a major ad campaign for wine aimed at pregnant women. Granted, the wine is nonalcoholic, but according to Eisberg, its UK manufacturer, it tastes just like the real thing! The problem with this is, how many pregnant women actually crave the real thing? The feeling of the wine, yes. The taste—at least for me—not so much.

I realize there’s plenty of debate about whether pregnant women can safely drink, but for me, it was a moot point.  Once I got pregnant, I was overcome with cravings and aversions. Apricots in every form and Ben & Jerry’s “Heath Bar Crunch” Ice Cream—yes. My formerly beloved wine—no. Instead of infusing my body with a warm glow, a sip of red or white felt sour in my stomach. Many pregnant women are averse to alcohol’s powerful bite, which may explain why even heavy drinkers report being able to give it up during pregnancy.

The UK winemaker is banking on pregnant women’s desire to relax, so much so that they’ve developed a pregnancy page on their website. In the coaxing “C’mon, try it!” tone of a teenager trying to convince a friend to do something she’s not sure she wants to do, the “pregnancy page” leads the reader through to the logical conclusion that, yes, she’ll want to be quaffing one of their faux cabernets, Rieslings, chardonnays, or roses.

“Pregnancy is one of the most exciting times of your life… You will be feeling a mixture of emotions – excited, scared, apprehensive – and possibly all three!

You will find that you are given conflicting and confusing advice from everyone from your neighbour to your hairdresser, on what, and what not to eat and drink.

Ultimately, you know that this is a time to take care of yourself and your precious bump.

We all know that a balanced, nutritional diet is best for you and bump, but what about those occasions when you really fancy a glass of wine?

Whether you have had a hard week at work, or are trying to keep the early stage of your pregnancy quiet, not drinking in a social situation can be the obvious giveaway – so what is the solution?

If you are fed up with being offered a steady flow of sugary, fizzy drinks and lukewarm fruit juice, then why not raise a glass of Eisberg alcohol free wine?”

It almost makes you want to give in—but then there’s that damned sour feeling in your stomach that sends you running to the Tums.

I’ll be curious to see how they do in the pregnancy market. And what about other markets for nonalcoholic wine? Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’d think it would be anathema for a recovering alcoholic to sip something that tasted like their formerly favorite drink.

So who’s the market for this? Methinks hormonal middle-aged women or men upwards of fifty who used to be able to hold their liquor but now tire after a glass or two.

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Miss Louisa Belle, a gigantic seven-year-old bloodhound, is more than just a pet to Australian winemakers Michelle Edwards and Daniel Fischl of Linnaea Vineyards. Inspired by bloodhounds who are trained to sniff out bombs, the winemakers decided to use the olfactory sense of this canine–dogs have 200 million olfactory receptors, while humans have 12 million– to detect the odors of any tainted batches of their wine.

TCA, or trichloranisole, is a chemical compound found in some corks that leaves a “musty” (read: corked) flavor in wine–white, red, and sparkling. Estimates of how many wines suffer from “cork taint” range from less than one percent up to five percent of wines.

“Most wineries rely on the human nose,” said Fischl, “but that is time-consuming, costly and nowhere near as reliable as Belle, whose nose is 2000 times more sensitive than ours.”

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Thanks to a publicist friend of mine, I recently learned about The Hairpin, a general interest website for women, by women. The notion in itself appealed to me. Seal Press, the publisher of our forthcoming book, Drinking Diaires: Women Serve Their Stories Straight Up (Fall 2012), has a similar philosophy and publishes books by women, for women.

When I went onto the Hairpin site yesterday, there it was, a post titled “How to Enjoy Wine, or True Things vs. Total BS About Wine.”

The first few lines go like this: For some reason wine has become this thing. This huge inflated pompous thing that people have invented corny language around, jacked up costs for, and made intimidating as all hell. 

And then, the rest of the piece is divided among subheads: Care, Try Something New, Wine Comes from Grapes, Much like size, region matters. The year also matters.

The Hairpin’s take addresses questions like:

WTF does “dry” mean? It’s wet, ain’t it? I thought a “bouquet” was for flowers? Why do they keep saying that?

What about decanting? What’s up with that?

When the waiter pours a little into the glass, and looks at me all expectantly, what does he want from me?

Is more-expensive better?

Do I need to pair white with chicken and red with meat? What about rose? Or zinfandel?

No doubt, it cuts right to the heart of what many of us have thought at one time or another. It’s about what we like and nothing else really matters.

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It’s amazing how inventive some people are. Where would we be without windshield wipers? Sticky notes? Bubble bath?

Well now, some creative minds have come up with a few interesting wine accessories—the type that make drinking and sharing it just a little more interesting.

Designed with gift giving in mind, WINEnot stickers are a tongue-in-cheek way to personalize the wine drinking experience. Messages like “Wine: Cheaper than Therapy” and “Love the Wine You’re With” and my personal favorite, “Wine improves with age. I improve with wine,” can adorn any bottle, and bring the importance not to what’s inside, but to whom you’re sharing it with.

Ever suffered from wine teeth? Well if you drink red wine, regularly, it’s not unusual to have that lovely purple tint develop on those once pearly whites. Wine Erase to the rescue. These individually packed, towlette-like wipes leave teeth clean—that is, after the strangely salty flavor fades (which it quickly does). Ahhhh, the price for beauty.

We already know that wine and chocolate make beautiful harmony. But Cheryl Sher decided not only to pair the two, but also to dip the bottles of wine themselves in chocolate. With their rich, creamy Belgian chocolate recipe—used for three generations of her family—Sher literally produces “Bliss in a Bottle.”

One of Sher’s favorite pairings: Dashe Cellars Late Harvest Zinfandel covered in milk chocolate with dried cherries, or Côtes du Rhône red wine dipped in dark chocolate. Yum.

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It seems there’s an app for everything these days. So it’s no big surprise that there’s a growing number of iPhone, iPad, and Android apps for wine lovers–both novices and experts–and those who simply like to eat and drink.

For wine collectors and buyers, there are apps like  Cor.kz, Vintage Cart and Wine Searcher. Cooks and gourmands who want to pair wine with food can turn to Pair It!, Hello Vino, and Natalie MacLean’s Wine Picks & Pairings. (Drinking Diaries was proud to feature Natalie’s essay, The Making of a Wine Lover, in 2009.)

But apps are not simply popping up for pairing and buying wines, there are also apps for wine tastings and festivals, such as LocalWineEvents.com. And for the music and wine lover, there’s the WineDJ app. As the description reads: “The perfect wine deserves the perfect playlist. Discover music to match your mood and spirits with the Wine DJ app by Liberty School Wines…”

At this rate, smart phone users now have one more reason to break out their handheld in the liquor store, at the wine auction, with the restaurant wine list, and most certainly when opening up Itunes.

A votre santé!

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Last weekend, I spent the evening with extended family on the pristine grounds at Tanglewood, the summer residence of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in the Berkshire mountains. While children tossed balls and frisbees along the edge of the sprawling lawn, picnickers sat on blankets and chairs enjoying the summer night before the 8:30 concert–a performance of Berlioz’s Requiem–began.

In need of a match to light a bug-repelling candle, I wandered around in search, veering toward a table that had four votives twinkling. When I arrived in front of the table–covered in a white cloth–and asked for a light, I couldn’t help but notice that the couple who sat in front of the table was sipping their sparkling wine from crystal flutes, the bottle of bubbly was sitting in a silver ice bucket amid the votives, and there was even a candle snuffer waiting to do its job.

I went back to our much less formal spread, sat on a cozy blanket and sipped an Alexander Valley cabernet sauvignon. I’m not particularly a great fan of choral music, but as the concert went on, I became increasingly focused on the voices and truly enjoyed the music to my ears. It was a nearly perfect night (my kids’ presence would have made it completely perfect), and it made me wonder about the connection of drinking wine and listening to music. Can music actually influence how we taste wine?

According to some sources, yes it can. A joint study conducted by Scotland’s Heriot-Watt University and wine company Montes claims that music can alter the taste of wine.

The research was conducted with 250 adults. In return for a glass of wine, a group of five people were played the four pieces of music and asked to try to match each of these to one of the four perceptions investigated by the research, namely ‘powerful and heavy’, ‘subtle and refined’, ‘zingy and refreshing’, and ‘mellow and soft’

The study’s conclusion reads: Background music influences the taste of wine. The specific taste of the wine was influenced in a manner consistent with the mood evoked by the music. If the background music was powerful and heavy then the wine was perceived as more powerful and heavy than when no background music was played. If the background music was subtle and refined then the wine was perceived as more subtle and refined than when no background music was played. If the background music was zingy and refreshing then the wine was perceived as more zingy and refreshing than when no background music was played. If the background music was mellow and soft then the wine was perceived as more mellow and soft than when no background music was played. The magnitude of these effects was not insubstantial, and they were stronger for red wine than for white.

Next time you are listening to music and sipping wine, perhaps you’ll give some extra thought to the musical notes and whether or not they enhancing the taste of what’s in your glass…

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First, there was Chanel Number 5. Now there’s Mazetti d’Altavilla Essentia Vitae number 4, number 6 and number 8. Perfume?

No.  Wine. Three new varieties, from Italy. In jasmine, rose and violet scents. Packaged in bottles made to look like perfume.

One British company, Datamonitor, selected the bottles as the packaging “Innovation of the Week.” Tom Vierhile, director of the company’s product launch division, said: “While perfume-inspired wine may be an acquired taste, Essentia Vitae goes further than most to connect with female consumers. Its perfume-like packaging should break through the crowded product assortments that can often confound shoppers.”

I don’t know about you, but I personally am more confounded by wine in perfume bottles than wine in wine bottles. Jasmine-scented wine? It’s like waving flowers under your nose while eating sushi—completely boggling to the senses.

Perfume-scented wine is a fun marketing gimmick—like green foods for kids! But after the thrill of buying the nifty bottles wears off, who wants to drink it?

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