There's nothing like a small glass of wine with dinner after a long day's paddle! The problem has been not the wine, but the container it comes it. Glass has a nasty tendency to turn into shards for some reason, especially when dropped. I've used bagged wine which is sold is a box on several trips, but have never been overly pleased with the quality of the vintage. For some reason, the product tends to be a cheaper blend of so-so wines. Not what I have in mind at the end of a tiring day on the water.On the other hand, this little box, pictured here about to be recycled, is yet another way wine is being delivered these days. Much like a sturdy milk carton with a screw top, these new packs bring with them a much improved, high quality product. This particular wine, a Shiraz from South Africa, was excellent. Even better, it comes from a grower who raises his grapes organically and produces a wine with minimal additives. I like that! I'll be stocking my kayak with more of these containers...
4 comments:
I took at couple of...uh...boxxles? of a similar design to the Hudson River Greenland Festival. The ones they sell at the local liquor store are called "Bandits" - perfect size, you can buy a couple & toss 'em in your bag & it's safe to forget they're there.
There are still a few people who recalled my first attempt at bringing a nice bottle of wine to the "Hergif" (as people are calling it), although it was several years ago. I think it was the 2nd one, then there was a hiatus for a couple of years. I'd gotten one of those larger bottles of some reasonable plonk.
A guy who'd started keeping his boat at the barge not too long before that was giving me and my boat a ride up. We met at Pier 63; we loaded our boats, then I decided to pack a couple of pieces of gear in my bag, which I'd put in the back of his truck. Perhaps a little twitterpated from proximity...I totally forgot about the bottle in the bag & pretty much dropped it on the asphalt. A muffled but audible crunch reminded me of that which had slipped my mind.
The rest of the weekend I was joking about handing around my fleece vest for people to suck on. That's where all the wine I'd brought to share ended up.
Do I know how to impress a guy, or what? Oops, I forgot to mention I had a pretty bad crush on the guy. Ended up being a disaster, that particular crush...maybe breaking that bottle of wine (which I'd brought with an eye to share with everyone but perhaps especially with him) was an omen!
:D
I have begun to use these boxes of wine even if they are a little more expensive over here in the UK. They also come in one litre sizes which is noticebly bigger than a bottle! I wonder when they will produce these with malt whiskies?
I like your blog by the way.
All the best, Nick
Nick - Malt whisky in a box... It could add a whole new dimension to paddling! Single malt for singles, blends for tandems and up, I suppose!
A bag of Black Box Merlot has become a staple of our kayak trips. One enterprising friend figured out how to get draft beer back into the bladder using a couple of cheap hardware store parts. It lasted two days (OK, maybe a day and a half) and was quite good,even at the end. I described it in a post a couple weeks back.
Post a Comment