Out Of The Bottle

With David Ellis

Pass The Bottle Please, Pet

Accidentally knock the bottle off the outdoor table and rather than shatter into a thousand pieces on the concrete floor, it’ll simply bounce around; take it on a picnic and there’s no worry about the weight in the ice-box because its 36-per cent lighter than a normal glass bottle…. and it’ll chill quicker too.

And when you’ve got to get rid of it, simply squash it to minimise space in the recycling bin.

This is the packaging in which Wolf Blass has just released its new Green Label wines – a lightweight recyclable plastic (PET) bottle that, probably best of all for many, helps produce 29% less greenhouse gas emissions over the life cycle of the whole product package than a traditional glass bottle.

This means from grape growing to winemaking, bottling and packaging, consuming, disposal and recycling; even cartons in which it is delivered are made from 100% recycled material, and bottle labels are printed with an alcohol-free process, while gold inks are used rather than gold cap foils.

If all this is starting to make you feel good, the new Wolf Blass Green Label wines in these bottles will make you even more so: a 2008 Crispy Dry White and a 2008 Cabernet Shiraz are both fruit-forward styles ready for immediate  enjoyment. At just $16.99 each share the white with pan-fried whiting fillets and the red with barbied beef spare-ribs.

One For Lunch

Here’s an idea for chocoholics – grab a slab of bitter, dark chocolate and a bottle of Logan’s Weemala 2007 Merlot, settle down in front of a winter’s fire, and you’ll feel you’ve landed yourself in Chocolate Heaven.

Blended from 50% fruit from Mudgee and 50% from Orange in NSW’s Central Ranges, this is a beautifully light to medium-bodied red with flavours of black olives, red berries, plums and dark chocolate; it’s nicely priced too at $17 – and if you’re not into chocolate, match it with a salami-topped pizza.

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