Platypus has designed a simple, ingenious way to transport wine without having to deal with bulky glass bottles, or boxes. The PlatyPreserve can hold an entire bottle of wine, is flexible, leak-proof and airtight. Due to the container’s ability to keep out the flavor-killing oxygen, the container can also be used to preserve wine for days or even weeks.
Source :: http://www.psfk.com
We first heard about it in April but now we can take a look at the new system for opening Champagne. The Maestro opening system, developed by Alcan Packaging Capsules, looks similar to a regular champagne top but there is one big difference, a large lever on the side. Champagne house Duval-Leroy is the first to use the new closure, putting it on their cuvee Clos des Bouveries Vintage 2004. To open the bottle you simply lift up the lever. The closure does make a soft popping noise and is, if less elegant, certainly faster. The process is more like opening a can of soda than opening a wine bottle.
The new closure has similar benefits to the screwcap on still wine, the main selling point being that it eliminates cork taint. Prevention of the dreaded TCA has made the screwcap a favorite of wine producers and the public has caught on to the fact that a screwtop doesn’t mean that the wine is cheap or of poor quality. I haven’t seen it in person yet but there is something appealing about the lever that I believe lends itself to graceful pouring. I think this closure may catch on.
By Deidre Woollard | Source :: www.luxist.com
Famed French champagne house Veuve Clicquot is known for many innovative products designed to enhance the experience of enjoying their world-class wine. The latest addition is a nifty new version of their thermodynamic Ice Jacket. The high-tech isotherm sleeve is tailored to the shape of the Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label bottle and designed to keep it at the perfect temperature.
The high-tech fabric with leather detailing highlights the vibrant Clicquot Yellow color. The Ice Jacket can maintain the champagne at an optimal tasting temperature for up to two hours, and it comes with a customizable leather-trimmed label as well as a leather tab at the bottle neck ensure a snug fit.
By Jared Paul Stern | Source :: www.luxist.com
A glass for drinking a lot. I think that just about sums up this design from Kyouei Designs – when the amount in the glass decreases, a constant amount is poured from the tank into the glass.
Source :: Liqurious
Over the past few years the wine world has gotten accustomed to the idea that screwtop doesn’t mean poor quality. Now could the champagne cork be replaced by a metal cap too? Duval-Leroy is planning to start selling bottles with aluminium tops later this year. The company will start off using the new metal cap on a few bottles of Duval-Leroy’s clos des Bouveries to see if the world is ready for champagne without popping a cork. The new cap was designed to deal with the intense pressure that builds up inside a champagne bottle. Canadian company Alcan Packaging won’t reveal the new top until it is officially launched next month.
The move alarms traditionalists and indeed anyone for whom that distinctive sound, the hard pop followed by the soft fizz of bubbles, evokes a Pavlovian response. In the Telegraph, Chrystele Ivins, a spokesperson for Alcan in Paris, promises that the new top will still make a pop sound and that it will be easy to open. That at least is welcome news for anyone who has ever wrestled with a cork or had a dangerous misfire. The success of the new closure however will rely less on the utility of it and more on public reaction.
By Deidre Woollard | Source :: www.luxist.com
Although more commonly associated with pharmaceutical packaging, extended-text labels can be applied to a number of other products. Winemaker Cline Cellars is using the technology to build its brand and connect better with its customers by telling the story of the 100-plus-year-old wines. Is this something your wine company could use to get the most out of your limited label space?
What good would it be to have a fantastically expensive bottle of wine if you didn’t have the proper decanter to prepare it for your guests? Riedel’s name is synonymous with high quality and style when it comes to glassware.
The most unique decanter from their collection is the Black Tie. Both mouth blown and free blown this mould-free beauty is graceful and elegant. Each decanter is a unique creation and allows for your finest red wines to open up freely. I think it also easily doubles as a piece of art. (£360)
By Laura Malesich | Source :: www.luxist.com
This rather amazing piece of furniture is an eco-chic wine tasting bar created by U.K. designer Claire Danthois in partnership with Newton Vineyard. The six-foot bar is constructed of 100% reclaimed materials including wood from barrels once used to age Newton’s Icon Label wines, as well as 300 year-old oak barrels acquired from a wine merchant in England. The 112 segments of oak symbolize Newton estate’s 112 distinct vineyard blocks.The glass shelving and steel cables holding the bar together were reclaimed from an architectural site.
There are five bars, one will stay permanently at Newton Vineyard estate and others will be showcased at a series of Newton "Unfiltered" events in 2009 in New York City, London and Tokyo. One bar will be sold at auction later in the year with estimate of $20,000 and 100% of the proceeds going to Global Green USA, a non-profit dedicated to curtailing global climate change through the creation of green buildings and communities.
By Deidre Woollard | Source :: www.luxist.com
5 Piece Wine Accessory Kit disguised as a wine bottle. Blends right in to your rack! It’s from those cool guys over at Sirtified!
Source :: Liqurious
Last year I wrote about QR codes that were being used by Ralph Lauren. I recently discovered two Portuguese wineries that have just started using QR codes on their wine labels. If you take a look at the back label here you will notice a normal bar code and also a funny looking square next to the bar code – that is the QR code.
The idea behind QR codes is that you can embed information in them that can be easily scanned with a cell phone camera. The most common use of QR Codes is to embed a web site URL, so you can direct the person to a specific web site when scanning the label.
In the case of these Portuguese wineries they are directing wine consumers to Adegga, an online community of wine lovers that dubs itself as a "social wine discovery" service. This is how it works. You scan the QR Code on the wine label and you will be taken to a special page on adegga.com dedicated to that particular wine. You will be able to read other people’s comments about it, check wine prices, read comments from the winemaker and much more. Adegga is undertaking a very ambitious project attempting to catalog all the wine of the world with something called an AVIN, which will be a unique wine identifier (similar to ISBN numbers for books).
Obviously there is not broad use of QR codes yet in this country. But in Japan and Europe they are becoming more common. I expect we will start to see broad adoption of this kind of technology here within 2-3 years. If there are wineries out there that would like to become part of this project then we will be happy to print your wine labels with the QR codes.
By Peter Renton | Source :: Lightning Labels Blog