Bottles made from other dead bottles, arrghhh.
I only had a quick ten minutes in the Wines of South Africa tasting a few weeks back, but ten minutes was long enough to see these bottles below; a range of wines from the collaborative efforts of winemaker Charles Back and fashion designer Mark Eisen, donning the catchy name of Back & Eisen. In wine I am not usually sucked in by marketing, and in pretty much all cases believe that the wine itself should stand out. At first glance here, I walked right past thinking it was a wrap around stick-on label…and who’s gonna be impressed with that?
There is a huge chemical equation that creates those designs.
It wasn’t until I held the bottle and realised not only are these graphics etched on but for the first time with wine I couldn’t care less what was in the bottle, because the bottle itself was so cool.
Lucky enough once trying the wine, I found out all was not lost, the wines are easily drinkable, but meant for mass appeal (as too are the bottles, I imagine). Admittedly, I only liked the Shiraz/Mourvédre blend (dark berry fruit/smooth, slightly oaked palate/semi-lengthy finish). And while tasting, my geeky gadget side (which rarely rears its head at trade-tastings) took over, I was obsessed with the design and how it all worked…
iphone photo
So, I found out that the process is kind of complicated, excuse me for a second whilst I don my lab coat and safety specs to explain…
First it’s a 360° design…that means the graphic has no ending edge and has to be perfect and continuous the whole way round (if this doesn’t make sense…ask me later). That continuous flowing design, I’m told, is difficult to do.
Second, the graphic itself is a mix of ink + powdered fine glass + inky wax base. The bottles are made from some recycled glass so all those greenies out there can be happy :-0 yay! Oh and the bottles themselves are 100% recyclable
Finally, when put under extremely high temperatures the three ingredients from step two fuse themselves to the bottle surface…and presto you get Dino DNA. Okay maybe not but you are left with what Back & Eisen are hoping is a souvenir bottle.
They are going mid-range with the price though and expect to see these hitting the shelves at the £10 mark (I hear Liberty Wines are going to import them). Oh and I must thank Mark Eisen for the design procedure.
Mischief and Mayhem
The headline says it all; M&M are a fairly new Burgundian negociant based in Aloxe Corton (they are not related to the multi-coloured, sugar-coated chocolate of the same name, blues the best btw).
While I was down there a month ago one of my sommelier buddies suggested I should check them out…so lucky enough I found them!
The mischievous Michael Ragg is only one of the M's
But unlike most French tasting rooms, which usually need an appointment, or a knock at some Napoleonic sized door (I mean big door from Napoleonic times, not small door because Napoleon was short), that never gets answered, M&M has an open door policy. It’s quite an inviting place too. In fact, it’s pretty hard to miss in the relatively small village of Aloxe Corton.
I tried a few of the range and sadly my tasting notes are boxed up at the moment (I’m moving…hate moving). What I do remember is that on a whole these wines are very approachable and competitively priced, the generic Chardonnay and Pinot Noir were particularly nice and will cost about £12-£15. Some of the Mischief and Mayhem wines are available here at Armit Wines
EWBC
Finally, I’m of to the European Wine Bloggers Conference this weekend and will try and give you an update on what’s going on there! I really hope it’s worth the investment and it sounds like it’ll be great fun!
