Some More Articles

Ah, bottle shock. Some people know it for its true definition; others imagine it’s what a bottle of red feels whenever a bottle of white is chosen instead. Whatever meaning you lean towards, one thing is certain: bottle shock isn’t a term with which many wines hope to be labeled.

In the scientific sense of the word, bottle shock, also called bottle sickness, is when wine adopts strange, disordered flavors. These strange flavors make the wine taste less fruity, make the presence of the alcohol more noticeable, and cause bottles of Cabernet to repeatedly call in sick for work.

Bottle shock is often a result of the wine bottle being - in James Bond fashion - shaken…not stirred. In a suitcase, through the mail, on an airplane, or in the trunk of the car, continuous vibrations can upset the elements of the wine, throwing the VINO into some sort of PTSD. A frequent change in temperature and variations of lighting - such as when a bottle boards a plane in Alaska and lands in Hawaii - may also play a role.

Its tendency to occur during times of vacationing lead many people to refer to bottle shock as what it truly is: travel shock.

Not all well traveled wines get bottle shock - some can sail the seven seas without the tiniest sense of unrest (or sea sickness) - but it’s possible for most wines to get it; fragile wines are particularly susceptible.

There is no true way to avoid bottle shock, other than to not allow any part of your wine cellar to accompany you on vacations. Going to great lengths to make sure your bottle of wine vibrates as little as possible may decrease the risk of it, but there are no guarantees: sometimes a bottle of wine will bust a move without you even knowing.

The bright side, however, is that bottle shock is a temporary condition: put down the antibiotics and quit giving your bottle of Riesling mouth to mouth, it will heal itself.

Whether you’ve shipped a bottle of Pinot Noir to yourself from Oregon or traveled to Napa Valley only to return with a car full of wine cases, the surest way to make sure bottle shock won’t ruin your inventory it to wait. Give your bottles a few months to get over their shock, then drink up your stock.

The giving of wedding favors is a long established custom. For many years it has been traditional for a small, personalized gift to be given to each of the wedding guests as a token of thanks from the bride and groom. This also serves as a memento of the happy occasion and can be kept as a keepsake by the guests. In the past one of the more usual wedding favors has been a small and elegantly wrapped gift of sugared nuts. More popular these days is to give wine bottle wedding favors.

Many companies have established an agreement with the bottlers of wines, and sometimes spirits, to purchase individual serving bottles without labels. They can then print their own labels according to the bride and grooms request and provide these wine bottles as wedding favors. The type of wine can be specified by the couple and the labels chosen from a selection and then personalized.

Although it may sound like a very expensive gift when you bear in mind the number of guests that may be attending the wedding reception, they are actually quite affordable, especially if you would be supplying wine to accompany the meal anyway. If you give wine bottles as wedding favors the guests will have an individual bottle of wine to drink and then will be able to keep the personalized bottle as a keepsake and reminder of the day.

Most companies will give you a reasonable wine list to choose from. Take into consideration the menu that you will be serving and try to tailor your choice of wine to the meal. You may want to give people a choice of red or white wine or perhaps you will allow two bottles, one of each, per person. If you do decide to give both red and white to each guest it will mean that they can have one with their meal and take a full bottle home with them to keep.

Companies who produce wine bottle wedding favors will often also supply individual serving bottles of champagne. These make wonderful favors and can be used to toast the happy couple. The sound of a champagne bottle being opened is such a wonderful sound at a wedding; imagine lots of them being opened at the same time!

The labels for your bottles can be either designed by yourselves or, more often, chosen from a selection of templates and then personalized. As a rule you will have your names and the date of the marriage included and then a choice of other elements. Some will have space to include a photograph so you could use a photograph of your engagement for example. Another idea is to have the groom’s family crest printed on the label. Companies that offer this usually offer the service of researching the heraldic crest and arranging the artwork for it. You would be wise to check what the crest looks like before agreeing to this. If you have never seen it before you may not want to wait until the day of the wedding to discover that you do not like your new heraldic emblem! Wine bottles as wedding favors do give tremendous scope when it comes to the labelling. Some people take a more humorous approach and have a comical logo on the bottle. Remember, however, something that you find amusing now may not be so funny in years to come when you look at your keepsakes. Often it is better to stick with a more traditional choice.

Whichever wine you choose and however you word the label, you can be sure that having wine bottles as wedding favors will be a hit with your guests and will be a romantic keepsake for years to come.

Is tap water cleaner than bottled water? Most would probably say “No.” After all, do you get flyers from your water utility with pictures of snow-capped mountains and streams of gurgling water flowing over rocks into crystal clear, bubbling pools? Nah, you just get a bill. So, let’s strip away the marketing bunk and tally some comparison points.

In Cleveland, Ohio, researchers took tap water samples from four processing plants and compared them with five types of bottled water.

1. If tooth decay is a concern, bottled water failed the fluoride tests with only 5% falling within the recommended range. The tap water was okay. Tap, 1 point.

Tap water is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and they require enough chlorine to be added to the water to kill ALL bacteria.

Bottled water, whose source is often from the tap (see label of Pepsi’s Aquafina), is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and they allow bottlers some contamination by E. coli or fecal coliform. Ewww! Sewage! Yuck! Ptooey!

2. While neither result is acceptable, the outcomes reflect the differences in regulation. Two-thirds of the bottled water had lower bacterial counts than the tap water samples, but, 25 percent of the bottled water had 10 times more bacteria than tap water. Tap, 2 points.

3. Lead leaching from supply pipes or fixtures can be a major concern for tap water users, whereas, bottled water is sealed and remains unchanged after processing. Bottled, 1 point.

Chlorine, mandated by the EPA, is a poison that transforms itself into a class of chemical carcinogens in the presence of organic materials. These carcinogens have been directly linked to heart disease and cancer.

4. Danger from chlorine, along with the water’s foul taste and smell, is the main reason why most people prefer bottled water vs tap water. Bottled, 2 points.

The EPA and the FDA have identical standards regarding acceptable levels of pharmaceutical drugs. They have none.

Some water utilities test for a few drugs but none remove them.

None of the bottlers test their final product for drugs (that I am aware of), but some have filtering processes that would remove some drugs.

Following recent events on Wall Street, I have full confidence our Government and Wall Street will demand testing for pharmaceutical drugs in our water supplies once we all have long flowing beards, high-pitched voices and are growing a few extra body parts.

5. Bottled water gets an edge here since some bottlers use filter systems which do remove some drugs. Bottled, 3 points.

Those same filters, however, remove trace minerals, such as calcium, magnesium and potassium, essential to good health. If these minerals are not added back, water is flat tasting and unhealthy to drink.

Unhealthy because the water becomes slightly acidic, and when we consume an acid substance, our bodies will take calcium from our teeth and bones to produce bicarbonate in order to neutralize the acid.

6. In light of the above comments related to minerals, and the fact that various studies suggest cancer can only grow in an acid environment, it’s another point for tap water. Tap, 3 points.

The U.S. produces 70 million empty plastic water bottles every day, using enough oil in a year to keep 100,000 cars on the road. Landfills are overwhelmed with these bottles. It’s estimated that over 60 million of them go to landfills every day.

7. Add in the eco-costs for manufacturing, trucking, shelving and marketing and it’s another point for tap water. Tap, 4 points.

Big oil companies buy oil leases from our government, explore for oil, drill, pump, transport to refineries, refine, store, transport to gas stations, pay huge taxes and deliver a reliable product for under $5.00 a gallon.

Bottled water folks, turn a tap, filter the water (maybe), fill the bottle, take it to the store, pay taxes and deliver a questionable product at a very high price.

8. The cheapest bottled water I found at the store today was $4.82 on a per gallon basis! Tap, 5 points.

Okay, tap wins this little contest 5 to 3.

That said, I will not knowingly drink tap water. Why?

Go read number 4 again and the paragraph above it.

I spend most of my day reading and writing about what’s in our water and what it’s doing to us, and, in my opinion, the chlorine in tap water is the primary cause of heart disease and cancer in the world today.

I filter my tap water before I use it. I will use bottled water in an emergency, but it’s expensive and way too “iffy” to count on. I bottle my own!

Filter your tap water before you use it and bottle your own water. That way you know you are getting good, safe, water at a penny per glass, not five dollars or more a gallon.