Unfiltered

The greatest wine invention, the French think about teaching wine in schools, a chef potentially on the move and a wine for Festivus

Posted: December 13, 2006

• Three words: Best. Invention. Ever. Hardy Wine Company, the largest producer in Australia, has introduced the new Shuttle line of single-serve bottles of Shiraz and Chardonnay. Shuttle is a 187ml acrylic bottle topped with its own acrylic glass. When the wine's screw cap is twisted open, the glass is released, so the wine can be poured into it. Shuttle has proved so popular with theatergoers--it was introduced at performances of Cirque du Soleil in Australia--that Hardy is launching the product nationwide in Australia, with plans to extend its Shuttle packaging to other wines in its worldwide portfolio. "We believe the new technology has the potential to redefine how people drink their wines the world over, particularly at sporting and other outdoor events, concerts and performances, where glassware is not permitted for safety reasons," said Miriam Leenders, the company's global marketing manager. She added that people like the idea of opening their own wine and then regulating how much goes into the glass at a time. Shuttles sell for about $4 a pop, though we'd gladly pay $20 if Hardy starts bottling their E&E Black Pepper Shiraz this way, too.

• French winemaking may be "old school," but it looks like their appreciation of wine could soon be ... elementary school. Proposal 3435, submitted in mid-November to parliament, suggests that grade-schoolers be taught--as part of the core curriculum--that habits for living a "life of good hygiene" include moderate wine drinking. The proposal, coauthored by Philippe-Armand Martin, who was born in and now represents Champagne-Ardenne for Prime Minister Jacques Chirac's UMP party, is meant to be the first step in combating the sharp decline of domestic wine sales, as well as a rise in teenage binge drinking. By schooling kids on the art of the sniff and sip, Martin is hoping teenagers will lose their taste for "alcopops," basically high-in-alcohol, fruity soft drinks, and instead grow into healthy adults who prefer to drink French wine instead. While a timeframe for folding wine appreciation into the grade-school curriculum has not been formally approached, here's the best evidence that this is a good idea: If the current mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, took wine courses as a kid, he may not have been so eager to auction off all of Chirac's wine collection.

Pierre Schaedlin's still cooking at Le Cirque ... if you're actually there to eat rather than to be seen.

• In a fickle restaurant town like New York, even the expenditure of $18 million on a brand-new restaurant is no guarantee that the chef will stay in the kitchen through the first year of business. Sources say that Le Cirque chef Pierre Schaedlin, rumored for months to be leaving the third Manhattan incarnation of the Maccioni family flagship, will be doing a kind of long, slow handoff of kitchen responsibilities to Christophe Bellanca formerly of Los Angeles' famed L'Orangerie, a veteran of several Michelin two- and three-star restaurants in France. Schaedlin has been part of the Le Cirque team for eight years, having taken over the executive chef reins from Sottha Khun in 1999, and many believe that he'll train Bellanca as executive chef before opening additional Le Cirque outposts. With family patriarch Sirio Maccioni having let the Italian press know some months back he's planning to open restaurants in Dubai and the United Arab Emirates, Unfiltered would like to suggest that Schaedlin get his passport, visa and sunscreen in order.

• What kind of holiday gift do you buy someone who doesn't like decorating the Christmas tree? Or lighting the menorah? Whose idea of fun is airing grievances in front of an aluminum pole? Fear not. For the third consecutive year, Grape Ranch owners Dan and Jack Whiteman in Okemah, Okla., are offering "Festivus, a wine for the rest of us." (Festivus is the imaginary holiday created by George Costanza's loopy father, Frank, in an episode of Seinfeld in 1997. The idea of airing grievances next to the Festivus pole apparently spoke to many Americans, because a company in Milwaukee makes poles to order.) This year's Festivus release is a 2003 Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon, as the Grape Ranch currently buys grapes from California while it waits for its own 15 acres of estate vines to mature. Offbeat wines seem to be Grape Ranch's specialty. It also makes Hallowine, Beat Texas! Wine (to celebrate the annual Oklahoma Sooners vs. Texas Longhorns football game) and a Woody Guthrie Folk Festival commemorative wine. So be on the lookout for Arbor Day, Tax Day or Tu Bishvat wines.

If the pasta's made using Cabernet and you drink Cabernet with it, do you live forever?

• Ontario, Canada-based Vinifera for Life may be benefiting from recent reports showing the red-wine compound resveratrol extends the life and endurance of mice. Mark Walpole's small company is seeing an increased demand for his Cabernet Sauvignon flour, which is made from grape skins--where the resveratrol is at--discarded during the winemaking process. In addition, the flour is enriched in omegas-3 and -6, and is gluten-free. Walpole said the idea came naturally, being a professional--and frugal--chef for some time. "We drink wine and it tastes very good, but the leftover part should also have great possibilities," he said. Five years later, he now sells Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and ice wine (Vidal and Riesling) flours, sourced from five local VQA wineries and available in a handful of Ontario shops. Walpole makes everything from breads to pasta to pancakes and smoothies with the flour. Sounds good, but Unfiltered still prefers to get resveratrol the old-fashioned way.