The Toll of Wine

I read an article at National Geographic last month that I made note of specifically for the purposes of returning to it and blogging about it. It was called “The Toll of Wine”–at least, that’s what I called it in my notes. And this was the link: http://blogs.ngm.com/blog_central/2009/05/the-toll-of-wine.html

That link now goes nowhere.

As I recall, it was about the carbon footprint of transporting a bottle of wine from where it was grown–say France or Napa or Argentina–to the dining table in your home.

Get ready for Chinese wine.

The good news about Chinese wine? If other China-made products are any indication, a magnum of tasty Sichuan Merlot will likely retail for $1.95.

The bad news about Chinese wine? Everything else.

Made in Missouri at the Mall

Every time I go to the mall, I stand around looking at tags on things I can’t buy.

Shelley and I went to the Mills Mall this weekend, and I got tired of standing around looking at tags on things I can’t buy. (I did discover a shirt in the Old Navy outlet that was made in Lesotho. I don’t know where that is, but now I’m intrigued.) So I went into the Missouri Mercantile store. The store is run by

Wine and Recycling. And Wine.

1.10.09: I bought another dinner at the end of my block. Sasha’s, with Shelley and Erin and Orin (my neighbors and all-around nice people). We did have a Prosciutto appetizer, so I guess that wasn’t a local ingredient. No, scratch that: I think it was Volpi, from St. Louis. And I had a flight of Cabernets based on the assumption that they were all from California, which they would have been had they not been out of one and replaced it with a Chilean Cab that, of the three, was by far the best.  Lesson learned: even when you buy American, you might not get American.

I also prevented someone from buying, sort of. I was going to drop off my old guest bathroom vanity and sink at the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store (which is a great place to donate, and purchase, building materials and things) and ended up giving the set to a chap in the parking lot who was loading another sink into his van. He and his wife were very happy to receive the gift of sink, and I was quite happy to be getting rid of them. Plus it’s fun to give stuff to people. So that was neat.

And I recycled my Christmas Tree in Forest Park. The pile of trees was the size of a swimming pool, and it smelled really great.

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