This cute, little alien-like egg recently showed up at the winery where I am gainfully employed (henceforth to be known only as TWWIAGE). This egg is perhaps the most appealing piece of promotional material I have ever seen: it is certainly more engaging than the Boswell Company's French oak toothpicks. The hawkers of this little, elliptical wonder are onto something. I'd buy one!A growing trend, it seems, is for winemakers to use the aforementioned eggs, or concrete tanks of various dimensions, as an alternative to stainless steel. I cannot see TWWIAGE switching from stainless steel, (when 85% of our white wines are barrel fermented and sur lie aged), to cement anytime soon - the approach to winemaking at TWWIAGE is rather traditional.
Not even a thimble full of wine could be fermented in this solid concrete marketing tool from Sonoma Cast Stone, but it would make a great paperweight. More to follow...
9 comments:
They make good sinks too!
Door stops.
Thud: I thought you might like them...reminds me of the trough in The Cottages.
Thomas: It would make a good door stop, but so would a barrel!
The incredible edible egg! The cement revolution reshaped Italian winemaking in the mid-19th century. It's incredible to see cement come full circle... I'd probably turn my egg promotional tool into a bong! ;)
Oooh! The egg makes it stateside.
There's a Hunter Valley Semillon that is not only vinified in cement eggs, but also bottled (egged?) in 90cl egg-shaped containers too.
If you bought one it was hand delivered with an LP (in an attache case) of music that you were meant to play to the egg to help the wine mature.
Anyone topping that for silliness?
On a more serious note- the shape is allegedly derived from amphorae and qvevra traditionally used in Italy, Slovenia and Georgia. And allegedly allows more fluid movement of the wine during fermentation.
Either that or it's a load of tosh.
2B: A wine bong? You may be onto something!
Cesar: An egg shaped container? I can bet poor wine merchants just love to stack that in a wine rack.
Here in Napa, Caymus Vineyards concrete fermented Chardonnay is packaged in a ceramic bottle.
Whether a concrete egg has lots of advantages over a neutral barrel I don't know.
THey definitely look like space pods or something. It's a cute promo item.
Phlegmmy: Yes, it is cute...Vinomaker wants one.
Post a Comment