On April Fool’s Day I wrote about a mini bottle of Trefethen Fallow—the wine so airy it defies gravity—and then on that very same day I received another box from Trefethen with more of the same miniature bottles. I figured they might be filled with the missing elements of earth and fire to complement the wind I’d already received, but I was happy to see there was actual wine in the tiny bottles. 50ML to be exact. So what was this all about? Were they trying to get around the 3 oz rule on airlines? Making an appeal to wee folk who enjoy fine wine? As it turns out it’s not a joke but a sample of a new process called T.A.S.T.E , which is an acronym for Total Anaerobic Sample Transfer Environment developed by Tim Bucher at his company the TastingRoom.
The T.A.S.T.E. Technology sounded rather spy like. Maybe they had the Man from U.N.C.L.E (United Network Command for Law and Enforcement) brainstorm with them or James Bond’s evil nemesis SPECTRE — Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion— give them a few ideas. But a good acronym is apparently hard to find.
Perhaps they could get Grace Slick to sing White Rabbit and change the lyrics to “One TASTE makes you larger And one TASTE makes you small”
Anyway, the box contained two, too cute for words, mini bottles of the Double T 2008 Napa Valley Chardonnay and the 2007 Napa Valley Red Wine. I tried them both and can say they were both very good and the samples did create a desire to get an actual full size bottle. But I like the tiny bottles too and could see how useful they might be for those times when full size bottles can be awkward, like at the movies or at church.
The folks at Trefethen are working over time to be fun and creative and thank goodness their wine is worth all the effort. I really need to get over there and see if they don’t all wear red rubber noses or drive around in clown cars like the Shriners. Stay tuned….
