I'd Love to See Dad's Face ...

The New York Times reports that the Italian government has begun to sanction boxed wines. Let me say, first of all, that I am not a wine connoisseur, so I would never turn my nose up at a box of wine. Furthermore, I am astonished to learn that boxed wine, according to The Times is actually better for the environment than bottled wine. The last time I even gave boxed wine much of a thought was when one of my lawyer colleagues in New York remarked that she and her husband were trying to cut down on their wine consumption -- it seems they were polishing off about a box a week.

I grew up in an Irish family full of wine drinkers. Despite my Dad's Harvard pedigree and all, he was a late-comer to an appreciation of fine wines. Dad was a beer drinker until the beer gut set in and then he switched to liquor, until an unfortunate incident involving a tricycle race with some friends at an unreasonable hour. I distinctly remember wines by Ernest and Julio Gallo and Almaden in my refrigerator growing up, what Dad would refer to now derisively as "jug wine." Over the years, as his tastes were refined, Dad and Mom came to enjoy wines of a better pedigree. Now at family occasions, Dad will hold court, describing the wines that will be served with that particular meal. On a recent trip home, I noticed that one bottle I opened had some sort of synthetic cork. First fake corks, now the Italians of all people are allowing boxed wines. One of these days Dad may be back on the tricycle.