WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT?

We don't think of Richard as being fashionable.

Come on - it's Richard we're talking of here.

Trend-setter he aint.

Richard to fashion is like oil to water, Robert to open-mindedness or Nicola Willis to responsible budgeting.

I know, I know, The Old Girl say's that when I get dressed up I still look like "a bag of busted arseholes" - her expression which I must admit is a bit harsh, but we actually aren't talking about clothes fashion or looks here. We are going to talk about different ways to improve sustainability and .... get ready for it ... maybe the old ex-schoolteacher from Waidoesitmatta  was on the right track all the time!

I don't need to tell you how Richard, for years now, in his blog posts has been banging on about drinking clean-skin chardonnay ....

 ..... actually I probably do as no-one reads his posts but he does mention it in his comments on my popular posts so maybe you saw it there. Anyway, in his mostly unread posts he always uses a picture of a chardonnay bottle (see pic above) that, maybe (?) denotes a clean-skin chardonnay. He gets a bit confused due to his extreme age and on one occasion in his youth indulging in a psychedelic substance. I think that flashbacks are getting to him. I'm sure that the 'clean-skin' chardonnays he imbibes don't have labels on them. The more unkind reader might suggest that parsimony is the reason for this but I prefer to think that the old guy was on to something (not on something - that was in the past).

This leads me to tell you that today I read in  the Grapegrower and Winemaker magazine, an article titled 'Labelling wines without labels'. That's a conundrum that can 'blow your mind (I'm not referring to Richard's psychedelic experimentation here) but one that Robert should easily get his head around given his experience in convoluted and twisted logic as promulgated by the Catholic Church. 

The article stated that wine producers are looking at different ways to improve their sustainability from embracing organic practices through to using alternative energy sources. Label design can help to reduce costs and shrink wine businesses' carbon footprints. Essentially reducing printing, paper and the associated chemicals involved can make a huge difference. To the nth degree, eliminating the paper label altogether is the best  solution. An Australian Barossa Valley company has released a wine branded 'crate' that has no label but all the mandatory information is printed on the capsule (screw-cap) that was going to be printed anyway. It took some fiddling and discussion to get it right given the regulatory and retail demands of wine bottle identification but they seem to have cracked it.

All the regulatory and marketing information is printed on the cap.

Hats off to this company and hats off to Richard as well for being a pioneer. Who said that Wainuiomata is where the girls are smarter?