A+ Wine Design sent me a hand-etched wine bottle to review a few weeks back, and I’ve just now cleared enough work off my desk to get around to writing a decent review. Of course by “cleared enough work” I mean “have decided to ignore several pressing projects for a few hours.” And by “pressing projects” I mean “reading online comic book news and wondering if there are more Peanut Chews in the snack machine.”
Having never written about a wine bottle before, I’m not sure really where to begin. The bottle is, I’m told, a very tasty and classy Ravenswood Vintners Blend California Cabernet Sauvignon. One side shows the standard retail label, which you can see in the picture rotator above. The other side is where A+ Wine Design did the hand-etching.
You can look for yourself above, but I can tell you the artwork on the bottle is clean, sharp and without blemish. I’m not sure how well you can see it the pictures, but there’s a lot of fine line work on the Porsche shield involving thin black lines and color changes, all of which are very clean, even and accurate. The work is so fine in fact, I actually thought it was completely machinated until I looked it up on the company website and saw that the art is all hand-done. The artwork seemed reasonably durable as well. I scratched at the paint with my nail and later a quarter, and wasn’t able to scar or remove anything.
The bottle came packed in a styrofoam tower that was about 1 1/2 to 2″ thick, wrapped in your standard cardboard box. I don’t know anything about shipping wine, but it certainly seemed secure when I opened it, and as I’ve said above, had no blemishes or other defects from opening onwards.
I have yet to open the bottle itself, because it’s nice wine and I’d like to save it for something other than my usual dinner of lentils, minute rice and tears, so I can’t comment on the taste. If anything weird or horrible happens when I open it, like if I’m attacked by snakes or all the sorrows of the world, I’ll be sure to write a follow-up post. You know, after I get treated for snake-bites or whatever.
An interesting and in honesty, really very pretty gift item suitable for almost anyone, you can find such etched wine bottles from A+ Wine Design at www.apluswinedesigns.com. If you’re a supplier, or know of a supplier, who would like to have a product reviewed in my blog, send me an e-mail at [email protected] for details.
Until next week!
MONDAY MIKE FACT: I’m listening to classical music as I write this, which probably makes me one of the top-five most boring people you know.
