Merlot Contemplates the French, and His Neighbors.

Greetings Voignier, and kind readers,

The news that France's Macon Villages will be rolling out boxed blends to North America in the 40 dollars price range comes as a surprise, but not shocking in light of superiority of boxing wine to bottling it. As we sit aboard our watercraft, looking upon Manhattan, and across, at the remains of the day with darkness dropping on the cliffs of New Jersey's Hudson shoreline, and sipping from a newly tapped box of private reserve Merlot, sent to us for our consideration by the chief executive of one of the nation's leading wine families, we wonder what a world without wine bottles will be like.

Good fortune, we suppose for residents who have grown accustom to the 4am click clacking of wine bottles outside in the street outside wine bar-restaurants, as private carting companies remove the day's empties. Less fuss, pomp and ceremony for waiters who have mastered the corking process. But will the North American consumer adopt it and take to a boxed wine world the way they do when on large corporation buys another only to erase the target company, if you will, as Chase erased what was once "Chemical Bank", in New York?

We have taken the opportunity to invite our neighbors to come share the good spirits, and find them particularly jovial, by and large, with the exception of the maudlin Gene, a long time friend at the Basin, recalls his first girlfriend on the evening of graduation day at a rather notorious public high school in Brooklyn New York. It appears that this particular blend of Northern California boxed red has yielded Gene several painful memories of an earlier time, even as he asserts that he is unfazed by the dance of tannins on his tongue, while he recounts his humiliation at not "performing" if you will, in the empty parking lot, behind the gas station near his childhood home, where he contrived to deflower his first luv.

Turning away from Gene, we have been entertaining the musings of our house maid, Emily, who starting something of a controversy aboard ship tonight as she raised the question: "is anyone worth 10,000,000 million dollars per year, in a world were so many "get by on so little?" as she puts it. This statement had two results. First, almost everyone in the Boat Basin chimed, sharing their perspective about CEO pay, some in defense, and some vociferously opposed, like a crack head in a health spa if you will.

Second, a second box of red wine was tapped, the result of increase consumption to drown the passions aboard ship this evening. Emily, as usual, raised the question, and disappeared to purchase and smoke her Hashish, which Merlot does not permit aboard his noble vessel, "The Great Pumpkin", if you will, a name chosen by Gene's daughter after visiting the Basin after her first day of pre school at Trevor Day School. Gene's ex-wife appears to have remarried a very successful and accomplished Tax attorney, who spares no expense to deepen Gene's tenuous self concept, which appears to bring him to Merlot's door, offering to work in exchange for our most recent "samples" if you will.

My mind drifts, like an empty gallon mike container, south, toward the Battery, and we wonder if Phil Donohue has to bribe his neighbors with boxed wines to keep them from "rocking the boat" where he docks. We have been thinking about a new business venture, one where we may entertain a better class of gourmand.

For some reason, we recall several of John Updike's books about a character called Rabbit. We wonder what a boxed wine producer has to do to hit upon a formula as prolific as John Updike, and his almost Bibical knack for remaining tasteful in North America. Certainly, it helps to be born well. And having the drive to talk the vissistudes of life into some orderly form helps. But we wonder if there isn't some mathematical aspect to success that Merlot and Voignier might put to work to further the interests of the Boxed Wine Assocation of North America, and Parts of Chile, so that one day, there will be less talk, and more relaxation, the result of massive boxed wine sales and consumption. How do we make American aware that the chap who said: "fresh wine, is best wine" was spot on?

This boxed reserve blend proved interesting in its effects on the Basin this night, which will require a good amount of work on our part to fully reveal its qualities.