Feel that cold air swirling around your ankles?  Well it's not just the Maine winter.  It's Hell Freezing Over!  GP and I have done the unthinkable, the unimaginable, something I would have never thought possible.  We have purchased ....wine in a box.   I know, I know.  Unfortunately, times have changed.  Not for us, but for the wine industry.  Up until now, vinters sold "bulk wine" in "damigiane" or demijohns, large glass bottles containing 5 to 54 liters.  When I first came to Italy,  GP's parents and grandparents had 6 damigiane of 54 liters each, delivered every spring, (that's about 400 bottles people), and we'd spend an entire weekend in their courtyard, transferring the wine into 3 liters bottles that in turn would be poured into jugs or smaller bottles to serve at meals.  In those long ago days the family went through 300 liters of wine a year as they drank it everyday with lunch and dinner.  It wasn't the refined bottled wines we buy now, but was low-alcohol table wine to be drunk daily with meals, (about 11 percent compared to your average 13 or 14 percent bottled wine).  Most people around here no longer buy "bulk wine" as their work and meal habits have changed so much.  Italians these days drink much less in quantity but tend to expect more in quality.  Those who drink.  I'm always surprised at how many teetotalers there are here where the quality and quantity of wine is so high and the prices are so low.  But back to packaging.  Alas, demigiane are out of style and many winemakers now sell wines in vacuum packed bags, fixed in boxes.  The wine is not exposed to air, it's easier to transport etc.  I hate it.  But there you are.  When we were in Friuli, the eastern area of Italy where we vacationed, we bought 5 liters of a lovely, light Cabernet Franc and they gave it to us in a box.  Apart from my horror, there is another problem.  We now have a overly convenient, large quantity of wine sitting on our window sill outside the kitchen.  Any time I want a little sippy, all I have to do is walk outside with my glass and push the tab.  Too easy.  Will power!

I've booked our flights home for the summer.  We'll be there the 28th of June.  We will have a short summer in Maine in 2015 but once Grace is in college, we'll be back each year in May.  My gardens will be very happy!  xxoo  me