Wine Diva

Low in alcohol and kilojoules – I guess that’s why it’s called T.J. Light 2005 Low Alcohol. And girls, let me tell you, it’s scrummy-liciously light! With only 8% alcohol it’s great for getting back into bikini shape. Sigh… it’s a constant battle of the blady bulge for us ladies, isn’t it? And especially if we love our wine.

One of my best good friends is getting married in November and I am a bridesmaid… which is all the more reason for me to finally shed those 8 comfort kgs I’ve been dragging around and try not look like a single stuffed olive in my dress (yes – the BM dresses are a lovely olive green – a colour I really love and am determined to look flabless in!)

Anyway back to the wine, the grapes are harvested early before the sugars are high, which is very good – and yet it has a lovely and interesting off-dry fruity-ness about it – like a lazy summer afternoon. Reasonably priced too – got it for R22.50 per bottle at Liquor City. Haven’t shopped around, but post a comment if you’ve seen it cheaper elsewhere. The lower the alcohol, the less weight we want to gain and the less “Randt” we want to pay!

PS: From Twee Jonge Gezellen Wine Estate, and approved as part of the Heart Foundation Eating Plan!! Does it get any easier to stay healthy? Now if they could just put the treadmill in a bottle…

What have you been doing with your empty wine bottles? I have been squirreling mine away in the garage, and wondering what to do about them – each one sort of has its own story to tell on this Wine Diva adventure, so I have been reluctant to just turf them into the dustbin. So I put my creative cap on, crawled the web and came up with these 10 great ideas:

1) Build a wine bottle wall as a garden feature – I first heard about this idea when a friend of mine asked me to start collecting my empties for her to build a garden feature out of wine bottles. Then I saw the same technique at Gardenex last year, and it’s very effective, especially if you install a light feature behind the multi-coloured bottle wall.

2) Make a bottle tree

Idea and Picture Source: Don Drane’s Southern Bottle Tree

3) 10 green bottles standing on the wall?

4) Display empty wine bottles on the bathroom and kitchen window sills, or as the centre piece on the dining room table, patio furniture, or accumulated on a garden shelf. Collect assorted shapes and colours – it’s tres Provencal (oui, very French).

5) Keeping pot plants moist on very hot days or when you’re away. Fill the bottles with water and stick them into the pot plant soil. The water will slowly percolate from the bottle into the soil over a period of time.

Idea and Picture source: Paul Humphreys’s Weblog

6) Send a creative birthday or love “message in a bottle”

7) To elegantly serve mineral water, olive oil and vinegar at your next dinner party.

Recycle – did you know that glass takes something like 1000 years to biodegrade, and that it is 100% recyclable? Recycling glass uses 20% less energy and produces 20% less air pollution than in its original production.

9) Empty wine bottles also make good candle holders and vases for single flowers. And let’s face it – single flowers are simple, beautiful and low maintenance for us busy divas.

10) Or check out what this guy built… it’s an amazing Wine Bottle Dome! Makes me want to break a nail and have a glass of wine just thinking about it.

Idea and Pictures’ Source: Centre for Alternative Technology

If you have any other ideas… please post a comment

If white wine goes with fish, do white grapes go with sushi?

Source: GoodQuotes.com