The thing thinks on its own too, wirelessly connecting to your home computer to do … something. It’ll even guide you through the winemaking process, alerting you via alarm if you’ve missed anything or if you need to adjust the wine’s pH level. George Snell, founder of Provina, said of his new gadget in a recent San Francisco Chronicle article: “the WinePod is more sophisticated than 99 percent of all wineries in the world. It virtually eliminates winemaking mistakes.”
Which brings me to my opinion of the product: it just seems awfully squeaky clean to me. From its appearance to its high tech wireless connectivity to its all-in-one no mess cleanliness it all seems too … easy. If you want to make wine, you ought to get a little bit of juice on your hands, have to muck a few tanks, … you know, get a little dirty. This gizmo eliminates all that—I can’t see what you really do to the stuff besides dump in the grapes and fiddle with a few controls.
But, to be fair, the other side of the argument is that, until now, there were few other viable means for folks like you and me (i.e. us duds sans enology degrees) to make our own juice. Without a somewhat decent knowledge of chemistry and … well, winemaking, there’s really no way for us to get from juice to wine on our own, at home. The Provina WinePod provides that possibility for the first time, although I’m skeptical of just how much of a personal touch you can leave on a product that’s been, for all essential purposes, created by an all-enclosed machine that tells you what to do.
Other things you can buy for $3,469 (more or less):
I thought it would be fun to look at other ways you can spend a chunk of change like that.
Here are some of my favorites, in order of descending impressiveness to me:
- 1987 Porshe 924, red - just like the one Jake drove in Sixteen Candles!—$3,500
- Six night stay for two at Bikini Bootcamp, at Tulum, Mexico’s eco chic Amansala Resort—$3,684
- Square vintage styled lambskin Chanel bag, in periwinkle, and Christian Laboutin Linen Platform Wedges with periwinkle detail—$3,670, together
- Single bottle 1961 Chateau Latour, awarded 100 pts by Parker (“liquid perfection”) & WS—starting bid $3,100.
The verdict? If you’ve got the cash lying around, feel a hankering for a post-modern-looking egg-shaped almost-fully-automated wine making device, and you’ve got the time to tinker, why not? Knock yourself out.
