Straw jacketed decanters?

They're called "fiascos", and I've seen them hanging by the dozens in many mama-papa Italian restaurants, right alongside the plastic grape clusters and over the tables covered with red and white checkered plastic tablecloths.

Now that you mention it though, I haven't seen them in wine shops lately. Even the cheap Italian wines come in straight sided bottles these days.

Never fear; at some point they'll become retro-chic and the "latest thing" in wine marketing. Of course they'll be filled with much better wine then than the cheap stuff they held in the past, and the price will be an order of magnitude higher at least.

Meanwhile, I'd suggest, as you surmised, that your best bet is thrift shops.

Tom S

"Tom S" wrote in news:sHIKd.17733$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr13.news.prodigy.com:

Melini IIRC has sold wine in these as recently as a year or so (saw some in a local grocery) Of course the association of fiascos to bad wine is similar to the screw cap Annie Green Springs problem, It wasn't the cap or the bottle that made the wine bad, it was the bad wine that made the package bad.

One of those bottles is called a "fiasco," and the plural of "fiasco" is "fiaschi" (pronounced fee-AHS-kee). The word "fiasco" is cognate with the English "flask," and if you were to remove the straw, you'd find that the bottle had a round bottom, like a flask. The purpose of the straw is to support the round-bottomed bottle.

They are certainly less common than they used to be, but there are still some chiantis (usually cheaper ones) that are sold that way. Where do you live? I see some of these chiantis for sale in supermarkets around here.

Actaully, they seem to be making a come-back already. At one time, as I've been told, they were abandoned, as the bottles cost more than the wine contained. In the meantime, the idea of finding them in garage sales, and local "antique" shops might be the best source.

Hunt

This just in: I saw one yesterday at Trader Joe's. It contained cheap Chianti, just like in the old days.

Tom S

I've seen these in almost every liquor shop in Australia I have ever been in.

There is one variety of chianti in these bottles, I have no idea which, which seems to be ubiquitous here. I just see exactly the same bottle everywhere.

The OP might be better off grabbing a few, emptying them, and re-filling with a worthwhile Chiani - though I guess that would equate to decanting an Italian!!!!!

Hunt

I've always wondered about the name v the word used when something goes VERY wrong. How do they (or even do they) relate? Any word derivation students out there?

Hunt

I can't find anything definitive, but

"One theory builds on the fact that the first use of "fiasco" in this "disaster" sense in Italian comes from the theater, where "far fiasco" (literally "make a bottle") meant to flub your lines or otherwise embarrass yourself on stage. It is possible that "fare fiasco" was originally a reference to an actual accident on stage, such as dropping and breaking a bottle, that eventually became a metaphor for any mishap.

A more likely theory traces the phrase "far fiasco" to Italian glassblowers who would, if they made a mistake in creating some ornate item, set aside the lump of glass for future use in making lowly flasks or bottles. Thus the error itself, the very act of flubbing a task, came to be known as "far fiasco," making a bottle, or just "fiasco" for short."

-- Ken Blake Please reply to the newsgroup

Straw bottle panties were not confined to just Chianti. I recall seeing some on cheap wines from the regions near Verona - I do not recall if they were Valpolicella, Bardolino, or Soave. I also remember a rainwater Madeira in a fancy bottle shape complete with a circular glass handle and straw panties. Also several rums had straw panties and sometimes a straw cap over the bottle top also.

My mailbox is always full to avoid spam. To contact me, erase snipped-for-privacy@webtv.net from my email address. Then add snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com . I do not check this box every day, so post if you need a quick response.

I was told a few years ago that these bottles that were straw covered mostly were made in Bosnia. The war effort caused productivity to dive and that is why less was found.

At least that is what I was told.

Ken,

Thanks for the research. To my uneducated mind, it sounds very reasonable. Now I don't have to wonder about this one.

Hunt

You're welcome.

"Ken Blake" skrev i melding news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com...

The way I've heard it was that an early stand-up comedian in Italy boasted that he'd be able to say something funny about any object thrown to him on stage. All went well until once he was handed a simple empty bottle which dumbfounded him, he stared at it utterly unable to say anything. Probably he was made into the day's laughing stock :-) That incident was later told and retold as "The fiasco of ....". (I don't know the name) Anders

Would it be Ruffino?

Cheers

wn

Regardless of where they are, or were, made, I think the move away from straw-covered fiaschi predates the war in Bosnia by a lot.

I think the disappearance of the straw bottomed Chianti bottle dates back to 1972 or so when a great deal of counterfeit wine was shipped into the US in those bottles. Isn't that the time period that the Italian government stepped in to create a new system.

covered

I was in Italy a few years ago (Tuscany) and there were still Fiasco's of Chianti in a restaurant. The owner told me that they bottled inexpensive Chianti that was meant to be drunk young or "fresh" but that the wines that were meant to be aged were bottled in "Bordeaux" styled bottles that could be stacked in racks for aging. Perhaps just his take but it made sense at the time.

Hello Ninja,

It may well be. Just go into any Safeway and I'm pretty sure they'll have it. The same one. You'd kill for that sort of coverage, the only chianti in that bottle, possibly even chianti. They carry a very limited Italian range.

If I remember I'll have a look next time I'm there.

Mat.