The wine exchange experiment

Last year we tried an experiment, buying a wine rack for the apartment and loading it with six assorted bottles of regional wines--both reds and whites. I placed a sign on the refrigerator indicating that folks were invited to try a bottle as long as they replaced it before they left.

Sure enough, the system worked as there are still six bottles in the rack, but they are all different from those that we initially put there.

I got this idea from Ken Blackwell, the guy whose house I rented in Duras last spring when I was house hunting there. He had a rack with a sign on it in his livingroom and I thought it was a nice way to make sure that guests always had a stash--just in case they were caught short during dinner or on a rainy night.