Winebits 820: Responsible drinking, expensive wine, wine refrigerators

This week’s wine news: A Canadian group says moderate drinking is OK, plus a really high-end wine auction and ancient wine refrigerators

• Thank you: Maybe next in the U.S.? “We are an informal association of concerned citizens and industry groups that is dedicated to providing unbiased information and education that encourages responsible drinking and reduces harmful consumption.” That would be the mandate for the Canadian Association for Responsible Drinkers, which wants to offer perspective for Canada’s health authorities about alcohol – as opposed to the “One drink will kill you!!!!” that we get all of the time.

• What an auction: How does an wine auction totaling 25,000 bottles, worth up to $50 million, sound? Then stay tuned — Taiwanese billionaire Pierre Chen will sell the wines over the course of a year through the Sotheby’s action house. Chen, says CNN, is one of the world’s great wine collectors, and is apparently going to sell the wine because he has too much to drink. Several of the world’s rarest wines are listed in the story, so any of you who have an extra six figures to drop may be able to get a Petrus.

• Keeping it cool: Did Roman soldiers have a 2,000-year-old version of a wine refrigerator? Apparently so, reports Ars Technica. “Archaeologists have discovered a 2,000-year-old built-in ceramic structure they believe was used to store wine and perishable foods. It’s a rare find and the second such ‘refrigerator’ to be discovered at a former fortress” at a site in what is now northern Bulgaria near the Danube. The refrigerator was made of ceramic plates, located beneath the floor of a military barracks. Which gives the WC a thought: Can I do something like this to replace my electric wine refrigerator, given Texas’ well known power grid woes?