New Stack-able Wines: The Summer Picnic + Rock Aquarium Fun

Last summer it was wine in pouches, this year a couple of former UC Irvine business students are betting their Stacked Wines soon will be stashed in your picnic basket.

Matt Zimmer is the idea guy behind the concept of stacking four individual stemless, Riedel-like interlocking plastic wine glasses (they amount to a 750 ml bottle). Formerly a mechanical engineer, Zimmer says he envisioned individually sealed glasses of wines after having a stale glass of wine from a bottle opened a few nights earlier. Funny, we have yet to have a bottle last that long.

Stacked Wines' co-founders were Zimmer's MBA classmates at UC Irvine: Jodi Wynn is the company's marketing rep and Doug Allen, formerly the tasting room manager at Napa's Chateau Montelena, handles the wine side of things.

The convenient (stacked) fun is clearly the main marketing angle, as when we asked for more information on the wine itself we received nothing more than the same “premium California wine” generic press release information that spurred the question in the first place. Sure, we all know what that means in “premium” nonvintage California Chardonnay and Merlot terms. But hey, it's a fun concept, with that obvious $15 portability factor working in its favor.

And if nothing more, wine that stacks like so many other kitchen necessities — soup cans, coffee mugs, measuring cups, to name a few — offers obvious apartment wine-fridge shelf-space relief. The company website also has a “stack it” page, a photo log of customers recycling the plastic glasses into stackable mini rock aquariums (!) and such.

We're thinking more along the lines of stackable, if small, storage bins for bulk spices (the glass at the top of the stack has a plastic lid) or, better still, tiny pots to grow fresh summer herbs. Or perhaps even a burger-ready red/yellow/white/green condiment tower of ketchup, mustard, mayo and relish. Yeah, if it isn't obvious, we're ready for those summer picnic sorts of leisurely (stacked) wine days.

Stacked Wines is available from these SoCal wine retailers.

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