Football’s Latest Fashion: The Wine Purse

Football season is nearly here, heralding in the popular and boisterous activity known as tailgating. Unfortunately, after the tailgating is done, all bottles of alcohol must be abandoned before passing through the turn-styles into the game. Unless, of course, you can smuggle your drink of choice in, well, your purse. That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, Volere has now revealed a better way to drink up as you support the home team: wine in a handbag. On Today, Kathie Lee and Honda showcase a wine that won’t “ruin your jersey” as you sneak “a Ziploc of Merlot into the stadium[.]”

Boxed wine has been popular since its conception in the 1960s, when, according to The Powerhouse Museum, Thomas Angrove came up with an idea for selling his popular red wine in bulk. Bottled wine, once opened, only has a shelf life of a few days, whereas wine stored in a polythylene bag inside a box can be tapped for 4 to 6 weeks. Volere, probably assuming that smuggling a box of red wine anywhere would be more than a little obvious, came up with the concept of wine in a purse.

The cardboard purse contains about two bottles of wine and comes in three variations: Pinot Grigio, Merlot, and Rose. The purse comes in an assortment of colors. Not to arouse suspicion, the purse has a silk scarf strategically tied to its handle, covering the plastic spout that emits the wine of choice. To the common football fan, this may seem like an extraordinary idea and a much more sophisticated version of stuffing your wife’s purse with candy to smuggle into the movie theater.

To wine connoisseurs, however, the effort is a bit tacky.

The experts at Serious Eats comment that while the Volere wine purse “may be cute for bachelorette parties […] we can’t imagine you could really sneak into a movie with one of these, unless you usually carry a cardboard purse around.” Writer Maggie Hoffman continues, the wine “is perfectly passable Pinot Grigio, a little bland and heavy, with a bit of alcohol heat on the finish.” Hoffman concludes that “it’s totally agreeable when well-chilled.” In other words, you can’t really taste anything that’s super cold, so it tastes ok.

So, as we head into football season, perhaps we ladies can tailgate with a bit more style. Accessorize your Eli Manning jersey with white Volere wine purse, stick your REI collapsible cup in your jeans pocket, and enjoy the game. Below, Kathie Lee and Honda demonstrate the latest accessory in football fashion.

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