The skies aren’t as friendly as they used to be.
I remember one time when I was flying home to Los Angeles to Berkeley right after the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) instituted its rather draconian “3-1-1 Rule.” This was sometime in 2006, and I was still in college. I was trying to bring a nice bottle of wine with me to share with the family, but when I got to the ticket counter the woman working the counter informed me that my bottle would be a problem.
Basically, the 3-1-1 Rule provides that you may not carry onto an airplane any container of liquid or gel with more than three ounces of whatever in it. It doesn’t matter if it’s a twenty-ounce bottle of soda with only three ounces left; if it’s marked with a volume of anything greater than three ounces, it’s out.
The only way to save your beloved fluid from the trash is to check it (this option wasn’t available to this poor man). But that is a rather risky proposition. I am loathe to transport glass bottles of highly staining liquid in a suitcase with my clothes and other knick-knacks, especially if said suitcase is going through the travails of baggage handling.
Luckily, for about $12 I was able to purchase from the ticket counter what looked like a cylindrical inflatable raft consisting of rows of tubes. I put the wine bottle into this sleeve and jammed it into my duffel bag, then checked in my duffel bag. It was great except that the sleeve was about sixteen inches tall and six inches in diameter. (It was a good thing I was traveling light!)
Fast-forward to 2010. Now we have other options than the huge safety raft: we have the Wine Diaper.
The owner of Idea Mia, LLC, the maker of the Wine Diaper, contacted me a few months ago, asking whether I would like to test out the product. Having gone through the aforementioned experience, I said YES! He sent me the diaper along with some literature. Unfortunately for him, I didn’t get to use the Wine Diaper for a very long time. Till a few weeks ago, when I flew back to DC.
The Wine Diaper consists of a plastic bag lined with a soft, absorbent material. It cushions your bottle of wine and, in the event of a breakage, is able to soak up the entire contents of a wine bottle. The durable plastic outsider layer also keeps the shards of broken glass away from your delicates. But best of all, it is very thin and very light. It is also reusable (granted a bottle doesn’t break inside of it!).
Flying has lost most of its charm, what with crazy check-points, high prices, fees for checked luggage, and decidedly anti-wine (and liquid) regulations. With the Wine Diaper, however, you can recline twenty degrees in your seat, relax, and rest assured that your precious cargo is safe.
WINE DIAPER | available at http://www.winediaper.com | pack of three for $15.00 plus S&H
Vinicultured: A Wine Blog 
I pooped my pants. I mean, my wine pants. I mean, my wine.
Haha! Yes, the inevitable buns begin. I mean puns.
Joon, I think this post needs a sequel, in which you have a friend serve you two glasses of the same wine – one of which has been crushed inside the wine diaper – and you write up the blind taste test!
Or, you know, a video of you squeezing out drops of wine from a used wine diaper, shards of glass falling all over your face. Or, you know, both.
I think that the absorbent lining will help filter out the impurities of the wine… sort of like the BevWizard Magnetic Wine Aerator.
As for your request for a video… you watch some pretty crazy stuff, my friend.
If only I had one of those, that bottle of Beckmen Rose would be on its way to DC with me!
A suggestion for a future version of the diaper: could it be filled with helium to work against the weight limit? 🙂 That’s always been the biggest obstacle to transporting wines for me. I’m sure there’s a solution out there somewhere.
Ah yes! The skies are even less friendly (because of the nearly-universal imposition of fees for checked baggage that weighs more than a certain amount). That is an interesting concept, and one that seems ripe for commercial exploration.
Maybe the answer is to have the airlines offer wine lockers for business class. Not that it would help us directly, but it’s a start.
Hilarious. I want one. I’ve managed to successfully transport many bottles of wine in the air with proper packaging. There’s something distinctly regressive and Freudian about this wine diaper, though. Where are my free samples?
Hahaha–be that as it may, Shea, you have to admit the name is attention-grabbing.
As for the free samples, you just have to sell out like I did. =)
one thing comes into mind after reading this post ,from a popular “IDEA” mobile advertisement on Indian television,Avisek Bachhan says “What an idea sirji”
lol,well quite a new thing to follow,keep writing..
http://www.thewineclub.in/
Thanks, Arka! =)
Alex: that IS a start, but why just business class? If that’s the case, it’ll be a long time till I’m able to store wine at the airport (not that I’d ever want to!). =)
You are right, of course: power to the people!
May I suggest a broader post on how best to mail wine – cost/legalities/damage to the wine/etc. all have to be weighed, but I haven’t come up with the magic formula. If you do, I promise to send you a bottle!