Bin there done that.

Are you tired of constantly putting the garbage out?

Here’s a solution.

Ms L. has always been good at buying stuff. More correctly she has always been good at buying good stuff.

Whether a gift for someone just so apt, or a bargain collectible worth ten times what she paid, although of course it will never be sold…it’s a

Rusden Vine Vale Vignerons Barossa Valley Wildwood Cinsault 2022 (Current Vintage 2023), $30. Here’s a novel red to show off how clever and experimental you are. Friends might be disappointed that it tastes like regular red, much like a bright young grenache, but punches well above its collectible, not a ‘sellable’.

She’s also good at buying household stuff like fridges, coffee makers, soda fountains and rice cookers, although only one of the above has ever been used.

But she’s good at it.

Almost paradoxically, Ms L. is also extremely good at buying rubbish bins. You know, the ones in your kitchen used to separate the sheep from the goats, or green stuff from and they’ll never suspect. 9.3/10.

Rusden Vine Vale Vignerons Barossa Valley ‘Poco Loco’ Grenache/ Ugni Blanc /Mataro/ Cinsault/Carignan (Rosé) 2022, (Current 2023) $24. If you thought cinsault on its own was unusual, get a load of this. Proper rosé with real grapes and recycling and the stuff that will live longer than nuclear waste. People have even commented on our bins, Crocodile Dundee style, “That’s not a bin…”.

Admittedly, I am proud of our recycling bin, it’s even better than the previous one of which I was also quite proud.

It’s attractive. That’s hard for a bin, although surely Alessi has one, but you wouldn’t want to use it. But crazy. Share it with your zany mates. 9.3/10.

Wild Ren Wines Hunter Valley Chardonnay 2022, $40. BChardonnays have been getting bigger for a while now but this manages to buck the trend yet still be trendy with adequate oak and alluring fruit all squeezed into (or out of) 12.5 per cent.

Ms L. found one.

It’s stylish, big, and its mechanism works beautifully so it’s easy to use with an armful of recyclables. Good buy Ms L.

But does Ms L. use it?

Would I ask such a question if she did?

Ms L. chooses to put supermarket paper bags next to our Alessi ‘wannabe’ and puts her recycling in them.

It’s a laudable approach as once the bag is full, it has

Wild Ren Wines Hilltops Sangiovese 2022, $35. How funny that the label describes fresh cherries in this wine from the cherry capital of Australia and who doesn’t like cherries whether you get them from Hilltops or your Hilltops sangiovese? 9.4/10.

Charteris Hunter Valley The Pokolbin Selection excellent portability…except Ms L. does not port them when full, she places another paper bag beside it and flls that, and then another, and another until our kitchen resembles Woolies homedelivery department at which point, just as our council wheelie-recycle bin is already full from my meagre daily contribution, she will empty them.

The saying one man’s trash is another man’s

(Current 2023) (Bottle No.2584). That sounds like a lot of bottles, and if you get out your abacus, 215 dozen, with four left over if I got the last one. Delicious old-school chardonnay with heaps of oak, perfect for reminiscing about the good old days of chardonnay. 9.5/10.

Charteris Bannockburn treasure is old and sexist and quite frankly complete garbage, as our domestic situation proves. One woman’s trash is in fact another man’s trash. However, I must confess, it is far easier to put new garbage into Woolies bags than endure the tedium of lifting a bin lid. Here’s what we slipped into the shopping bags last year and only just put out :

Riesling 2018, $45? (Bottle No.2534). Could this be the oldest new release riesling on the market? Henschke have only just released the 2019 Hill of Grace for heaven’s sake. Lovely riesling if perhaps not quite up with the Hill, but then you could buy a dozen of these for the same price and you