There's an old piece of internet humor that contrasts the Martha Stewart personality type with the attitudes and reactions of "the real woman." In one of its entries, it has the Martha-type saying that freezing in ice cube trays is a wonderful way of preserving leftover wine. The real woman's reaction is, "Leftover wine?"

We react in somewhat the same way to a bill introduced recently in the Michigan Senate by Sen. Jud Gilbert, which would permit restaurants and restaurant patrons to "re-cork" and take home wine left over at the end of a meal. Not a problem we often have. But although CII management will probably seldom take advantage of this capability, we still support it, for several reasons.

First, we applaud anything that encourages diners to order and restaurants to offer higher quality wines. The theory is, if you know that you'll be able to take home (and perhaps freeze in ice cube trays) the remains of that Chateauneuf or Howell Mountain, you're more likely to order it instead of the Bonny Doon or even the Diet Slurpee. This is of particular interest when you consider people who often dine out alone; without a recorking law, dinner for one means a choice between the by-the-glass offerings, getting sloshed, or leaving good wine to the tender mercies of the kitchen staff.

And it's also argued that the bill will have some impact on drunken driving -- you won't feel economically pressured to finish your bottle, and therefore will drive more sensibly and safely on the way home. We admit that this is not the most convincing argument -- no statistics are collected here or anywhere else to show what an intoxicated driver was drinking, and consequently there's no basis to say that people pushing themselves to drain the last drop from a bottle of 1995 Brunello are subsequently laying waste the countryside. But if it makes the values voters happy, we're willing to play along, since the other benefits for the industry and the consumers are real enough.

The mechanics of it are not specified in the current bill's language -- presumably it would be necessary to do more than just pounding in the cork again. There's likely to be some kind of official re-seal process or something similar, letting Officer Friendly know that you're a fine upstanding oenophile who simply practices moderation, and not some Ripple-swilling Beatnik, cruising for babes with an open bottle of alcohol in your car.

In fact, if it becomes law, it might not be a bad idea for restaurants to provide a hang tag of some kind, citing the actual bill. And of course, there might be some incremental revenue to be made by selling preservation gear along with the re-corked bottle. A basic VacuVin kit, perhaps with the restaurant's label, might be a nice thing to stock and sell as an add-on.

Anyway, if you're a Michigan voter and you'd like to see the state follow the 30 other states that have similar laws, drop your Senator a line and encourage him or her to support Senate Bill 0199 2005.