Tasting room wine sales of less than a case are frequently packaged in winery bags these days. Whether configured to hold one, two, four or six bottles, winery bags are a convenient way to carry your wine purchase home. If you’re in tasting rooms often and buy wines there frequently, as many Wine Adventure explorers do, you’ve probably either thrown away, recycled or accumulated a considerable number of winery bags.

Before you get rid of another winery bag, consider another use for it. Given the number of cities that have outlawed plastic shopping bags or that force retailers to charge customers for paper bags, clothe winery bags are an excellent solution for your reusable shopping bag needs.

Here are winery bags from recent tasting room purchases at a couple of my favorite Napa Valley wineries, Elizabeth Spencer Wines and Caymus Vineyards.

I used a box cutter to quickly remove the bottle dividers in the Elizabeth Spencer bag, making it a single compartment shopping bag that folds flat and is easily stored in the compartment on the back of the front passenger seat in my car. The Caymus bag is more elaborate, with rope handles for strength and comfort and heavy duty bottle dividers.

An added feature of the Caymus bag is that the bottle dividers can be collapsed. They can be fully pushed aside to create a single compartment, or partially collapsed to provide dividers that safeguard items that fit.

You don’t need to pay 99 cents or more for reusable shopping bags. Just explore a local tasting room that provides a winery bag with your purchase. You’ll find them sturdy and convenient, plus you’ll get a lot of interesting looks in grocery store checkout lines.

Note: Since this article was originally written, reusable grocery bags have seen reduced use due to health concerns. There are still many potential uses for these bags, such as tool bags or general storage.