new wine in an old bottle
- idiom
- Informal
:
nuevas ideas en un viejo marco
- Many critics accused the reform movement of being new wine in an old bottle.
Examples
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Although the design seemed fresh, it was actually new wine in an old bottle.
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The proposal felt like new wine in an old bottle.
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The company's latest product is just new wine in an old bottle, offering little real innovation.
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Is this just new wine in an old bottle?
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The committee's proposal was just "new wine in an old bottle"; they didn't change any of the outdated policies.
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Many startups fail because they offer "new wine in an old bottle", trying to sell old concepts with shiny new marketing.
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His classroom methods often felt like "new wine in an old bottle", maintaining traditional lectures while adding minimal new content.
How Substantial
310
3.9
- Informal
Surface Forms
Morphology
new + wine + in + an + old + bottle
The literal parts ('new wine' + 'old bottle') map clearly onto the idea of new content placed into an old container, so a learner who knows the words can grasp the basic metaphor of new ideas presented in an old form. However, the expression is proverb-like and metaphorical, with pragmatic nuance (e.g. lack of real progress) that is not fully predictable from the words alone, so it is only partially transparent to a B1 learner.
Etymology
New wine in an old bottle comes from the image of pouring fresh new wine into an old, hard bottle that cannot stretch. One popular story says the new wine and the old bottle do not fit, so the wine loses its strength, and that's why the phrase means putting 'new ideas' into 'old ways' without real change.