This Ain’t Your Momma’s Box O’ Wine – Is It?
I have become increasingly interested in “alternative” wine packaging. I’m sort of curious to try the new box wines that are beginning to show up on the shelves, but I’m afraid to commit to buying a 3 liter box of wine that I might not like. However, moving towards bag-in-box packaging seems to make a lot of sense to me for so many reasons, and it seems odd to me that more wineries are not using the wine bag-in-box packaging for their everyday wines. There appears to be several advantages for wineries, merchants, and consumers to adopt the wine bag-in-box technology over traditional wine packaging.
Several pluses for the wine bag-in-box argument:
- Wine can stay fresh for up to six weeks after opening. So the consumer can pour a fresh glass of wine every time during that time span.
- There appears to be less cost in packaging, shipping, and storage with wine bag-in-box packaging. Rapak, a leading company producing this type of bag-in-box packaging, claims that a 3 liter wine pack is 38% lighter than 4 glass bottles and that it has a 98% filled pallet efficiency which is 40% better than glass bottles.
- Bag-In-Box packaging is easier to open and serve than glass bottles – There are no corks or corkscrews to worry about.
- Bag in a Box packaging is fully recyclable.
- No glass allows you to safely carry your wine anywhere.
- Less breakage and spoilage.
- There are a wide variety of “bag” sizes and Smaller “bags” are available.
I’m sure that for many wineries, changing to this type of packaging may present some challenges. However, from a consumer’s point of view, this packaging would seem to make better sense for us and the environment. So how about it, are you up for a box o’ wine?
I plan on trying some – so I’ll be your guinea pig and share my thoughts. Stay tuned!
Posted in 
Tags: 5 Responses to “This Ain’t Your Momma’s Box O’ Wine – Is It?”
Hey Mark! Great article. We’ve got a site dedicated specifically for telling people about boxed wine. We’ve got some brands up with reviews and some good “green” info if you’re interested.
As more wines switch to bag-in-box packaging, I think we’ll see the category grow and more “bottle-only” wine drinkers will finally give in to curiosity…and love it!
The question is, do you think customer demand in the wine world will force super premium wineries into bag-in-box?
–Cheers
Ryan,
First, thank you for your nice comment. In response to your question, I do not feel that customer demand is strong enough currently to force big wineries to adapt (what you and I know is a superior alternative) to traditional bottling. Look at how difficult is was just to get people to accept a screw cap instead of a traditional cork. Wine buyers seem to have a “purist” way of thinking when it comes to making a buying decision. It’s beyond me though why the wine industry is not doing more to change this old mindset of box wines.
The bag-in-box packaging works fantastically. I would personally love to see big producers like Concha y Toro, Columbia Crest, and Rosemount Estates (just to name a few) lead the charge in changing the way that people traditionally view box wines. In my opinion, one of the big guys in the industry needs to make the first move and really show the public how well this system works, and also tout it’s green benefits as well. It’s up to the wine industry to dispel this old way of thinking. Until this happens, wine buyers will continue to be of the opinion that box wines are not as good as wines in a bottle with a cork. –I do share your same frustration though.
-Cheers!
Hi Mark! I working on an article on some of the new and smaller wineries that offer box wines in their tasting room and mail order. You may want to check out Fenn Valley (MI), Tamanend Winery & Breitenbach Cellars (PA), Powers, Badger Mt. Vineyard & Tefft Cellars (WA State), Le Cask & Sylvester (CA) and Fox Valley Winery (IL). I like seeing a variety of wines, both sweet and dry, plus unusual varietals and blends. We can look forward to having more to box wines to choose from in the next few years. Thanks for the good information.
Jennifer,
Thank you for your comment. I was telling Ryan, who also responded to this post, that in my opinion the industry needs to do a better job with communicating to the public that box wines are different today. Most wine buyers are of the mindset that if wine comes from a box it must be bad. The industry and retailers all the way down the chain need to do a better job if they’re going to wean consumers off the bottle.
Thank you for sharing these wineries. I’ll definitely check them out.
Good points, Mark.
I remember a year or so ago Fish Eye wines created a nationally-viewed commercial and paid for some pretty nice spots. I’m not sure what their return was on the investment.
The great part about blogs like yours is that, once a winemaker chooses to test the waters with bag-in-box, we can all post about how great it is…perhaps the “me too” way of launching new products will take hold and we’ll have some nice choices in shop aisles!
The shops and distributors could use a brushing-up on POP marketing…especially with a different type of package. It could even be end caps with a nice display or things that hang off the shelf. There’s definitely a part of the equation that’s not adding up.
Until then…we’ll keep the word-of-mouth train moving.
– cheers!