WineLife365

Posts Tagged ‘Green Packaging’

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!