WINE IN BOX LOOKS GOOD IN GREEN
It's been hardly a decade since the long-maligned metal screw cap
started appearing on quality wines, and during that short time, many
wine enthusiasts have moved from snobbish rejection to closer analysis
and on, for many, to enthusiastic acceptance of a wine bottle closure
that cannot impart cork "taint."
Now get ready for the next big thing: With consumers, manufacturers and
governments world-wide looking much more closely at the "carbon
footprint" of consumer goods in an age of environmental concerns and
rising fuel costs, the glass wine bottle is coming under critical
scrutiny.
"Glass is one of the heavier packaging materials, which has made
wineries investigate alternatives," reporter Jo Burzynska wrote last
month in The New Zealand Herald. Just as wine makers Down Under were
first to embrace alternative closures, this same region - around the
world from export markets in North America and Europe - may take the
lead in ditching glass in favor of lightweight wine containers.
"Australian winery Wolf Blass has just released part of its range in
plastic bottles in its local market, which it claims are 90 per cent
lighter than standard glass and able to keep wine in good condition for
a year due to new technology," Burzynska wrote. She added, however, that
the relatively short shelf life of wine in plastic bottles rules it out
for wine worth aging.
The same is true, and more so, for the lightest-weight and perhaps most
environmentally friendly package, the bag-in-box. Although widely sold
Down Under (there nicknamed "cask" wines), the box is not unfamiliar in
the U.S. but had heretofore been largely limited to inexpensive mass-
produced wines at a quality level that few wine "geeks" admire.
"While [bag in box is] not currently suited to long-term storage," the
New Zealand reporter went on, "perhaps more of a stumbling block is the
stigma associated with imbibing from the bladder that's made many steer
clear of putting premium products into Château Cardboard."
Indeed. As a practical matter, while the bag-in-box technology will keep
wine nicely in the fridge for one or two months, it's simply not a
format for pricey, cellarworthy wines.
But with one carboard box and plastic insert replacing four hefty glass
bottles, its environmental advantages - and cost benefits - look mighty
tempting to the makers of drink-me-now wines.
In an apparent effort to reach upward from traditional box-wine drinkers
to a more sophisticated market, a number of producers have begun putting
wines of better quality in the box format. Over the past couple of
months, I've tried a couple that I can recommend without qualms for
everyday table use.
* BOTA BOX, a California red wine distributed by Delicato Family
Vineyards, is heavily marketed with tree-hugging language. From a
public-relations release last autumn, Bota Box received an "extreme
green makeover with a new look. ... a new package that is more
environmentally-friendly from a container that is made with 95 percent
post-consumer fiber and the box is recyclable. The print on the package
is now done on unbleached kraft paper and the ink used is water-based
versus petroleum-based and the paper layers are held together with
cornstarch instead of glue."
Whatever. It sells for $15 to $20 for a three-liter box (four standard
bottles) in a half-dozen grape varieties. Best of all, I tasted the
Shiraz at several church dinners and found it surprisingly drinkable,
maybe a cut above the "fighting varietal" class of bottled wines. It was
a dry, properly acidic table red, neither sweet nor soft and made to go
with food.
Click for the Bota Box Website:
http://www.botabox.com
Use this link to find vendors through Wine-searcher.com:
http://www.wine-searcher.com/find/Bota% ... g_site=WLP
* RED TRUCK, a decent budget-level wine that's been sold in standardbottles in the under-$10 range for several years, recently, er, rolled
out in a bag-in-box format designed to look like a little faux wooden
barrel that invariably gets "oohs" and "aahs" and "Oh, so cute!" when
you put it on the table.
Red Truck 2007 California Red Wine is more than palatable: A blend of
Syrah, Petite Sirah, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Mourvedre, it's dry,
acidic and showing a distinctly astringent tannic edge, it's not at all
the soft, sweet plonk that you might expect from bag-in-box. The 3-liter
box, er barrel, sells for $29.99 at the winery and generally a few
dollars less at wine shops.
Here's the Red Truck mini-barrel Web page:
http://www.redtruckwine.com/redtruck/ca ... at_id=1007
The following link will show you vendors and prices for the Red Truck
mini-barrel on Wine-searcher.com.
http://www.wine-searcher.com/find/Red%2 ... g_site=WLP
