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A few weeks ago I listed my 2009 wine predictions, including one under "wishful thinking" about box wine, PET bottles, and lighter, alternative forms of packaging becoming mainstream. Now it seems we're one step closer: a California wine company is bottling (or would that be "bagging") a Cabernet Sauvignon in a cardboard tube.According to the company, Four Wine reduces carbon footprint by 50 percent and reduces landfill waste by 85 percent compared with traditional glass packaging. The packaging is 100 percent recyclable.
As far as I can tell, this wine is boxed wine of a different shape, an attempt at marketing to people who want to be green but don't want the stigma of serving from a box. It has a bag and spigot, but the packaging is a bit more upscale than your generic box brand. And hey, if wine snobs latch on, who cares if the cardboard packaging is a rolled tube or a rectangular box?
I haven't tried the wine, but it's supposed to be a premium brand with lower prices since you're not paying as much for shipping. A 3-liter tube (the equivalent of four bottles) retails at $39. Tried it? What do you think?
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1-01-2009 @3:30PM rainey said... I'm not a wine drinker and I buy it only to cook with -- the rest ends up in my vinegar crock. If someone came out with premium wines in the vacuum bags that don't expose the unused wine to air, I think that's GREAT! Only thing is I can't really use a package that's the equivalent of 4 bottles. I wish they had a small package (don't even need the tube!) that's the equivalent of half a bottle that could live in my fridge until it gets used up.
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1-01-2009 @5:53PM Julie said... I really like the new packaging a more upscale look a far better cry from the old square box.
http://www.noshtalgia.blogspot.com/
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1-01-2009 @9:20PM Gretchen Roberts said... I agree, rainey. It seems all box wine comes in 3-liter size, but even a smaller bag-in-a-box would have a smaller carbon footprint than a glass bottle, and still have the benefits of the vacuum seal. (Of course a regular bottle doesn't last long enough in my house for us to need it, but I'd love that for Port, which tends to sit around in my fridge until I use it up for poached pears or dump it out altogether.)
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1-02-2009 @6:23PM Kris said... You should try the little juice box wines. Worked great at an 80's party with all the candy and these replaced the juice boxes from that era. Black Box wine has been around for a three or four years, not quite as universal pkg's as this tube, which may come from the same plant as concrete forms. Recently I saw a brand of wine marketed as Cube. It could possibly have a smaller size. It looks like from the picture and my tasting that these are all pretty good wines in better pkg's for middle term storage. I don't think I would want to cellar wine in plastic yet.
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1-02-2009 @10:56PM Len said... Seems to me that how a wine is made is as important as how it's stored. Organic or biodynamic wines (see http://www.winexperience.com for more)do more for conserving carbon than their packaging.
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1-03-2009 @1:55PM Gretchen Roberts said... Len, you might be surprised to know that it's actually transportation that stamps the biggest carbon footprint on wine, not whether it's organic/biodynamic or not. You can read one study here: http://www.wine-economics.org/workingpapers/AAWE_WP09.pdf and there's more out there if you dig around. The reason is that shipping those heavy glass bottles around the world simply costs--in gas, dollars, and of course carbon footprint.
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1-03-2009 @11:34PM Pat said... Because wine in glass bottles is as old as time itself, I think it should be exempt from carbon footprintitis. Wine encased in plastic is disgusting - and probably unhealthy - wouldn't the alcohol breakdown the plastic? I'll just drive less often and eat home grown food. I vote for sanity.
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1-07-2009 @10:51AM Nancy said... I agree that it's too big, but also get the more eco-friendly side of a larger tube. I'd be much more likely to buy it if it was 2-3 bottles instead of 4. Looks like it has a handle on top too...perfect for picnics in Central Park. I think this will catch on better than square wine in a box.
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