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Posted on 01/03/2006 9:53:52 AM PST by quantim
WINE lovers still coming to terms with plastic corks and screw caps will be in for a shock when the latest packaging revolution hits dining room tables later this month.
In an unusual departure for the home of fine wine, one of France's top producers is to replace traditional glass bottles with cardboard and plastic cartons normally associated with milk and fruit juice.
Burgundy-based producer Boisset says the controversial packaging will help preserve the quality of its wines as well as appeal to environmentally-conscious drinkers.
Boisset president Jean-Charles Boisset said: "We wanted to be innovative with quality, in a way that was good for the planet. We do everything we can to respect the soil and the vines, but it never went as far as the packaging.
"We want to take a serious approach to global warming. We decided to eliminate the cork, paper and glass, and look at a new format."
Traditionally more commercial, cheap wine has been sold in boxes but Boisset's departure is notable in that it will supply wine costing up to £10 a bottle including established varieties such as pinot noir, cabernet sauvignon, merlot and chardonnay.
Lab analysis by Boisset shows that the Tetra Pak wine will keep fresh for three to four days in the fridge. The company says the eco-friendly containers use 90% less packaging than wine bottles and take up one third less space during transportation.
The cartons also provide 100% protection from ultra-violet light which can damage wine.
Philip Larue, the Scottish director of Friarwood fine wine merchants, said he didn't feel the British market was ready to ditch the wine bottle.
"Putting wine in any sort of box has a very bad image in the UK in terms of quality of wine," he said.
"Wine is all about romance and occasion. To some extent presentation is as important as the quality of the liquid that is in the bottle. Can you imagine if you have a guest coming to dinner and you serve them wine in a plastic carton?
I am not so sure it will be the next big thing."
Britain is fast becoming a nation of sophisticated wine drinkers. Research conducted by Vinexpo, the world's largest wine fair, predicts that by 2008 the UK will have matured into Europe's largest wine market, overtaking France, Germany and Italy. More people than ever are buying fine wines - typically, those that cost more that £8 a bottle and are worth laying down - but the annual cost to consumers and the industry of corked bottles is estimated at £340m.
Click to be added or removed on this low volume list. (Over 100 members).Wine news ping.
If I were not boycotting French wines, I'd be appalled.
How do you cork a carton?
Who keep Cab in the fridge ?
buy Australian!
Considering the skunkiness of many Candian beers, this is not surprising.
By inserting a small "sippy" like straw in the top of the TetraPak and a teeny, tiny cork on top of the sippy straw!
Red wine is what I like best/ and Cabernet Sauvignon is my favorite red. Marcus James Cab http://www.google.com/search?q=%22marcus+james%22+wine&sa=N&revid=1618165262&qpos=0&oi=revisions_inline from Argentina is OK for me. Drop dead treacherous Froggies!
I also guess getting the wine to 'breathe' is not an issue.
Has anyone tried the wines of Century Oak Vineyards? I understand it is owned by the family of Adam Housley of Fox News fame.
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Glass is preferable because it does not impart any taste to the wine. This "top producer" is clearly targeting those who have no taste buds.
I don't know. I've never had a good wine with an aftertaste redolent of a Maine paper mill.
Carton wine is okay; my wife picked some up for a party and it was good, at basically $2 per bottle it was great. Australian wine is so so; my order for reds would be Calif Napa, France and Chile
We buy California wines, Australian wines, and we make our own. We have some Cabernet in the works right now.
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I should have said "This "top producer" is clearly targeting those who live in towns such as Lincoln, ME.
Is there any smell quite like it?
The smell that populated Florida!
Tuesday, 03/01/2006
Thousands of hectares of grape vines could be pulled out after this year's Australian vintage, to help combat the surplus of wine on the market.
The Wine Grape Growers Australia and the Winemakers Federation are proposing a 'vine retirement scheme' to remove the less popular varieties, such as cabernet.
Grape Growers chairman, Paul Clancy, says industry is meeting with the Federal Government next month to ask for a loan.
"The wine industry doesn't really favour government interference in its business and we're not asking for government handout and perhaps one of the ideas tossed around the government may be able to put up the funds up front to fund a retirement scheme and the industry pays it back overtime," he said.
The vine-pull is only one of the strategies being proposed by industry to government to solve the surplus.
And UV light can penetrate thick glass bottles??? I don't think so.
Oceans of wine flow down drain into French cars' fuel tanks "The global glut of wine is now so huge that for the first time France is distilling some of its higher-rated wines into fuel. It is a painful proposition in a land where winemaking is a labour of love and the fruit of that labour is celebrated as much as any art.
France occasionally turns oceans of lowly table wines into vinegar and ethanol"
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