Boxed Wine Brands: Rise of The Industry

Boxed wine, Cask wine or Chateau Cardboard is wine packed in an airtight plastic bag and put in a cardboard box. Unfortunately, boxed wine was once synonymous with poor quality wine, however this is not the case anymore. The sale of boxed wine brands have been rising over the years for a number of reasons.

The Benefits:

1. Low Cost of Production For Boxed Wine Brands

When Thomas Angove invented boxed wine in the 1930’s, it transformed the wine industry by reducing the cost of production. This led to increased profits. To pack wine in a box, you require an airtight plastic bag and a cardboard box. The production costs of plastic bags and cardboard boxes are cheaper than those of glass bottles. Boxed wine does not include the extra overhead costs associated with glass bottles such as corks and printing of labels. Additional overheads amount to high costs of production.

2. Low Cost of Shipping

Boxes are efficient for transporting large quantities of wine because they are easy to stack. Also boxes don’t weigh as much as bottles. Therefore, the cost of shipping is low, and there is little or no danger of breakages. It is more financially viable to ship large volumes of wine using plastic bags and boxes. Using glass bottles is both risky and expensive, because wine bottles come in various shapes and sizes, making it hard to pack them. This increases the chances of breaking, and since they are heavy, the cost of shipping is high.

Wine is constantly evolving, similarly; so are the containers it comes in. From boxed wines, to twist-top bottles, the industry constantly innovates.

3.     Environment-Friendly Production

Many companies are going green with the aim of minimizing environmental damage. Wine companies have embraced this change and are turning to boxes for packaging. Producing cardboard boxes and plastics uses less water and energy. Therefore, the negative environmental impact is much lower. Unlike glass, many plastics used and cardboard boxes are biodegradable and easy to recycle, which causes minimal environmental damage. Cardboard boxes are light in weight and can hold large volumes of wine. Therefore, they leave a smaller carbon footprint during transportation, compared to the carbon footprint left when transporting bottles of wine. Boxed wines brands have a win-win scenario, both for themselves and the environment.

4.     Quality Wine in the Box

To encourage consumers to buy more boxed wine brands, premium wineries in Europe and America are packing quality wine in boxes. According to an article published by the New York times in August 2008, Italy’s Agriculture Ministry announced the sale of premium wine in boxes. In 2003, California Central Coast AVA–based Black Box Wine introduced mass premium wine in a box to the market. Also, the Rhône region of France has been packing excellent wine in boxes. There has also been an increase in boxed wine winning accolades at wine competitions. The 2009 Brown Box Wines Riesling, Rattlesnake Hills took the highest honor (Double Gold) at the 2011 Seattle Wine Awards. These factors have increased the purchase of boxed wine.

5.     Keeps Better than Bottled Wine

Light and oxygen are enemies of wine as they degrade it, affecting its character. Compared to boxed wine, bottled wine is more vulnerable to degradation from light and oxygen. The Vacuum-sealed plastic bags used to pack box wine, prevent the wine from getting degraded by light penetration and oxygen. When you pour wine from it, the wine bag compresses like a toothpaste tube, preventing air from getting in. Hence the wine can keep for a longer period of time, without changing its flavor. Therefore, you can drink the wine for least 4-6 weeks. With boxed wine, you do not have to worry about the cork taint, which affects bottled wine changing its flavor profile. So, every time you pour wine from a box, it will always taste fresh, as though it was from a new bottle.

6.     More Value for Money

A 15 dollar bottle of wine will give you about 4-5 glasses of wine, depending on how you serve it. For a similar amount of money, the same wine in a box will produce a serving of about 20 wine glasses. This means that boxed wine is more quality wine for the same cost. Not because the wine is inferior but because the producer does not incur a high cost of production. Which is not the case with bottled wine. Where the producer passes the high cost of production to the consumer, resulting to high prices on bottled wine.

Boxed wine brands are becoming popular because it is Eco-friendly and the packaging is cheap to produce. Boxes are perfect for packing wine that does not need to age. Wine producers and boxed wine brands are packing quality wine in boxes and making huge sales. Boxed wine represents the ultimate value for consumers by being convenient and practical. So grab a box and relax!