Quick Idea: Most Wine Should Be Sold in Boxes from Daring Fireball.
“Switching to wine in a box for the 97 percent of wines that are made to be consumed within a year would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about two million tons, or the equivalent of retiring 400,000 cars.”
Even though it’s simpler and helps the environment, consumers are going to have a hard time getting over the perceived quality.
Check out Cool Hunting for a few good ones.
maybe younger wine drinkers will be able to prioritize efficiency & actual quality over the mere perception of quality that our parents preferred
Similar to how screw top bottles are better then corked bottles at keeping wine fresh, box wine likely keeps the air out better then bottles. If the purists can get used to having no cork (I have started to drink a lot of screw top wines), then a natural next step may be boxed wine…me, I haven’t switched to the box yet.
There’s something to be said of the ritual of opening a corked bottle of wine. Not unlike the passing days of pulling a record or CD from its case, inspecting the cover art, placing it into/on your player – the ceremony itself maintains a value that isn’t easily replaced by the click of a mouse, or in this case, the squeeze of a crude rubber teet.
Form, function? I think a boxed wine is a practical, efficient and responsible solution. If only wine makers and consumers can be convinced…perhaps re-thinking that horrible cardboard block and rubber spigot.