The Boxes Are Coming!
Some time ago Fermentation’s did some thinking out loud about the notion of who would buy boxed wine, what it needs to be to find an audience and what’s available. I recently came across an interesting example of boxed wine.
Three Thieves, the producer of that pretty good, well packaged jug wine that has done so well, has released "Bandit Bianco" in a One-Liter box that looks a bit like a milk carton. The carton of wine offers about 33% more than a normal 750 ml. bottle and the Bandit is priced at around $5.99. That’s cheap.
The wine is an Italian White wine blend I believe. I’ve not tasted it so I can’t give an opinion, but that’s not point. The point is: be prepared. You are going to see more and more boxed wine come on the market here in the United States, particularly if this brand takes off.
Consider that the cost of packaging in this one-liter box is approximately $0.15 – $0.20 per box. That’s about he price of a cork for bottled wine. It means better wine can be sold at a low price.
Still there is the consumer resistance. MSNBC recently did a poll asking if respondents would drink wine from a can. About 50% said straight out "NO". 30% said only non-vintage wine. My sense is that you’d have slightly higher acceptance rates if you asked about boxed wine, but not too much higher.
However, there will come a day, probably not too far in the future, when a boxed wine is entered into a wine competition and wins the Gold Medal, or maybe even the best of class. This will be publicized to the far reaches of the globe. Things will change.
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