Wine bottles going down the tube?

[Don Giovanni]

Wine bottles going down the tube?

Wine traditionalists sneer when vintners replace cork with plastic. They howl in contempt at screwtops.

So what will they make of a California company taking an even bolder step: doing away with bottles altogether and replacing them with cardboard tubes?

Click On Me

Not in my lifetime...no way !!!!!

[Dave Hatfield]

So, the only thing new about this is the shape of the box. Round instead of square.

Wine in boxes has been around for a while here in France. Its not just the cheap stuff either, nor, of course, is it the top of the range expensive, lay down, blah, blah wines either.

There is a lot of perfectly drinkable middle road wine available in boxes. An example is the chardonnay I buy from the Minervois region. I can pay about $5.60 a bottle for it or I can buy the exact same wine in a 5 liter box for $3.35 for a bottle's worth. Either way I get a nice well balance wine which is great for everyday drinking. In fact I'm sipping some as I type.

I ask, given the choice which would you buy?

As with all wine you have to taste, pick & choose. There's a lot of junk wine sold in boxes, but, then again, there's a lot of junk wine sold in bottles as well. It's usually more expensive junk in the bottles.

[Tristan Stephenson]

Yeh, i've seen wine in 'orange juice' style cartons a few times.

I can see the advantages environmentally and financially, but I would imagine less people will buy it simply because they can't see the product swirling around.