For most of the inhabitants, wine poured into cardboard bags is associated with cheap alcohol. They say that the manufacturer does not respect its products so much that it even saves on glass.
You may be surprised, but in some cases taste qualities alcohol "out of the box" even surpass the taste of noble drinks in glass containers. But first things first.
Benefits of boxes
An interesting experiment was conducted by a certain Gary Pickering. A Canadian scientist with his team of scientific specialists studied the processes and reactions that occur in a box of wine during storage for a year and a half. And he came to the conclusion that pressed paper improves the taste of the drink, as it contributes to its rapid oxidation. But this process only benefits a certain type of wine. In particular, semi-sweet drinks.
What else happens inside the carton after a spill? On the walls of the package, alkylmethoxypyrazines accumulate - some organic substances that lead to an improvement in the taste of flower and fruit varieties. At the same time, pressed paper passes oxygen well, which only accelerates the course of reactions.
Disadvantages of wines in a box
The high rate of oxidative processes in carton packaging has its downside. Such wine cannot be stored for too long. Especially if the package has already been opened. On the other hand, such a product is usually consumed quickly and does not linger in the refrigerator.
In comparison, unopened wine in glass containers can be stored for decades. From this, his exposure will only increase, and the taste will benefit.
Another disadvantage of the cardboard box is more prosaic. Giving alcohol in such packaging is not comme il faut. Yes, and bringing with you to the company is also not always appropriate. Wine "in cardboard" can be put on the festive table only if well-known and close people gather who will not accuse you of excessive savings or greed.
Wine in a glass bottle usually has a higher quality composition. Producers logically argue that a good and expensive drink should be provided with decent storage conditions. Which, in turn, will become the key to a longer shelf life.
However, don't get too carried away. Keep in mind that everything quality drinks placed in glass, but not everything in glass is necessarily of high quality.
Which is better: a movie in a box or without?
Thus, it is worth choosing wine according to the situation. If you want to have a good time with your loved ones, if you are sure that all the wine will be drunk - do not hesitate and choose your favorite drink in a carton.
As a gift, it is better to buy alcohol in glass containers for the festive table. So you can not worry about the impression that the bottle will make. And also you will be sure that the drink will retain all its taste. And it will not be a shame to open it at the beginning of the festivities, as rational hosts do.
If you are going to a country house or a picnic, it is difficult and inconvenient to carry bottles with you. Recently, wine in boxes with a capacity of one to five liters is gaining more and more popularity among buyers. What kind of wine is sold in bags and how does it differ from what is in bottles.
Usually fortified and dry table wines are poured into bags. Vintage and collectible wines are not sold that way.
Packaged wine does not differ in quality from the same bottled wine. Usually table wine is bottled in liter bags and in 3- and 5-liter bags with an inner bag. This bag is made of foil and polyethylene - this way the wine is stored longer.
All materials from which the package is made must meet the requirements of the Russian Ministry of Health. Liter bags, as a rule, are produced without an inner bag and are less common than three- and five-liter ones.
There are no statistics on counterfeit packaged wines, but as far as we know, they are not counterfeited as often as bottled ones.
For picnics, barbecues or parties, wine bags are ideal.
Bag in box - a combination of the wisdom of the ancestors and modern technology.
High quality wine is a very gentle drink. It has many enemies (factors) that can worsen and sometimes completely destroy its quality. The wine must not be exposed to microorganisms, sunlight and atmospheric oxygen.
In the fight against microorganisms, winemakers use the sterilization of bottles and corks by chemical or thermal methods. The harmful effects of sunlight can be reduced by using tinted green or brown bottles. However, it is impossible to completely avoid the undesirable effects of oxygen, since in the neck of the bottle, after corking, there is always a small amount of air, the oxygen of which is absorbed by the wine and diverges for its oxidation.
Wine cannot remain for a long time (for a long time already one day) in an uncorked bottle, as it becomes infected with microorganisms contained in the air, oxidized by atmospheric oxygen and loses the aromatic substances that determine its recognition. The indicated problem has one solution - you need to drink the wine.
In 1954 he was proposed and patented original way maintaining the quality of the wine. The prototype of the invention was a wineskin, which, according to the Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language S.I. Ozhegov, means: "a bag made of animal skin for storing wine and other liquids." Bag in box is an original packaging with unique consumer properties that allows you to maintain the high quality of wine both during its storage and during its use.
Bag in box has the following advantages:
Many people are very skeptical about wines packed in cardboard bags. Experts say that today the quality of these products has become much higher than it was a dozen or two years ago, and even cite a number of evidence to confirm that when you come to the supermarket, you should not ignore these products.
Wine in a "carton" is no worse than in a bottle.
Wine in bags is not what it used to be. If at the dawn of the appearance of wine in cardboard bags it was produced from a terrible mixture of chemistry, food coloring and alcohol, today a store can get a large fine for such a surrogate. Inexpensive wine is indeed poured into bags more often, but this does not mean at all that it Low quality. High-quality wines in bags are produced in Italy, Spain, Chile, Argentina, and in the domestic market of Australia, 40% of wine sales come from alternative wines.Wines in packages - savings for the budget.
Of course, there are rich gourmets who are ready to shell out fabulous sums for rare varieties of wine. But most people just want to drink a glass or two of wine a week. But even in this case, bottled wines can be a very impressive expense item for a personal budget. On average, the money spent on a bottle of wine can buy four times more of the same wine in bags.Wine in a bag - peace of mind at home.
It happens that you need to relieve stress or just want to relax. When pouring wine from a bottle, you can clearly see how much has already been drunk, and an opaque bag removes all conventions and allows you to simply enjoy the taste of wine. There is another significant plus - the wife cannot control the process of emptying the bottle, which means there will simply be no reason for a scandal.Packages are easier to store.
It is much more convenient to store packages than wine bottles. Rectangular containers can be easily folded even in a cupboard. They take up little space in the refrigerator. Packaged wine does not require special racks to store bottles.Packages are easy to transport.
When you go on a picnic, it's much easier to take a large bag of wine rather than a few bottles. Firstly, their weight is much lighter, and secondly, they can be carried calmly without worrying about breaking.Wine in bags keeps longer.
The shelf life of wine in an open bag (naturally, we are talking about special bags with taps) is much longer than in an open bottle. If a open bottle can be stored for 2-3 days, then after opening the tap in the bag, the wine can be stored in it for another month. Prehistorydaily_winegraph : "Is it true that the average level of wine in packages is lower than in bottles?". Yes, this is more true. This is due to the fact that the buyer of expensive wine is quite conservative and prefers a bottle for aesthetic reasons. Therefore, relatively inexpensive wine is usually poured into bags and BiBs. Which, naturally, is often not of very high quality. Nevertheless, in many countries you can buy very decent wine in these packages. In particular, domestic wine sales in Australia already consist of almost 40% of wine in the "alternative", a lot of quite normal wine is made in Italy, Spain, Chile, Argentina.
Thanks to semiseccofor this post.
There are many options for good accompaniment. Beer requires a portable cold store, and hard liquor keeps event time to a minimum and may not be for everyone. Since the basis of kebabs is meat and vegetables, wine is the best choice. And for these purposes, there are excellent picnic wine options that have become widespread, namelywine in boxes.
There are two types of wine in boxes:
Firstand the most common is the wine in the packageTetra Pak (Tetra Pak). Although in Russia these are mostly sweet wines, at a low price point, in other countries, such as Spain, this is an ideal package for young wines.
Secondis it the fault in the Bag-in-Box or justBiB (BiB). The technology is an excellent plus that the wine inside, after opening, does not come into contact with air. This is ensured by a plastic bag that shrinks inside a rigid shell when draining, so neither oxygen, nor bacteria, nor smell, nor light enters the wine container. For those who want to get more specific, more details here. http://www.bag-in-box.com.ua/#main.
The advantages of such packaging in nature are quite obvious, compared to glass bottles.
And you can also inflate or pour water into the bag and get a great pillow.
Made a purchase at three points, of which two supermarkets and one liquor store.
6 people tasted and combined, different levels of preference and knowledge of wine.
6 different wines, preference was given to BiBs
6 dishes on the grill and grill.
Grades will be averaged for ease of perception.
Chiantigiane, Toscoli Rosso, Italy, Toscano IGT, 11.5% vol.grapes: Sangiovese and Ciliegiolo
Medium-bodied, fruity, with hints of cherry in taste and aroma.
Average rating: 4/5.
Paired well with: Pork shish kebab. Cheese for frying.
Merlot Sangiovese, Cantine Ronco, Italy, Emilia-Romagna IGT, 12% vol.grapes: Merlot and Sangiovese.
Medium-bodied, not very pleasant nightshade tops, dull sweet spices.
average rating 2.5/5
Paired well with: Pork shish kebab. Lamb caret.
Rosso Beccaccia, Cantine Ronco, Italy, Emilia-Romagna IGT, 11.5% vol.Grapes: Sangiovese, Merlot and Montepulciano.
Light, slightly slender, but very drinkable, cherry, redcurrant and gooseberry.
average rating 4/5.
Pairs well with:BBQ Turkey. Grilled vegetables. Cheese for frying.
Bianco di Sicilia, Cantine Ronco, Italy, Sicilia IGT, 12% vol.Grapes: Grecanico and Chardonnay.
Fresh, fruity, with a hint of citrus and a rich base.
Average rating: 4/5.
Pairs well with:Trout steaks in foil. Grilled vegetables. BBQ Turkey.
Tocornal Cabernet Sauvignon,Cono Sur,Chile,Central Valley, 12.5% vol.grapes: Cabernet Sauvignon.
Full-bodied, bright, black berries, black plums. Moderate tannins.
Average rating: 4.5/5.
Pairs well with:Lamb caret. Pork shish kebab.
Bordonaro Rosso, Firriato, Italy, Sicilia IGT, 13% vol.Grapes: Nero d'Avola and Sangiovese.
Body-bodied, with soft tannins, drinkable. Currants, ripe plums, wet tobacco leaf.
Average rating: 4.5/5
Pairs well with:Lamb caret. Pork shish kebab. BBQ Turkey.
All this wine is transported by trucks, trains, planes, steamboats, stopping along the way and reloading somewhere at distributors, importers-exporters or retailers before they reach their final point of travel - the consumer's home or the restaurant's cellar.
Transportation of wine remains one of the main sources of emissions of harmful gases into the atmosphere, which increase the greenhouse effect. It's no wonder why environmentally conscious wine producers have long been looking for an alternative to conventional glass bottles. Competitive glass packaging must be affordable, easy to recycle, easy to dispose of or reuse.
For wines that are meant to be consumed quickly, glass is not the optimal material. Initially, glass containers were intended for refilling, although today glass bottles of wine are thrown away after their first use. It cannot be said that because of this they began to massively abandon glass containers. They just took a different path - in every possible way to reduce the weight of the bottles. But at the same time, alternative packaging options appeared - small barrels like beer kegs, plastic bags inside a cardboard box (bag-in-box), plastic and aluminum bottles, cardboard packaging, plastic bags and more. True, they all have one common drawback - the wine can be kept in them for a relatively short time, no more than one year, after which its quality may begin to deteriorate. The Wine Spectator magazine tried to identify the advantages and disadvantages different types wine packaging. And here's what happens:
|
Name packaging |
Renewability |
Recycling |
Repeated usage |
biological decomposition |
Storage package weight 9 liters of wine |
|
glass bottles |
3.6 - 10.8 kg for a 9 liter box |
||||
|
Carton boxes (bag - in - box ) |
450 g equivalent to a 9 liter box |
||||
|
Cardboard tetra packs |
Maybe |
Maybe |
|||
|
plastic bags (pouch) |
Maybe |
About 300 g |
|||
|
Plastic bottles |
|||||
|
aluminum packaging |
About 500 g |
||||
|
Barrel-shaped container (keg) |
Maybe |
4.5 kg for a 10 liter container |
|||
|
paper packaging |
Glass bottles
Glass has a lot of advantages, which affected its widespread use as a wine container. It perfectly preserves wine for decades, preventing foreign odors, foreign particles, and oxygen from penetrating into it. Glass is made from affordable, cheap and plentiful components: sand, soda, lime, broken glass. Glass bottles can be recycled back into containers an unlimited number of times without creating waste or by-products.
But, on the other hand, glass requires a lot of energy to make it. This type of packaging has a lot of weight. A standard 750 ml bottle weighs 480-575 g. A champagne bottle already weighs 900 g. For some countries, glass containers have another drawback. To protect the wine from ultraviolet rays, the bottles are given a color, usually green. Britain, which imports far more wine than it produces, is accumulating a surplus of green glass, which is very difficult to turn clear. For example, to use it for soft drinks that require colorless glass containers.
Modern technologies allow the production of lighter glass bottles (no more than 300 g of weight) with less energy for their manufacture. Today, in developed countries, 23% of glass bottles are recycled, which is not much.
Carton boxes
Introduced in the 1970s, hermetically sealed bag-in-boxes are by far the most serious alternative packaging today. With capacities ranging from 1.5L to 5L for retail (or restaurant) use, it is more efficient, taking up significantly less space in transit and storage than the equivalent volume of bottled wine. The cardboard box is fully recyclable. The plastic bag along with the faucet is partially recycled. Disadvantage - not suitable for long-term storage guilt. Already once opened wine in such a package should be drunk within 2-3 weeks. And the shelf life of intact packaging is not more than a year from the moment the wine is poured into a plastic bag.
For a long time, bag-in-box wines were perceived by consumers as low quality. This stereotype began to change recently, when sufficiently high-quality wines began to be poured into such packaging. For restaurants where wine is sold by the glass, large plastic bags (up to 10 liters) are supplied, already enclosed in a real barrel of the appropriate size. As the package is emptied, it is thrown away, and a new one is placed in the same barrel.
Cardboard tetra packs
This type of packaging is characterized by a high ratio between the weight of the wine and the packaging where it is poured - 96:4. For a glass bottle, for example, this ratio is 60:40. Tetrapacks, as a rule, are available in 1 liter or 500 ml. Thanks to their flat surface, tetra packs can be stacked tightly and for the same amount of wine, one truckload of empty tetrapacks equals 26 truckloads of empty glass bottles. As a packaging for wine, they were first used in the United States in 2004. The packaging is 70% recycled paper. Layers of aluminum foil and polyethylene make such packaging hermetic and prevent air from entering the wine, protect it from light and pollution. It is recommended that the storage time of wine in a closed tetrapack is no more than 12-18 months.
Plastic bags (pouch)
In fact, it is a very dense plastic bag but without an outer cardboard box. In a similar type of bag, but much smaller, poured, for example, mayonnaise or ketchup. Issued different capacity(up to 3 l), with and without a tap to prevent oxygen from entering the wine. The storage time of wine in a closed bag is not more than a year. Due to the fact that the plastic bag is quite flexible, durable and quick-cooled, it is especially convenient to take it to the beach, to the pool, or on a hike. For the first time such packaging was used in 2008. The main advantage of this type of packaging is its extraordinary lightness. 10 such empty bags occupy the volume of one glass bottle.
aluminum packaging
There are so many drinks in aluminum cans today, so why can't they be used for wine as well? They do not fight, cool quickly, block light from entering. Aluminum is also highly recyclable. For example, in the United States, the percentage of aluminum recycled is much higher than that of glass and plastic bottles. In 187 ml aluminum cans with a plastic straw attached to them, Francis Coppola's California winery releases a sparkling wine. Prosecco is also poured into a similar container of a slightly larger size. Recommended shelf life - no more than 6 months.
Plastic bottles
They are also called PET because they are made from polyethylene terephthalate. On the store shelf, many perceive them as ordinary bottles. However, such packaging still has serious image problems, as consumers immediately associate it with ordinary water, which is sold in large volumes in such packaging.
The basis for the manufacture of such bottles are materials that are not biodegradable, but are recycled into the same plastic bottles or floor coverings. They allow more air to pass through than glass, so they are not ideal packaging for protecting wine. The shelf life of wine in such packaging is from 6 months to two years before oxidation of the wine becomes a noticeable problem.
Kegs
After several unsuccessful attempts to start using such a container for wine, made in the 1980s and built on the principle of selling wine (even quality) by the bottle, this "concept" has again aroused increased interest in the last few years. Typically, such containers, made of stainless steel, hold a volume of wine comparable to 26 bottles and are well suited for restaurants where wine is sold by glass or decanter. Wine turns out to be cheaper, the problem with disposal disappears empty bottles. In addition, in such a barrel, the wine is not subject to oxidation - under the protection of an inert gas, the wine will remain fresh for up to two months with an already open and incomplete barrel, and up to a year with a sealed one. The empty barrel is returned to the wine producer, washed, sterilized and refilled. The life span of such packaging is up to 30 years. It is economically justified that empty barrels travel no more than 600-700 km.
Paper
This container appeared on the market only at the end of last year and resembles an ordinary bottle in shape, but is made of thick paper with a thin plastic layer inside. This container is very light, highly recyclable and biodegradable. True, it is still difficult to say how much the wine industry will like the new bottles, how much it will accept them? From the point of view of the image, it does not yet carry negative associations like “wine in paper means low quality”. Again, the form here is offered close to the classic bottle.
The global wine industry now has a huge choice of which containers to use. Each manufacturer chooses for himself the closest and most suitable packaging according to his wishes and ideas. Certainly, the best wines left-bank chateaus, as well as right-bank ones, are unlikely to abandon the use of glass bottles in the next decade. But their owners, and, most likely, the buyers of these products, probably just didn’t have to lift a box of wine up the stairs on their own recently. At least on the second floor.
