Bag-in-Box Revival

Surprisingly, quite a few wine drinkers still haven’t heard of bag-in-box wine even though it’s been around for half a century and is now experiencing a revival.

The BiB concept is a convenient alternative to wine in heavy glass bottles. As the name suggest, it’s a bag, usually made of several layers of metallised film or food grade plastic, that holds wine and which is placed inside a container of corrugated carton.

The modus operandi of the first generation of BiB containers of the 1960s was rather rudimentary since the consumer literally had to cut off a corner of the bladder and reseal it with a special peg after each pour.

Technically the packaging has been upgraded immensely and is nowadays fitted with an air-tight valve or tap affixed to the bag which is exposed by tearing away a perforated part of the carton. It allows you to neatly pour as little or as much wine as you like without messing about with a corkscrew to remove stubborn corks that also risk being tainted.

Boxed wines offer value and convenience and it’s understandable why they’re bound to catch on. Bottles might still have romantic appeal, but boxes are looking increasingly attractive to wine drinkers.

Take Delicata’s pair of a medium-dry white and fruity red in their Vigne d’Or range of boxed wines which have been around since the 1990s, making it one of the first BiB brands offered on the Maltese market. Vigne d’Or is now being relaunched under bright yellow and garnet red-coloured livery. It’s a new, eye-catching design change reflecting the fresh and modern style of the two wines which the French would describe as ‘vin de soif’, or your everyday reliable stand-by.

The resized Vigne d’Or BiB with a handy air-tight tap.

But the most practical improvement must be the even handier, slimmer carton. Whilst the quality of the wines remains consistent, the Vigne d’Or box has been reshaped to fit easier in a narrow refrigerator door. It still holds 3 litres, or the equivalent of four 75 cl bottles, serving roughly 24 wine glasses, though.

Boxed wines like these, complete with a handle, are easier to carry out of the shop, to picnics, barbecues and casual parties without the risk of glass breakages. But, more importantly, the wine is also guaranteed to stay fresh for longer. Once opened, the wine can last six weeks or more when kept in a cool place compared to just a few days for bottled wine. There’s no need to finish the wine hurriedly.

Just be aware that, regardless of its quality, BiB wine is packaged for drinking now and not for long term cellaring.

People’s perceptions are changing. Bag-in-box wines are enjoying a revival in many countries; not in the least thanks to the fact that the type of wines available are of increasingly better quality, too, with some of the world’s top distributors and winemakers thinking inside the box. After all, there isn’t a rule that says you can’t put premium wine in a box.

Boxed wine surely is a neat solution for those consumers who have the environment at heart since BiB packaging is more sustainable with a lower carbon footprint cost than glass bottles.

BiB wines are usually also more economically priced. In the case of Vigne d’Or, for example, the carton offers more than a 10% saving compared to the bottles which by the way remain widely available.

For their no-nonsense appeal, boxed wines help loosening up the wine world which is still riddled with snobbery. It seems bag-in-box wine has never before fitted in anyone’s fridge door as snug as today.

This article by Georges Meekers appeared first in the Times of Malta, 4 November 2016.