Have We Become Wine Snobs?

 To bottle or not?

The price of empty bottles, those the winemakers use, has gone up hugely. The price of petrol too, which is going to translate into higher prices for wine.

Since moving here to Burgenland I have yet to see a boxed wine. Boxed wine was and is ubiquitous in any South African supermarket or wine merchant. Convenient, easy to use and tastes good. Three or five liters were the norm and I have to say, having a box of chilled white wine in the fridge was great. Ditto for the red boxed affair next to it.

Of course even then there was the wine elite who wouldn't be caught dead drinking boxed wine-in public! No, only bottled vino would do and the pricier the better. Look, nothing wrong with that point of view but nothing with boxed wine either.

Fast forward to today's age. Petrol prices through the roof, empty bottles almost a third more and more people in need of a nice glass or two of vino at the end of a stressful day, week or year. One never thinks about the actual logistics of getting wine from cellar to store and home. Wine bottles are heavy and transporting them around Europe or even locally, is an unnecessary expense and climate sin.

Much better to use boxes, those where one can use a little tap and save the weight of up to seven bottles. Imagine how much less pollution will be had, and how many less bottles would have to be made. Don't forget that bottles use sand,  a commodity that is getting harder to source.

I think that it is time to make boxed wine fashionable and trendy here in Austria. Boxed wine can run the same scala of tastes and flavour as bottled wine can. Having boxed wine doesn't mean one  can't imbibe in bottled wine but I can hazard a guess and say that most folks will be surprised at the taste and easy handling of a five liter box of their favourite tipple.

Biggi