Used to be, the guy who showed up at the party with the box o’ wine
was quickly ordered to drop it next to the cases of Natural
Light and all the other drinks reserved for consumption
when all the good booze had been emptied.
Times have changed, though. A new group
of slimmer, classier boxes have appeared
on the market, directed toward the wine consumer
who is confident enough to recognize that
what’s in the package is much more important
than the perception of the package itself. Joining
this new generation of high-end boxed wines is
a complementary group of innovative containers
that, taken together, are fast changing the way
retailers and consumers think of acceptable wine
packaging.
Many of these new packages, including Tetra-
Pak boxes in traditional 750 mL and single-serve sizes called “187s,” half bottles and jugs, pouches
and upscaled champagne cans, even aluminum
bottles, are fast gaining traction among consumers
and are showing profits that are making retailers
very happy indeed. Products like Black Box,
French Rabbit, Three Thieves, Sofia Blanc de
Blancs and dtour are showing that wine in alternative
packages sell, and sell productively. Sales
of premium bag-in-box wines, the fastest-growing
nontraditional packaging segment, were up
more than 50 percent in sales last year, according
to ACNielsen; overall, they made up just over 2
percent of the wine market, but that’s changing.
With wines growing quickly as a category
– they’ve gone back and forth with beer as the
most popular alcoholic beverage option for
Americans in recent years – the pressure is on
for retailers across all channels to come up with
interesting presentations and value pricing, and
these new packages seem to have shaken off their
low-end stigma.
“Consumers are starting to realize that the
three liter box isn’t necessarily the sugar water
you used to get in the five liter,” says Scott
Kamp, the wine buyer for Meijer, a 176-store
grocery chain in the Upper Midwest. “We’re
making good money on a good margin, and the
consumers have responded to it very positively.”
They’re responding well because they know
more, according to Ryan Sproule, the original
inventor of Black Box wines, which grew from
oddity to national phenomenon when they were
purchased by Constellation in 2003.
“It’s appealing to people who are daily drinkers
of wine, and who have outgrown the pomp
and ceremony,” Sproule says. “For them, having
a practical, price-effective package is a good
thing.”
Wines have taken off in the past decade in
America as a result of a increased mass culture attention
and the introduction of accessible “New
World” tastes like Yellowtail Australian Shiraz
and Sauvignon Blanc, as well as many California
products that share the Aussies’ style of fun
labeling and unintimidating twist-off caps, such
as Twin Fin and Big House Red.
“There’s more willingness to go to fun packaging
as a result of Yellowtail,” says Charles
Bieler, one of the founders of Three Thieves,
a fast-growing brand of wines that has broken
ground in Tetra-Pak and other alternative packaging
methods, including jugs. “But I’m also
talking about real differentiation, not just a different
kind of label or twist- off cap.”
According to Bieler, while the “Critter Wines”
might have introduced the much sought-after
millennial group of 21-to-35 year-olds to
a whole new way to consume alcohol, they’ve
also helped them learn enough about wine to
not have to stand on ceremony when it comes
to the packaging of the productlf. In fact, if
they’re aware of the past stigma associated with
the packaging, it adds to the attraction. It hits a
sweet spot in the hipster sensibility, combining
environmental sensitivity, a feel for modern design
and an ironic love for low-end imagery.
“Everyone wants to be considered ‘in the
know,’ on the verge of the latest thing,” says Alberto
Pecora, the regional manager of A.V. Imports
in Columbia, MD. “The appeal of these
packages is to get into the ‘in crowd.’”
A.V. has gone into the far reaches of alternative
packaging, marketing a wine that’s as deeply
anchored in fashion trends as it is in the worship
of Bacchus. With a double-capped, cylindrical
bottle, one marketed in upscale magazines and
retailers, A.V.’s Voga was a success in its first
year, shipping more than 150,000 cases. A new
offering, Quattro, will offer retailers a triangular
15-pack with a case card built right into the
case.
“Packaging is changing in all other categories,”
Bieler says. “Tradition in winemaking
might be one of its strengths, but with more accessible
wines, the increase in approachability is
bringing in way more new sales. The new people
buying wine are buying the fun wines.”
Nevertheless, for Bieler, the scion of a multigenerational
wine making family, Three Thieves
didn’t begin as an offering to everyday wine
drinkers, but as a challenge to smaller wine dealers
to have fun and not take the product too
seriously.