Recycle of Tetrapak Packaging

There has been a great deal of buzz in the Canadian press recently regarding the efforts of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario to push Tetrapak wines. The LCBO has often cited environmental advantages, recycling in particular, stating that if you buy Tetra, "you're doing your part to help the environment".

Environmentalists disagree. The picture is complex. I realize that any box, whether bag-in-box or Tetra, is more efficient and economical to ship, warehouse, and shelve at the store. And all the component materials in Tetrapak are individually recyclable (paper, plastic, and aluminum). The problem seems to be in separating them out. From the Toronto Star:

The mass conversion by the LCBO from bottles to Tetra Pak wine is hitting high gear. The idea is that this is environmentally friendly. In fact, these complex cartons are the toughest thing in your Blue Box to recycle and one of the most expensive to process.

....

Tetra Paks have three main ingredients: paperboard, polyethylene plastic, aluminum foil. To break them down, you need a pulp mill, which soaks them in water, then shreds them. The plastic and aluminum is deposited as a sludge. Little of the paper actually gets recycled, but what does goes into such things as toilet paper. The used Tetras that are recycled make it to Michigan, where there are two plants to process them. But top environmentalists believe most Tetras are still winding up as garbage in Michigan landfill.

TheStar.com - LCBO thinking inside the box

Reporter Gordon Stimmell points out that, while bottles are much more easily recycled, they present their own problem. Different colored bottles deposited into recycling bins are too often broken and mixed, making them unsuitable for many uses. Bottle deposits would reduce this problem greatly, but the LCBO has "resisted fiercly" a bottle deposit program.

Clearly bag-in-box packaging doesn't present the same difficulties in separating materials.

Packaging Misconception - Tetrapak Is Not Bag-in-Box

Recently an article on KTVU.com propagated a new misconception about Tetrapak ("juice box) wine. The article was brought to my attention in a great post about boxed wine by Mike in the Days That End In Y blog. In Wine: To Box Or Not To Box? Lisa Morrison writes about a "new twist on the wine bottle":

Now, the box has grown soft. More wineries are putting their products in soft-sided boxes that can easily be tucked into a crowded refrigerators or pantry shelves. And, the containers are growing smaller. Several vintners are choosing to "bottle" their wines in "bullets," 250-ml., soft-sided boxes that look a lot like long, narrow juice boxes -- without the attached straw, of course.

KTVU.com - Food - Wine: To Box Or Not To Box?

Well, that much is true, but then the understanding of the packaging becomes fuzzy.

Wine in a box, soft-sided or not, is really wine inside a plastic bladder (thank goodness they don't call them "bladder wines"). An attached tap lets the wine out but doesn't let in air -- wine's nemesis, because oxygen causes wine to go south. The technology means boxed wines last more than a month after opening compared to mere days for wine in a bottle -- a plus for people who enjoy just the occasional glass. Wine retailers say boxes stack up well to bottles since they're recyclable, easier to carry and store and cheaper to produce.

KTVU.com - Food - Wine: To Box Or Not To Box?

The error here is that the "soft-sided" box mentioned here refers to Tetrapak packaging. Tetrapak does NOT contain wine inside a plastic bladder. Tetrapak does not have an attached tap that "lets the wine out but doesn't let in air". Unfortunately, the article gives the completely false impression that this "soft-sided" box offers the same after-opening shelf life advantages as true bag-in-box packaging.

The suggestion that the "recyclable" claim extends to Tetrapak is questionable as well. While it is recyclable in a strict sense, how practical is Tetrapak recycling in the real world? This is an issue that has gotten much discussion in Ontario lately. But I will address that in another post.

technorati tags: packaging, Tetrapak, bag-in-box, boxed+wine, box+wine

Wine Temperature - the Fifteen Minute Rule

A post yesterday on the Life Begins at Sixty-Five blog reminded me of a tip I read recently, and brought into focus how it relates to boxed wine. I don't even remember where I read this tip, but it stuck with me because it was very simple. I'm calling it the Fifteen Minute Rule. The idea was that you take the white wine out of the refrigerator 15 minutes before serving; you put the red wine into the refrigerator 15 minutes before serving. The result is that, red, or white, the wine is tempered just about right for drinking.

This rule should work well for 750 ml bottles, but I suspect doesn't work so well for a boxed wine. The mass is too great, and the carboard box insulates too much for the temperature to change enough. But this brings me back to decanting, which I touched on two days ago in the Breathe Easy post. If I pour enough out of the box for the occasion at hand, and then put the decanter of red into the refrigerator (or the decanter of white onto the counter) for 10-15 minutes, I should get the desired result.

This is a nice excuse to buy more pretty decanters. This one pictured is spectacular! I think I'll go shopping!

technorati tags: boxed+wine, box+wine, wine+temperature, decant

Bag-in-Box and Logistics In the World of Wine

Britain's just-drinks.com looks at the logistics industry and the wine industry.

Like the market around it, the wine industry’s supply chain is evolving rapidly. David Skalli of the Paris and London-based Skalli & Rein Consulting Firm talks to just-drinks about the changes and the pressures they are bringing to bear on everyone from logistics companies to wine producers.

Just the Answer – David Skalli : Beverage News & Comment

And what role does alternative packaging play in the supply chain picture? Mr. Skalli says:

Wineries have to start thinking about the whole supply chain from the vineyard to the consumer. They have to use labels that will support high humidity and corks that won’t become dry in high temperatures during freight forwarding. Bag-in-box, screwcap and synthetic corks are sometimes a way for wineries to reduce that kind of risk. At the end of the day, customers buy a branded wine with a certificate of guarantee linked to it. If your wine is tainted it’s the winery that you’ll blame.

Just the Answer – David Skalli : Beverage News & Comment

I'm particularly interested in what Skalli had to say about what this all means for the small independent winery, and the strategies by which such an operation can remain viable in today's marketplace.

technorati tags: bag-in-box, boxed+wine, box+wine

Breathe Easy, Your Boxed Wine Can Breathe Easy Too

I stumbled on this old post and thread of comments about boxed wine, on Low Grade Panic, from January 2004. "Whiney" commented:

... but how do you let it breathe???????????????????

Now, I've heard that before many times, from other people's mouths, and, I must admit, in my own head. This excellent response to the question came from "Chef":

Young reds usually benefit from breathing but only if they have been decanted. Don't expect much "evolution" of bouquet and taste if you merely draw the cork an hour before dinner. But decanting really does help. The agitation and aeration of the pouring releases previously closed aromas and has an "opening" effect on the flavour. As a general rule, the younger the wine the more breathing it needs.

And then "Wineaux" had this comment to add:

Yeah...sometimes, if a young wine is really weird tasting, I'll pour it into 2 glass pitchers and pour it violently back and forth between the 2 pitchers. Suprisingly effective for changing the taste...sometimes even for the better!

COOL!!! All this started to clear up some questions for me, so I dug deeper. I found a great article on About.com, entitled Tips for Letting Your Wine Breathe, :

How to Let Your Wine Breathe
Some erroneously believe that merely uncorking a bottle of wine and allowing it to sit for a bit is all it takes to aerate. This method is futile, as there is simply not enough room (read: surface area) at the top of the bottle to permit adequate amounts of air to make contact with the wine. So what's a Wine Lover to do? You have two options: Decanter or Wine Glass
Decanter - use a decanter,a flower vase, an orange juice pitcher, whatever - any large liquid container with a wide opening at the top to pour your bottle of wine into. The increased surface area is the key to allowing more air to make contact with your wine. Keep this in mind while setting up proper "breathing" techniques for your favorite wine.
The Wine Glass - Pour your wine into wine glasses and let it aerate in situ. This is certainly the low-maintenance method and typically works quite well. Just be sure to keep the glass away from the kitchen commotion, while it breathes in peace. * Tip, for pouring wine into glasses make sure that you pour into the center of the glass with a good 10-12 inches of "fall" from bottle to glass to allow for further aeration during the actual pour.
In general, the Aeration Rule of Thumb: the more tannins a wine has the more time it will need to aerate. Lighter-bodied red wines (Pinot Noir for example)that have lower tannin levels, will need little if any time to breathe.

Letting Wine Breathe

Great advice! I particularly like the tip on 10-12 inches of "fall" into the glass; very easy to do from a box!

technorati tags: box, boxed, cask, wine, aeration, aerate, breathe, decant, decanter

From Dr Vino to Jorge

Today Dr. Vino's wine blog posted an open letter to Jorge Ordonez:

Dear Jorge Ordonez, importer of wine from Spain, Bring us a good bag-in-a-box. Robert Parker may have just sung your praises in his most recent newsletter. He may have lauded some of your top wines such as El Nido with 97 points. But you have many great value wines ranging from Tres Picos, to Naia, to Juan Gil. Borsao is great juice for $6 a bottle. You need to put it--or something like it--in a bag in a box. There's certainly no lack of old vine grenache in Spain that rolls in at value pricing. Tap that wine glut. Boxed wine sales are the fastest segment with 204 percent growth over the past three years according to this story in August's Wine Business Monthly. They eliminate the need for glass so can make a claim to being better for the environment. And they are certainly more convenient for consumers who just want to squeeze off a glass or two every night for a couple of weeks. While in France this summer, Mrs. Vino and I -- and practically anyone who walked within 100 yards of the fridge for that matter -- enjoyed glasses of wine from a 5L box of rose that we bought for 12 euros.

Dr. Vino's wine blog: An open letter to Jorge

HERE, HERE! The amount and variety of great wine available in bag-in-box in Europe is staggering. It's true, the growth of the 3L segment has taken a great leap in the last year, and we are seeing some excellent California wines, Pacific Northwest wines, and Australian wines in boxes, but scant availability from the Continent. There is still an amazing bias against the box, more prevailing among those who have not travelled overseas.

Dr. Vino, I hope Jorge gets your message!

technorati tags: boxed+wine, box+wine, wine+import, wine+Spain

Box Wine As Baseline

Interesting post on Mollishka blog about a wine tasting class:

The bulk of the class was dedicated to "component tasting." Did you ever do that thing in elementary school where you have to make a map of your tongue based on dipping cuetips into sugar water and salt water and bitter water and swabbing it in your mouth? It was like that, but with wine and no little kids going, ewwwwww. We were given a simple base wine (Almaden Mountain Chablis, a white box wine) which had been enhanced with six different flavors. The components were acidity (citric acid), sugar (sucrose), sweetness (glycerine), tannin (... grape tannin), oak (soaked oak chips in the wine), and simulated oxidation (adding dry Fino sherry). Most of the tastes were fairly subtle, but the tannin and the oak were quite strong. Apparently, by the way, if a wine smells like sherry (and thus not like "wine"), it is probably due to an overabundance of acetaldehyde, and means the wine has "gone bad."

{mollishka's title goes here}: AstroVino #1: Intro and Component Tasting

So the Chablis was the starting point for training the nose to identify the six "tweaks". I've heard about this, but have never done it. Fascinating; I'd like to find a class like that!

technorati tags: box+wine, boxed+wine, wine+tasting, Almaden+Chablis