Wine Packaging
(book excerpts)Whether it's a celebrated vintage from a bygone era purchased at auction or an inexpensive selection grabbed from a display near the cash register for a quick weeknight dinner or Sunday picnic, wine needs to be protected from oxygen. It's the packaging that does this, and while that packaging doesn't stir the kind of emotion that the wine inside may, many people are very opinionated about how the wines they drink are packaged. Glass bottles still enjoy a degree of prestige that alternative packaging generally cannot match, particularly in terms of the mythological wine experience, which inevitably includes images of a traditional wine bottle with a cork closure, a capsule, and elegant labeling. However, many traditional wine producing countries have moved away from this archetype and increased their use of cans, bag-inbox, aseptic cartons (Tetra Paks), plastic bottles, and other alternatives. Although glass bottles are still used to package most wines, metal screw caps and synthetic closures are increasingly being used as an alternative to cork closures. Capsules serve as the bottle's crown and, as such, are an essential component of the overall package - it helps communicate value to the consumer. The capsule material used to crown the bottle include tin, aluminum, aluminum composite, plastic, and polylaminates.
Click on the following topics for more information on wine packaging.
Topics Within This Chapter:
- Wine Containers
- Glass Bottles
- Bottle Shapes and Sizes
- Bottle Colors
- Light Weighting
- PET Bottles
- Bag-in-Box
- Tetra Paks
- Wine Bottle Closures
- Natural Corks
- Colmated
- Technical Specifications
- Technical Corks
- Synthetic Corks
- Screw Caps
- Liners
- Oxygen Transmission Rate
- Post-Bottling Reductive Off-Flavors
- Optimal OTR
- Wine Bottle Capsules
- Tin
- Polylaminate
- Polyvinyl Chloride
- Aluminum
