An article titled “Wine Packaging for Leaner Times,” printed in the November 2009 issue of Wines & Vines, stated, “Alternative packaging lies at the confluence of two major trends in the wine industry. The first is economical,” and “environmental awareness has been on the rise.” Many formats such as bag-in-box are much less expensive than the glass + cork + capsule + label paradigm, and they use less energy per case to ship from winery to market, as the packaging is very light. In addition, bags, boxes and cans are easily recycled with a smaller carbon footprint than glass, which requires massive amounts of energy to crush and reheat recycled material to 1,600° F to make a new bottle.

Since that article, convenience has become a third major trend to consider. Millennials love wine but are less interested in traditional packaging. To them, it’s an enhancement if packaging makes wine easier to enjoy, which explains the market success of good wines in heretofore heretical packaging formats such as cans, pouches, single-serve wines packed in their own glasses, under screwcaps, etc. In addition, restaurants are having success with more efficient formats such as recyclable plastic kegs and reusable stainless steel kegs.

You may be considering whether these new packaging formats would work for you. To try it out, you’ll likely want to start with a small test market quantity. But if you don’t have the equipment or training to fill packages like these, where do you begin? Are there vendors for this?