I have been wondering about the possibility of storing unbottled wine for an extended period of time. In my quest to see just how long a winery could keep a vat of wine in a neutral container topped with inert gas (or in a vacuum), I found something even crazier.
The bag-in-box concept has been scaled upā¦big-time!
These bags are cheaper than prebottled wine shipped via ships across the ocean.
The bags are apparently nothing new, but I had not seen them previously.
Do the standard labelling rules of an imported wine applies to alcoholic beverages, transported via giant freaking bags, bottled in the country of importation or sale?
Possible flaws: (a) one mishap that causes a hole and an entire winery goes under, (b) bottling becomes less consistent, and (c) who wouldnāt want the lovely additional tertiary flavor of āpool linerā added to their favorite bottle?
Makes sense maybe for $5/bottle wine. As the article states, youāll never see this for more expensive wines where someone may care if there is a hint of pool linerā¦
What I found interesting, not being in the shipping industry, is my quick and very rough calculation of the approximate weight of one of these bladders holding the wine. Over 51,000 pounds! Or 25 tons. I donāt know if that makes the loaded sea van heavier than normal or not.
What I found interesting, not being in the shipping industry, is my quick and very rough calculation of the approximate weight of one of these bladders holding the wine. Over 51,000 pounds! Or 25 tons. I donāt know if that makes the loaded sea van heavier than normal or not.
I donāt think thereās a ānormalā. Ships have a certain tonnage they can carry and it doesnāt matter what form it comes in. If youāve ever seen a ship loaded with containers, remember that some of them are full of pallets of wine and other liquids, others might be full of cans of paint or auto parts or various heavy objects of metal or stone. And the ships also carry steel, bronze, cars, etc.
I have used flexitanks many timesā¦they rock. No imparted flavors and considerably more cost effective than paying to ship glass, especially when your dealing with countries like NZ that import the glass and have to pay high costs for it. Lowers cost of goods a couple bucks a case easy which is important at $15 retails or below (the smallest one is 24,000 liters so it doesnāt make sense for small, high quality lots and most high end European appellations require bottling in appellation to qualify for designation). Zero quality degradation as far I am concerned.
