Hi guys- I see a lot of high end brands wrapping their bottles in tissue paper and using fancy custom boxes. I don’t do either of these as I find it wasteful not to mention labor intensive and very expensive. Do these packaging additions make a difference to you? Would you rather the wine be $5-$10 less expensive but not have this packaging?
Yes.
Double for oversize and overweight bottles.
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Absolutely.
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Special wine deserves special care. If it’s a run of the mill wine, it’s kind of silly to have a huge bottle or fancy gold leaf. I think it’s apropos that my Lafon Monty comes tissue paper wrapped in a wood box with the Domaine logo.
Def this. And wax capsules.
Nice artwork on the label is good, as long as no bicycles, umbrellas or cute critters are involved.
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Unlike Andrew, I only care about what is in the bottle, not something showing how “fancy” my bottle is. I don’t need tissue wrap, gold leaf, heavy bottles, wood boxes, or anything like that. A normal bottle and delicious wine is all I ask for.
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Would rather have it be less expensive. In an ideal world, all wines are packaged in no-frills Bdx.-shaped bottles.
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I immediately unwrap the tissue after opening the box. It’s a complete waste for me
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Hate the fancy, more expensive (both to produce and ship) shit.
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It’s just as wasteful and labor intensive on the customer end. I’d rather not have to take the extra time to break down a box and bring it to recycling
And, like others, don’t get me started on wax or heavy bottles…
But that doesn’t mean there aren’t some people who are attracted by fancy plumage. I don’t understand why but it’s a thing. But I have to really like the wine to put up with it (I’m looking at you Comtes)
I think the only wine deserving heavy bottles is Champagne. Others are wasteful/environmentally tone deaf.
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I am with Andrew.
Striking packaging - yes!
Fancy packaging - NO!!!
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Fancy packaging is just so much bullshit. Soooo pretentious.
The only aspect I feel is acceptable are wooden boxes as they most likely were the only way to store 12 bottle cases safely (other quantities and sizes, too) before cardboard came along.
I’ve drunk wines in the past that one would now need to take out a second mortgage on. Other than aforementioned wood boxes, I don’t recall bringing any home that had more packaging than that. IIRC, the Henri Jayer Burgundies I purchased way back when were packaged in cardboard. DRC back in the day (60s and 70s vintages)? Wood box, no tissue.
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I don’t like the fancy boxes - as they are difficult to store and you immediately discard them. Tissue wrapped bottles do have a special feel about them. I never buy a wine because it is tissue wrapped - I have no idea if any given wine will be wrapped - but the crispy ASMR experience has a nice feel to it. I cannot imagine it costs $5-10 for the tissue wrap! Maybe $1-2? And whether there a marketing ROI for that as the seller, I have no idea. I imagine there are much bigger destroyers of margin in the wine world than tissue wrap. And probably better alternatives as well (a well written insert shipped along with bottles probably more appreciated than tissue wrap).
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The only reason I see for preferring fancy bottles is to show off, or when there is a lack of understand of the wines considered for a purchase.
Hence I get it if a winery choose fancy (if they decide to) - increases the odds of a bottle picked out in a packed shelf. Same with retails wrapping the bottles with paper with the hope you have you have them in mind when you open bottles sold by them (in Europe there’s no importer information on the bottles).
I’d take a great wine in a boring bottle any day of the week over an (almost) great wine in a fancy bottle. What’s in the glass is what matters, fancy has no meaning or purpose (many times unpractical) in enhancing my wine experience.
I think that is just silly.
Apropos, “apropos” (from French à propos) means “on a related note” or “regarding this matter”. I think the word you were looking for was “appropriate”.
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I’m not impressed with fancy packaging and would rather not pay for it. Extra wrappings are just more trash and large heavy bottles can be harder to store.
Just a slight different perspective on bottles and eco-friendly. There will come a day when recycling wine bottles will become a welcome change to the current disposal process. When the infrastructure is in place a change will come about that will see a good portion of wines in standardized bottles with wash off labels. For those bottles a certain level of glass heft will be required for multiple use recycling. From what I’ve read the current light bottles would not be feasibly recycled. My understanding is that the wine bottle recycling is being trialed on the west coast. I look forward to that day for us on the east coast.
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Are the wine bottles we put into recycle bins… not recycled today?