A decade ago one would have scoffed at the concept of premium wines being sold with metal screw caps instead of traditional corks.
Best not, then, scoff at quality wine being sold in one litre octagonal Tetra Pak cartons resembling milk containers!
Here's the thing, see: what matters most is how the wine tastes, not the container it is stored in. And containers - or closures for that matter - of any style should reflect not tradition but what consumers demand in terms of convenience, serving size and a myriad of other subjective conditions.
So the true traditionalists may never be swayed from the misplaced romance of extracting a cork from a 15 year old bottle of red which has a statistically high chance of having 'corked'.
But the rest of us with open minds will give alternative packaging systems and closures a fair go.
And if you've invested in a one litre Tetra Pak of Cheviot Bridge Long Flat Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Shiraz or Cabernet Merlot you won't feel short changed.
The Long Flat range, now four decades old, sells through Dan Murphys, Woolworths, Safeway BWS, First Choice and independent retailers for under $10, which makes it remarkably good value given you're getting one third more wine than in a bottle, screw-cap or otherwise.
We taste tested several of the wines and can assure readers they were more than a notch above the beach barbecue fare you might expect at a $10 a bottle price range. And of course, you haven't got the noise or fragility of shipping the empties back home afterwards: they conveniently compact into an easily recyclable frisbee when emptied.
The key thing about the Long Flat range is that the wine is identical to that found in the bottled version - there is no compromise in quality here. Cardboard has no negative connotation at all!
In case it's not obvious, the major benefits of the B-Pak as they call the one litre model cardboard carton are environmental and social: packaging waste is cut by a claimed 90 per cent, greenhouse gas emissions by 75 per cent and energy requirements during manufacturing by 50 per cent. Socially, they're ideal for outdoors as there's no risk of breakage when empty (or worse, when they're full). They're portable, durable and light-proof.
Cheviot Bridge has not found it easy leading the packaging innovation in a market dominated by the views of snobs: "When we announced that we would be offering one of the company's strongest-performing wine brands in the new B-Pak format, there was some skepticism," MD Maurice Dean said. "However with the changing landscape of the global wine market, we recognised that innovation was the only solution to remain relevant to consumers."
Tetra Pak has built a worldwide reputation for food packaging quality. It's hard to think of a beverage of liquid foods category the European company is not involved in, from long life and fresh milk to soups, juices, wines and stocks, there are variations of the sealed Tetra Pak model to suit any consumer.
Take it from us: while plonking a one litre Tetra Pak on the table of a BYO might not yet have street cred in Lygon St or Surry Hills, at home, work, beach or local cricket oval, there can't be a more convenient way to serve wine people actually want to drink!
