Price-Reducing Wine Innovations by Boisset Family Estates

You’re going to love Jean-Charles Boisset. Why? He’s hard at work reducing wine prices, without reducing quality. This might not seem possible, but Boisset Family Estates was named the 2008 “Innovator of the Year” by Wine Enthusiast Magazine for a reason: they’re constantly developing cost-saving and eco-friendly ways to package wine.

Get this – of the total price you pay for a bottle of wine, only 10% is the actual cost of the wine. Yup, that’s right. The other 90% of the cost goes toward transportation and packaging. Boisset is working on making lighter and equally efficient packaging to reduce the cost of wine. He’s so far come up with five key innovations, which Bon Vivant heard him speak about at the recent Boston Wine Festival.

-The Tetra Pak carton used for Boisset’s French Rabbit wines is a one-liter, octagonal-shaped package with a screw-top
closure and label-free packaging. It’s fully recyclable and saves 60% on packaging costs.
-The PET bottle used for Fog Mountain wines is a recyclable, shatterproof plastic bottle, ideal for taking on picnics or boat trips.
-He’s made aluminum bottles that are great for Beaujolais, and they are continuously
recyclable. When used for chilled wines, aluminum bottles stay cold longer.
-A line of lighter glass bottles uses 460 grams of glass versus 600+ grams.
-Wine service by the glass has changed with DeLoach Vineyard’s Barrel to Barrel. Barrels contain 10-liter bags of Pinot Noir poured from a spigot in the barrel, which reduces packaging,
eliminates corkage, and delivers an extra liter of wine compared to a traditional 9-liter case.

Eco-friendly and wallet-friendly? Boisset Family Estates is definitely a wine producer to watch.

[photo from www.deloachvineyards.com]