Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/62507
P A CKA GING A New Façade for Boxed Wines Banker invents attractive dispenser to squeeze out wine By Jane Firstenfeld dramatically.…More restaurants are turning to boxed wine for by-the- glass pours." In The New York Times, Eric Asimov led his blog, "The Pour," saying: "It's the epitome of déclassé, the vinous equivalent of trailer trash, the wine snob's worst nightmare." A few paragraphs later, he recanted. "The logic of placing wine in a box is so compelling that, sooner or later, some producers were going to take a chance that better wine would sell this way." He and a panel tasted their way through 20 boxed wines, many of them imported. "Without a doubt," he wrote, "the choices are far superior to what was available five years ago." Favorites included a $90 box of 2009 Pinot Noir (Dominio IV's Love Lies Bleeding) and Constellation's Black Box New Zealand 2010 Sauvignon Blanc priced at a tasty $22 for 3 liters. I In the wine industry, success comes with accessories. A few years ago, we were dumb- founded to receive a new product sample: an opener for screwcapped wines. This struck us as redundant, to say the least. t's official: Boxed wines are now mainstream. In August, the con- sumer wine press conceded the issue: Grant Butler wrote in the Portland Oregonian, "What's go- ing into those boxes has improved Most wine boxes must be perched at the edge of a counter or table to dispense wines. Boxxle's design permits users to rest a stemmed glass on a flat surface and pour with one hand; even the last glass is accessible without tilting the container. This summer, though, we were intrigued by a pitch for a new product designed for bag-in-boxed wines. Designed by a passionate consumer of boxed wines, and still in prototype mode, the Boxxle has captured the interest of at least one major winery as well as Scholle Packaging, the pre-eminent producer of wine bags in North America. Tripp Middleton is a banker in North Carolina. He was inspired to invent the Boxxle by frustrations common to box-wine consumers. "I always enjoyed wine, I hated to waste wine. I read about the environmental benefits of boxed wines, and the fact that the wine would last a month after opening. I love to have a glass with dinner." He did not, however, neces- Tripp Middleton designed the Boxxle to complement sleek kitchen appliances or bar arrays. 44 Wines & Vines OCTOBeR 2011 sarily like the look of the box in his kitchen; the need to prop it at the lip of a counter or refrigerator shelf to pour and, most importantly, he resented the difficulty of pouring the last glass or two out of the box. "You just want to tear the box open and squeeze," he observed. No tilting with Boxxle Boxxle, a sleek dispenser fabricated from stainless steel and injection-molded plastic, addresses these issues. Middleton engineered a patent-pending method of bringing the wine up to the spout instead of relying on gravity feed and manual mauling. This enables the Boxxle to sit securely like other appliances and elimi- nates the "tilt to tap" (or messy squeez- ing) required to get the last ounces from existing boxes. It does require some labor from the consumer or server, however. The wine bag must be removed from its original, branded bag-in-box (BiB) and placed in the Boxxle. Middleton consulted with Scholle to ensure that Boxxle's spigot is compatible with commercially available spouts. "Boxxle will work with all their bags," he said. Katie Scarpelli, marketing communi- cations manager at Scholle, comment- ed, "We're always excited when others get excited about BiB." While winemakers might welcome Boxxle if it attracts more buyers for their product, marketers could have objections. Every wine package is the child of care- fully considered strategy and considerable monetary cost.