I've seen all sorts of wines in my life, even in tetrapacks, but I saw them with a tap for the first time this year. I liked the idea and taste of the wine so much that now I want to try the whole line.
Isabella tried the wine first, it was red. I liked that I didn’t have a headache in the morning, although I used to have a headache after drinking one glass any wine in the morning I felt worse than ever.
Isabella ran out quite quickly, my parents offered to bring other wines from the same producer. Now I'm also in love with semi-sweet white table wine Muscat.
Large volume: 3 liters.
Price: 2200 tenge (~440 rubles).
Manufactured by order of Lenta LLC in accordance with GOST 32030-2013.
The peculiarity of the packaging is that the box contains a thick plastic bag with a tap. Everything is sealed and I have never encountered a defective package. The wine only pours out to a drop if you pull out the bag.
You need to press the tap from below with two fingers - the valve opens and the wine is poured into the glass. It’s not very convenient that the tap is too low - you can’t stand the wine glass if the box is in the middle of the table, but the box has a handle by which you can lift the wine for pouring. Or you can pour wine from the edge of the table, placing a glass underneath.
On the packaging you can find information about the composition with a description of the color and taste of the product. If someone understands all fragrances, then such a description will be understandable. I need to try everything myself to say whether I like it or not. I liked everything except the sulfur dioxide in the composition. You don't feel it, but you know about it.
Muscat wine has a beautiful golden color. If you carbonate it, it will taste and color like champagne.
In glasses, this wine looks very similar to apple juice, so keep children away during the feast or warn them not to take anything themselves.
Taste and morning after drinking wine.
The taste is pleasant with sourness and at the same time with a slight sweetness. It's easy to drink, soft, and not at all unpleasant. There is no astringency, because... This is a semi-sweet wine. In principle, the word nutmeg itself speaks for itself better than I’m trying to describe here. Anyone who likes such wines should like it.
The aftertaste was pleasantly pleasing - there is no need to drink or eat the wine. Almost any appetizer goes with this wine.
The aroma is very light, nutmeg, sweet and sour.
How does wine behave in the body?
I won’t talk about the harm of wine, or the consequences of its excessive consumption - I won’t dissuade anyone and I won’t even try - everyone has their own head on their shoulders.
I drink wine in moderation only when there is some reason. The manufacturer recommends using an open package within 10 days, but for me it takes months, because... My husband prefers beer and only I get all the wine.
During this time, the wine does not change its properties, color, or taste.
After the first sip, the wine hits your head almost immediately, especially if it is drunk on an empty stomach. Intoxication passes quite quickly and without drowsy consequences.
If you drink a glass, the intoxication lasts almost an hour. Then everything returns to normal again. Those. crystal clear consciousness, no drowsiness or headaches.
For me this is a bit of a strange state, because... Previously, after any bottled wine, I would pass out immediately after dinner - I would yawn all over or lie down to lie down because of a headache.
But it is the Lenta wine that does not cause such side effects, and in the morning, even after a good evening intoxication, you feel productive.
If you are wary of such wines, then I can say with confidence - I tested it myself, the wine is worthy.
I definitely recommend it to those who love Muscat semi-sweet wines. It is especially convenient to buy in such packaging for a large company - cheap, high quality, tasty.
I wish everyone a pleasant feast and congratulate you on all the upcoming holidays!
If we ask you what you poured into glasses at your last corporate party or barbecue, then we think that many will remember the presence of at least one box of wine. And this is not surprising. Very often at picnics, corporate events and just friendly get-togethers you can see wine in bagged boxes on the table. Probably, once upon a time, this would have greatly amazed our ancestors. Nowadays, wine in a box is as common as packaged juice - it can be found both on the table in the back room of a friendly department store, and on the table of district administration officials. Some boxes are simpler, and some are even equipped with taps at the bottom, through which it is convenient to pour the contents. Moreover, our enterprising fellow citizens have adapted to literally squeezing wine out of these very boxes - the fact is that inside there is a dense package, which lovers of savoring wine to the last gram take out of the box and add precious drops into glasses. But are they so precious and good? And in general, what kind of wine can be sold in boxes, if from time immemorial it has been stored either in barrels or in bottles?! Let's try to find answers to these questions.
Features of boxed wine
The most important distinguishing feature of packaged wine is that you will not find collectible or vintage wine among it. Table wines are most often sold in boxes - dry or fortified, and they are also an excellent container for young wines. It is believed that a wine in a box is no different from a similar wine in a bottle. The advantage of bagged wine is not only its lightness and portability compared to bottled wine, but also its cheaper price. It is sold in bags of one, two, three or five liters.
Liter containers most often consist only of a tetra pack box, while larger ones have an additional inner bag (the same one we mentioned at the beginning of the post) to extend storage time. In this case, the so-called “Bag in box” or “bag in box” technology is used, which has a number of advantages:
- "Bag in box" is made of several layers of foil polyethylene, which protects the product from damage;
- the inner surface of such packaging is sterile;
- “Bag in box” is equipped with a convenient tap - wine is easily poured from it and no air gets inside the box, which means the wine retains its taste and freshness longer and there is no need to drink it immediately after opening, like a bottled drink.
These are the simple and compelling reasons in favor of packaged wine. However, many supporters of traditional winemaking, in which the finished wine is bottled and well sealed, are ardent opponents of boxed wine. Some even argue that it is quite possible that packaged wine is not wine, but a product based on plant powder (for example, from grape skins) or wine materials. Of course, in both cases, counterfeits are likely, and you can buy a product in a bottle that is not of the highest quality. As for wine in boxes, it makes sense to choose not liter containers - tetrapacks, but larger "Bag in boxes" with taps, simply because they are more difficult to counterfeit.
So should you buy boxed wine or not?
Despite the doubts of skeptics, packaged wine, like any other product, has its admirers, and some like one brand, others another. The undoubted advantage of boxed wine is its transportability - it does not break and has less weight compared to an equal volume of bottled wine.
If you are not a happy representative of the class of gourmets who bring collectible wines from abroad, but just want to add a little fun to a planned party, then try the wine from the package you like - perhaps it will suit you perfectly in taste, appearance and aroma, as well as in its effect on organism. If you are planning a friendly feast for 4-6 people, then it is probably better to buy a couple of bottles of wine. In any case, you need to try the wine and if you like the taste of the drink, then what difference does it make what it was sold in? Moreover, as we noted above, the wine in the bottle may also not be the best.
All this wine is transported by trucks, trains, planes, ships, stopping along the way and being reloaded somewhere at distributors, importers-exporters or retailers before they reach their final destination - the consumer's home or restaurant basement.
Transportation of wine remains one of the main sources of emissions of harmful gases into the atmosphere, increasing the greenhouse effect. It's no wonder why environmentally conscious wine producers have long been looking for an alternative to the usual glass bottles. Packaging that competes with glass must be affordable, easy to recycle, and easy to recycle or reuse.
For wines that are intended to be consumed quickly, glass is not the optimal material. Initially, glass containers were intended to be refilled, although today glass wine bottles are thrown away after the first use. It cannot be said that because of this they began to abandon glass containers en masse. We just took a different path - to reduce the weight of the bottles in every possible way. But at the same time, alternative packaging options appeared - small barrels like beer kegs, plastic bags inside a cardboard box (bag-in-box), plastic and aluminum bottles, cardboard packaging, plastic bags and more. True, they all have one common drawback - the wine can remain in them for a relatively short time, no more than one year, after which its quality may begin to deteriorate. Wine Spectator magazine tried to identify the advantages and disadvantages of different types of wine packaging. And this is what happens:
|
Name packaging |
Renewability |
Recycling |
Repeated usage |
Biological decomposition |
Packaging weight for storing 9 liters of wine |
|
Glass bottles |
3.6 - 10.8 kg for 9 liter box |
||||
|
Carton boxes (bag - in - box ) |
450 g equivalent to a 9 liter box |
||||
|
Cardboard tetrapacks |
Maybe |
Maybe |
|||
|
Plastic bags (pouch) |
Maybe |
About 300 g |
|||
|
Plastic bottles |
|||||
|
Aluminum packaging |
About 500 g |
||||
|
Barrel-shaped container (keg) |
Maybe |
4.5 kg for 10 liter container |
|||
|
Paper containers |
Glass bottles
Glass has a lot of advantages, which has affected its widespread use as a wine container. It perfectly preserves wine for decades, preventing foreign odors, foreign particles, and oxygen from penetrating into it. Glass is made from accessible, cheap and plentiful components: sand, soda, lime, broken glass. Glass bottles can be recycled back into containers an unlimited number of times without creating waste or by-products.
But, on the other hand, glass requires a lot of energy to produce. This type of packaging is heavy. A standard 750 ml bottle weighs 480-575 g. A champagne bottle already weighs 900 g. For some countries, glass containers have another drawback. To protect wine from ultraviolet rays, bottles are given a color, usually green. In Britain, which imports much more wine than it produces itself, there is a surplus of green glass, which is very difficult to turn into clear. For example, to use it for soft drinks that require clear glass containers.
Modern technologies make it possible to produce lighter glass bottles (no more than 300 g in weight) with less energy required for their production. Today, in developed countries, 23% of glass bottles are recycled, which is not a lot.
Carton boxes
Hermetically sealed bag-in-boxes, which began to be used in the 1970s, are today the most serious alternative packaging. With capacities ranging from 1.5L to 5L for retail (or restaurant) use, it is more efficient, taking up significantly less space during transport and storage than an equivalent volume of bottled wine. The cardboard box is completely recyclable. The plastic bag and faucet are partially recycled. Disadvantage - not suitable for long-term storage of wine. Once opened, wine in such packaging should be drunk within 2-3 weeks. And the shelf life of untouched packaging is no more than a year from the moment the wine is poured into a plastic bag.
For a long time, wines in bag-in-boxes were perceived by consumers as low quality. This stereotype has begun to change recently, when fairly high-quality wines began to be bottled in similar packaging. For restaurants where wine is sold by the glass, large plastic bags (up to 10 liters) are supplied, already placed in a real barrel of the appropriate size. As the bag is emptied, it is thrown away, and a new one is placed in the same barrel.
Cardboard tetrapacks
This type of packaging is characterized by a high ratio between the weight of wine and the packaging in which it is placed - 96:4. For a glass bottle, for example, the ratio is 60:40. Tetrapacks are usually available in 1 liter or 500 ml sizes. Thanks to their flat surface, tetrapacks can be stacked tightly and for the same amount of wine, one truckload of empty tetrapacks is equal to 26 truckloads of empty glass bottles. They were first used as packaging for wine in the USA in 2004. The packaging consists of 70% recycled paper. Layers of aluminum foil and polyethylene make this packaging airtight and prevent air from entering the wine, protecting it from light and contamination. It is recommended that the storage time of wine in a closed tetrapack should not exceed 12-18 months.
Plastic bags (pouch)
In fact, it is a very thick plastic bag but without an outer cardboard box. Bags of this type, but much smaller in size, are filled with, for example, mayonnaise or ketchup. Available in various capacities (up to 3 liters), with and without a tap to prevent oxygen from entering the wine. The shelf life of wine in a closed bag is no more than a year. Due to the fact that the plastic bag is quite flexible, durable and quickly cooled, it is especially suitable for taking to the beach, to the pool, or on a hike. This type of packaging was first used in 2008. The main advantage of this type of packaging is its extraordinary lightness. 10 of these empty bags take up the volume of one glass bottle.
Aluminum packaging
So many drinks are filled in aluminum cans these days, so why can't they be used for wine too? They do not break, cool quickly, and block light from entering inside. Aluminum is also highly recyclable. For example, in the USA the recycling rate for aluminum is much higher than for glass and plastic bottles. Francis Coppola's California winery produces sparkling wine in 187 ml aluminum cans with a plastic straw attached. Prosecco is also poured into a similar slightly larger container. The recommended storage period is no more than 6 months.
Plastic bottles
They are also called PET because they are made from polyethylene terephthalate. On the store shelf, many perceive them as ordinary bottles. However, such packaging still has serious image problems, since consumers immediately associate it with ordinary water, which is sold in large volumes in such packaging.
The production of such bottles is based on materials that are not biodegradable, but are recyclable into the same plastic bottles or floor coverings. They allow more air to pass through than glass, so they are not ideal packaging for protecting wine. The shelf life of wine in this type of packaging is from 6 months to up to two years before oxidation of the wine becomes a noticeable problem.
Kegs
After several unsuccessful attempts to start using similar containers for wine in the 1980s and built on the principle of selling wine (even quality wine) by the glass, this “concept” has again attracted increased interest in the last few years. Typically, such containers, made of stainless steel, hold a volume of wine comparable to 26 bottles and are well suited for restaurants that sell wine by the glass or decanter. The wine is cheaper, and the problem of disposing of empty bottles disappears. In addition, in such a barrel the wine is not subject to oxidation - under the protection of inert gas, the wine will remain fresh for up to two months if the barrel is already open and not full, and up to a year if it is sealed. The empty barrel is returned to the wine producer, washed, sterilized and refilled. The lifespan of such packaging is up to 30 years. It is economically justified for empty barrels to travel no more than 600-700 km.
Paper
This container appeared on the market only at the end of last year and is shaped like a regular bottle, but is made of thick paper with a thin plastic layer inside. This container is very light, highly recyclable and biodegradable. True, it is still difficult to say how much the wine industry will like the new bottles, how much will it accept them? From an image point of view, it does not yet attract negative associations like “if the wine is in paper, it means it is of low quality.” Again, the form offered here is close to the classic bottle one.
The global wine industry now has a huge choice of which containers to use. Each manufacturer chooses the packaging that is closest and most suitable to him in accordance with his wishes and ideas. Of course, the best wines from the left bank chateaus, as well as those from the right bank, are unlikely to abandon the use of glass bottles in the next decade. But their owners, and, most likely, buyers of these products, probably recently simply did not have to lift a box of wine up the stairs on their own. At least on the second floor.
Wine is like wine, albeit economy class. If you like it, then why not buy it?
Another thing is that the shape of the packaging is not aesthetic and unusual: it is somehow not customary to place it on a holiday table, but this can be easily solved if, for example, there is a decanter. And it’s quite suitable for a picnic with friends somewhere in nature.
There is information that the wines are quite satisfactory: Isla Negra or Cono Sur Tocornal. It is recommended to buy wine from Chile.
★★★★★★★★★★
I had occasion to take wine in boxes, in particular, the cheapest "Isabella" 1 liter.
Quite good "Vinogor" 2 or 3 l. in a large box with a tap.
There was also downright bad wine. But in a rather simple way, I managed to bring it “to mind”, so that it was not a shame to serve it on the table.
I immediately pour the purchased wine in a box into a glass container. I leave it to “breathe” for a while, especially if you feel a sour, fusel spirit. If the smell and taste are pure fusel, add water and sugar, plug it with a stopper and leave it for 4 weeks.
Everything described applies to red wines. P/sweet and dry. We don't drink white. Dry boxed wine is usually pretty good. And experts do not recommend buying sweets even in the “elite version” because... Residual wine material is used for its production. I can’t vouch for the experts, I’ll simply write: it’s not necessary once in a while. I only had a negative experience once, but we overcame it. And the benefits of buying wine in a box are undeniable!
★★★★★★★★★★
Good wine cannot be packaged in boxes.
More or less decent wines start at about 300 rubles. for 0.75 l. And even then, gourmets won’t recommend these prices to you.
The only thing you can expect from such boxed wines is their relative safety. These are more “wine drinks”, by analogy with “curd and kefir products”.
Boxed wine, is it worth buying? I’ll say right away that domestic wine from boxes is entirely of low quality. And in general, our manufacturer is not strong in the production of alcoholic beverages.
There are good wineries, but they are rare. One of the worthy ones is the Abrau-Durso plant.
But with foreign wine from boxes it’s a different story. It is quite possible to find a high-quality product, but in terms of price such wine will cost no less than bottled wine. Make sure that foreign boxed wine is not bottled in Russia, then you can’t count on decent taste. A well-known trick is when Russian producers bottle foreign alcohol, diluting it with unknown means and adding various additives.
It is better to buy boxed wine from foreign producers, but if possible, it is better to give preference to wines in glass containers from well-known manufacturers.
Many people are very suspicious of wines packaged in cardboard bags. Experts argue that today the quality of these products has become much higher than it was a dozen or two years ago, and even provide a number of evidence to confirm that when you come to the supermarket, you should not ignore these products.
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