We all know that wines are packed in glass bottles and closed with a cork-stopper. That is pretty much how it has been done for about 300 years, and the only major innovation has been that of using metal caps instead of corks, which is still a controversial innovation as purists, by and large, continue to swear by corks.
Not so long ago, all European wines were shipped in wooden barrels, and bottles or jugs were used only to facilitate serving wine to customers in taverns (or the homes of those rich enough to buy the stuff by the barrel). Bottles were round or squat, having been blown manually. Moulds began being used only 250 years ago and the three modern 750 ml wine bottle shapes (the high-shouldered Bordeaux shape, the sloping Burgundy, and the tall-thin Riesling) became standardised only in the early 19th century.
The problem with wine corks was that between 0.1 per cent and 7 cent of bottles tended to get "tainted" with TBA or TCA, naturally-occurring chemicals in inferior corks. The solution was to use the screw cap - the same as the "roll-on pilfer proof", or ROPP, cap in use by the spirit industry - for younger wines. Since 90 per cent of all wines are drunk young, that was quite a blow to the cork industry in countries such as Australia and New Zealand, which have taken to screw caps in a big way.
Of course, bottles with screw caps are a lot easier to open than those with corks, and anyone who has ever been stumped by the lack of a wine corkscrew will attest to the functionality of the former.
So what about glass bottles themselves?
Glass is difficult to replace: it is chemically inert, economical, can be moulded into any number of shapes and sizes and is recyclable. The only drawbacks are its weight and breakability. Producers have been experimenting with alternatives like PET bottles, but these don't have the same "feel" as glass and are used only in-flight or for the cheapest wines. Another alternative is aluminium cans, like beer cans, which somehow just don't gel with wines.
My favourite alternative is the "bag-in-box" (BiB), which started off being used for cheap, blended wines but is now being used even for more expensive varietal wines. The BiB was invented in Australia in 1965 and today has captured as much as 18 per cent of the wine market in the US. That's the equivalent of 68 million cases! The reasons are simple: the BiB pack (two or more litres) is economical, unbreakable, convenient, light, provides a large surface for branding and preserves the wine to the last drop by avoiding oxygen contact.
But BiB packs just haven't taken off in India. The only state I've ever seen BiB packs in is Goa and, as far as I know, there are no Indian (or imported) BiB wines in any other state. This must either be due to restrictive excise policies that do not permit packs of two litres or more or the perception that BiB wines are "cheap". Let's hope some enterprising winery takes the lead in this respect.
Wines I've been drinking: With no BiB wine available, I quaffed a bottle of the Misfit Cabernet Shiraz 2013, produced for Myra Vineyards at the Oakwood winery in Maharashtra. This is an unfiltered red wine matured in French oak casks for 18 months and is priced at Rs 1,500 in Bengaluru. Myra Managing Director Ajay Shetty says, "We conceptualised Misfit in 2013 and wanted to create an opulent blend that tastes great." I thought that the wine was still too young and needed another year (at least) in bottle. The fruit aroma was subdued and did not carry forward to the palate. Yes, the wine was full-bodied, but the tannins were very dry at the start. The wine needed about 30 minutes in the glass to start opening up, after which it started developing some complexity and depth. Verdict: interesting, worth trying, but decant at least 30 minutes before drinking.
Alok Chandra is a Bengaluru-based wine consultant
