THE GOONIES
WHEN IT COMES TO WINE, IT’S TIME TO THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX – AND DRINK FROM ONE
THE AUSTRALIAN RITE OF PASSAGE that is drinking boxed wine (known affectionately as goon) has long had a bad rap. But embracing wine in a box, rather than a bottle, stacks up in more ways than one.
“The quality of cask wine historically has not been great,” says James Hird, sommelier for Sydney venues such as Icebergs Dining Room and Bar. Its reputation has meant it’s been a format lending itself to lesser quality fruit from less-revered regions. However, Hird says, “More growers have been looking into reducing packing and shipping, and so turning to casks.”
The carbon footprint of transporting casks is lower than for heavier glass bottles. (Consider that a bottle of wine generates almost 2.5 kilos of carbon dioxide emissions just to travel from California to New York.) Though casks aren’t an innocent save-all – they’re still largely single-use and contain a plastic tap – their production is less energyintensive than that of glass and they produce 80 per cent less landfill waste.
While you may assume glass is a superior vessel, casks are perfectly fine for wines intended to be drunk immediately – that’s 97 per cent of wine produced.
The takeaway? “Less packaging cost means the drinker gets a better product for less money,” says Hird. The Europeans are already on board: there are 24 French outposts of boutique-cum-boxed-wine bar Bibovino (bibovino.fr) and in Sweden and Norway, casks make up half of all wine consumed.
Local venues such as Sydney drinking hole The Dolphin Hotel are catching on, using boxed wine behind the bar for some varieties to drive down the cost per glass. The 2018 Owen’s Big Orange (an organic orange wine) is also available to take away, retailing for $200 (the 10-litre box is equivalent to 13 standard bottles).
Hird says you can take a month to finish a cask – good news for anyone exasperated by tipping out a bottle after it’s gone bad in just days. “A quality cask in the fridge is a great way to have a great glass at hand for any occasion,” says Hird.