Ch 15: Packaging Flashcards
PET packaging
A form of plastic that is light, tough, inexpensive, and recyclable (in principle).
It is well suited for quick consumption wines with a limited shelf life, or informal settings, or on planes.
Bag-in-box
A cardboard box with a flexible bag inside. The bag is usually made of aluminum foil surrounded by plastic, or plastic that gives some protection from oxygen.
Advantages include good protection from oxygen after the wine has been poured, a range of box sizes, easy storage, and low environmental impact.
The wine must have slightly higher SO2 to counter oxidation, a low dissolved oxygen level, no head space, and low carbon dioxide (to avoid the bag from bulging).
Shelf life is 6 - 9 months.
This is very successful in Australian and Swedish markets.
Brick packaging
Make of paper card with plastic layers and a layer of aluminum foil that excludes oxygen and light.
This does well in markets at lower price points where price is a major driver (Germany).
The filling equipment is expensive.
Pouch
Similar to the bags inside bag-in-boxes. They are available in larger and single serve sizes.
Can
The ring-pull can is light, strong, easy to open, impenetrable to oxygen and recyclable. The aluminum has to be lined with plastic to avoid being attacked by the wine’s acidity.
These are good for wines that are to be consumed early, and are used for inexpensive and mid-priced wines.
Technical corks
These are made from cork that has gone through a manufacturing process, and are designed to avoid cork taint.
The cheapest option is the agglomerated cork, in which cork granules are glued together. These are only suitable for inexpensive wines that are meant to be drunk early.
Diam corks are recomposed cork particles that have been cleaned and reconstituted with plastic. These can be used for either ageable or early drinking wines.
Synthetic closures
Made from food-grade plastic with a silicone coating. There are two types: Moulded and Extruded.
Moulded is the cheapest option and suitable for early consumption wines. They are rigid, and difficult to reinsert once the bottle is opened. They offer limited protection from oxygen.
Extruded closures are more elastic, and are claimed to be suitable for ageable wines.
Flavor scalping, where there is a loss of some flavor intensity due to the plastic absorbing some flavor molecules, is an issue.
They are ‘in-bottle’ closures, so can be implemented on traditional bottling lines with no additional cost or logistical issues.
Screwcap
An aluminum closure that rolls onto the outside of a bottleneck, and therefore, needs different closure equipment from in-bottle closures. They are impenetrable, or have low oxygen permeability. This can lead to the wine becoming reductive after bottling. To avoid this issue, the final wine needs to have slightly lower SO2 levels.
Attitudes toward screwcaps are very different from market to market. For example, the U.S. associates screwcaps with inexpensive wines, whereas in Australia, it is more accepted for a wider range of wines.
The winemaker must take the market into account when deciding on closures.
Glass stoppers
Brandname: Vinolok. Closures made from glass where the actual stopper is plastic. Wine storage possibilities are similar to natural cork, but special bottles must be used.
They are as attractive and as expensive as top-quality corks, and therefore, suitable for premium and super-premium wines.
Quality Control
The set of practices and inspections by which the company ensures a consistently good quality product. An example is random testing of bottles for fill height during bottling
Quality Assurance
A broader concept that includes quality control, as well as planning, mgmt and other systems. It is preventive and proactive. A HACCP document is one way a company can outline a QA system. Benefits both producers and consumers: Protection, reputation, reduced costs (from bad product, loss of reputation), consistency, traceability.
HACCP
A process in which the company identifies all possible hazards that could affect the final wine. It includes hazards, level of seriousness, how it can be corrected, and how it can be prevented.
It is internal, carried out by the company producing the wine, and has a considerable time and cost investment.
ISO standards
International Organization for Standardization. An international body which develops standards that can be used to audit and verify the quality standards of a company.
It is a way that wine companies can get external verification of their quality standards. It is a rigourous process that requires professional fees.
Traceability
A winery must be able to trace what products are affected in the event that a quality problem was reported. This ideally prevents customers from consuming an unsafe product and allows the winery to pinpoint where process improvements can be made to ensure the problem does not reoccur.
Bulk Transportation
Advantages, Disadvantages, Two main types
Advantages are that bulk shipping is environmentally friendly, quality is better with less temperature fluctuation, closer to POP packaging, less chance of product loss.
Disadvatages are that there is less control over packaging, quality control, restricted to high volume wines, loss of relationship between producer and consumer, less control over pricing and marketing
Two main types of bulk shipping containers are:
* flexitank: single-use, recyclable polyethylene bag that fits into a standard container
* ISO tank: stainless steel vessel built to the ISO standard that can be reused many times and may have additional insulation
