Forget the glass bottles, alternative, space saving sources of packaging wine are on the rise and can be found at many retailers.
We’re all pretty familiar with the bag-in-box (BIB) form, a plastic bag full of a bottle or two of wine with a pour spout sticking out of a cardboard box. It’s a space-saving way to fit wine into the fridge and there’s no risk of breakage if you accidentally drop it. A newer form of the boxed version is the Tetra Pak (pictured) — a small, juice box-like package containing one to three glasses of wine. Pour it out into a glass or just pop a straw in it! Then there’s the Astra Pouch, which mimics that plastic bag in the BIB, which is basically the bag with the spout sans the box.
Mini kegs are becoming popular with beer lovers and now oenophiles can enjoy their drink of choice in similar form, the plastic mini barrel which sits on its side. Like the BIB, it has a spout on its front side and saves space in the fridge or on the counter top.
This article appears in Sep 22-28, 2011.
