BiB – What is a wine sack?

These wine sacks were favoured by nomads and travellers because they were lightweight, durable, and flexible. To prevent the wine from seeping through, the leather was traditionally lined with pine pitch, resin, or, later, wax. I can remember my father with his lamb chop sideburns carrying a leather flask-like bag and draining it on hot days when we lived in Colorado. The wine sack of the 70’s!

Often affectionately termed “goon” or “goonie” in Australia (believed to derive from the word “flagon,” or potentially from an Aboriginal word for “pillow” due to the shape of the bag), the modern bag-in-box at the time was invented in 1965 by Australian winemaker Thomas Angove. The bag Thomas created was inspired by the industrial methods used to transport battery acid at the time. Angove patented his polyethylene bladder and had it placed inside a cardboard box, and presto-change-o the Bag in Box was alive!

The original design required the drinker to cut a corner off the bag, which mirrors the format still used today in Ontario, Quebec, and Atlantic Canada for milk. At my mother-in-law’s house in Windsor, Ontario, anytime I’m home, when I open the fridge door, there on the inside is a plastic pitcher with a pouch of milk and the corner snipped off. The first time I saw this, my jaw dropped!

This practice was introduced in the late 1960s by DuPont and gained massive popularity in the 1970s during Canada’s transition to the metric system. Hence the four-litre bags of milk.

The BiB wine we know today

In 1967, Charles Malpas and Penfolds Wines patented their plastic, airtight tap and developed a method to weld it to the “wine” bladder, revolutionising packaging and providing the world and all of us savvy wine drinkers with the hermetically sealed and very easy-to-use spout.

Preferred globally for its ability to prevent oxidation (the bag collapses as wine is dispensed) and for being more environmentally sustainable than glass, the BiB produces a carbon footprint that is 90% less than that generated by four 750ml glass bottles. Additionally, as you know, cardboard and plastic are much more effectively recycled than glass bottles. And for transport internationally or just from the store to your home, unlike glass, modern plastic bags are nearly impossible to break, making sack-based packaging and shipping in bulk much more affordable for the producer and the consumer.

I believe the world has been trying to emulate the French. Their culture, cuisine, their wines.  Perhaps this is another example to follow and emulate, even the French drink boxed wine!!!

In 2014, I remember being in Paris and walking past this gorgeous boutique filled with feature walls that were lined with pristine identical lavender wine cubes. This was the first branch of BiBoViNo — a stylish boutique wine bar dedicated exclusively to bag-in-box offerings! What!?

BiBoVino revolutionised the boxed wine market, selling only premium organic or biodynamic wine in beautiful boxes from exclusive partnerships with high-end vineyards across France. Fine wines from serious appellations, just in a more practical and eco-friendlier format.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ I never forgot that shop, in the Marché des Enfants Rouges on rue Charlot. Check it out the next time you’re in Paris!!

Have I convinced you yet?

BiB is an amazing alternative to bottled wine in terms of carbon footprint, cost, and recyclability. If winemakers are now making lower-ABV wine with fewer chemicals added, making the wine to drink tonight and not to age. Why not put the wine in a bag? The wine in the bag lasts for up to three months after opening and six-12 months unopened. The bag is hermetically sealed, protecting the wine and hygienically safe. You can keep the box in the refrigerator or on your kitchen shelf and grab a glass when you feel like it, without feeling guilty about opening a whole bottle for yourself. The bag-in-a-box offers us consumers options, and I love options! Perhaps, together, we can convince more winemakers to package their well-made delicious wines for us all to enjoy straight from the box!!

A few stats:

Given rising inflation, the cost to bottle wine, the packaging (label, cork, capsule), and shipping (dry goods) ranges from €1.50 to over €2.50 per bottle, driven by a roughly 55% increase in glass prices.

Another point to consider is how much you, the consumer, spend per bottle. If you usually buy a €5 bottle at the shop, the cost is mostly packaging.

Consider that a 5-litre BiB equals 6.67 bottles (750 mL each). Based on data indicating a cost of €2.50 per bottle, that means we are spending €16.67 in packaging cost alone. A bag-in-box costs roughly €2 for a three- or five-litre bag, which is only €0.60 per litre, compared to €2.50 per bottle, begging the question: Would you rather spend money on packaging or the wine itself?

All this in contrast to the undeniable guilt, inevitability and reality of a wasted bottle of wine. A bottle of red wine may last up to three days after opening, and a bottle of white can last potentially up to three weeks if refrigerated, but boxed wine can last up to three months, whether red or white.

Producers and we, the consumers, have the power to challenge this stigma!

My fave boxed wine on the market here in Portugal is made by Talha Mafia in Vila de Frades. Right now, they have a three-litre 2023 delicious Red blend, Rifle for €24.90. You can purchase it online at https://talhamafia.com

And I recently discovered Adega Cooperative Salguieros Branco from the Dão, a blend of my favorite grapes from the region, Encruzado, Malvasia, Bical, and Sercial. A five-litre box is just €7.49 at Intermarche.

The brilliant, disposable, recyclable, and hygienic nature of the “goon”, without the risk of breakage, easy to break down and recycle, is ideal for more relaxed moments, such as BBQs, beach parties, picnics, and enjoying a glass on your own without the guilt of spoiling a whole bottle.

If you end up picking one up you like, please share it with me!