Bag-in-box - Dicey

But boxed wine, AKA cask wine and goon bag, is making a comeback, with its environmental credentials driving growth. Bag-in-box (BIB) has one of the lowest carbon footprints of all the current alternative packaging formats, with its carbon emissions (CO2e/L) being a massive 87% less than lightweight glass.

This format is essentially a plastic pouch with a tap, fitted inside a cardboard box. While it has been a mainstay of the wine industry sinc it was first released in Australia by Angove's in the 1960s - and praised for its convenience and easy portion control - the quality and price point traditionally sat at the lower end.

But this is not the case everywhere in the world, with Europe (especially Sweden, Norway, and Finland) embracing boxed win. Within these Scandinavian countries, 50% of all wine sold is in BIB format, covering a wide range of quality and price points. This includs some New Zealand producers which don't offer a BIB in other markets.

Now, as momentum for lower emissions packaging grows, New Zealand is boxing some premium wines, with James and Matt Dicey leading the way with Dice by Dicey, a 2-litre box of Central Otago Pinot Noir, retailing at $80.

The brothers behind Dicey Wines noticed that Europe was miles ahead with alternative packaging. Describing a conversation they were having in late 2019 about how they could do what they were doing "but better", Matt thought it was obvious they were "missing a piece here". It took two years to launch Dice, with plenty of challenges along the way, starting with getting a handle on the energy use and recyclability of wine packaging, he says. "You really need to look... for us it's been a big journey of discovery".

They discovered that none of the glass from Central Otago gets recycled. "It is too energy intensive and expensive to truck back to Auckland, so it all gets crushed and re-used in roading - which is a massive waste of energy," he says. When they dug into their energy use, they found that half of it was down to the production and transport of glass bottles, meaning a change in packaging would be a major and immediate impact on their footprint. "As great as glass is, when you look at it, it is too much of our energy within that bottle of wine. The way to change that was to put a premium product into it (BIB) and being in Central Otago for us that was Pinot."

"The first thing was to source some fruit which was relatively easy; much harder was how do we actually bag our wines", Matt says. After looking at commercial packers, they ended up importing their own semi-automatic bagging system and then went about sourcing the inner bags locally. "We found out New Zealand was actually at the forefront of bag film manufacture in the 80s and 90s. And there were a couple of really innovative people that led that early film development here in New Zealand".

Recyclability was an important focus for Dicey. Although unable to source a fully recyclable inner for their first run, they have now sourced what is known as a 'recycle ready bag'. This has a mono-material tap, where the tap and the bag are made of the same plastic, making it fully recyclable as one piece.

The challenges haven't just been in the physical packaging. Matt says the consumer is ready for change, but the image in New Zealand of BIB as cheap low-end wine has been purveyed right through the retail sector. "The retail gatekeepers have probably been the hardest people to get through." When they get out and chat to accounts, they always seem to have the same memories of cask wine as 'rubbish' that they snuck into concerts and drank at parties before blowing up the bag as a pillow, he says. "But as soon as they taste the Pinot they get through a lot of those pre-conceived notions. Like everything, it is about the level of engagement with the retailer." They initially saw sales in on-premise grow quickly as a solution to by-the-glass. "It stays fresh for a month, with no wastage... and when people see it behind a bar, it really generates some conversation."

Dicey are planning to release a Rosé and a white wine alongside their Pinot Noir but Matt acknowledges they are only a small part of the market. "This is not us trying to create a category. Success for us would be other entrants coming in." They have seen a lot of interest from other New Zealand wine producers in Central Otago and around the country, and are hopeful others will jump in and start to put quality wine in the boxed format. "We are never going to change it on our own. It is everybody telling that story and getting the messaging coming through. There are all sorts of alternative packaging formats, and I think all of it is breaking down those stereotypes."