Pouches, magnums, half-bottles, the much maligned wine box – good quality drink doesn’t have to come in one size
I have a strange relationship with drinks packaging. On the one hand, I’d rather go thirsty than buy a small bottle of fruit juice or water at a station, when I know there’s a litre-carton available for exactly the same price back at my local supermarket. On the other hand, I can’t remember the last time I bought a 2-litre bottle of Coke, and yet here I am now with a can of the full-fat stuff open in front of me as I type. As usual with consumer behaviour, I’m a mess of contradictions. Sensible and rational as Adam Smith’s Homo economicus when it comes to juice and water; a dupe when it comes to my expensive, no doubt marketing-led belief that Coke always tastes better in a can.
When it comes to wine, the drink responsible for an uncomfortably large proportion of my monthly spending, I don’t have to worry too much about presentation. When it comes to size or format, in the great majority of cases, the decision is made for you: most wines, of all styles, are only available in the traditional 75cl glass bottle, which began to corner the market in the 19th century. There are competing accounts about the reasons behind the ascent of the 75cl bottle, from the romantic notion that it was the capacity of the average glass blower’s lungs, to the more plausible suggestion that a standard 225-litre French wine barrel makes 300 75cl bottles. What nobody would argue, however, is that the 75cl hegemony is all about quality. Most producers, in fact, would say that a 1.5-litre magnum is a better size if you’re looking to buy fine wine to lay down, for the simple reason that it contains proportionally less oxygen than a single bottle, meaning the wine ages more slowly and, arguably, gracefully.
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