Smaller wine bottles now the smarter choice

5:30 AM Thursday Aug 2, 2012

New Zealand's oldest winery, Mission Estate, is setting an example by launching its first 500ml bottles of red and white wine to suit the lifestyles of people in 2012. Photo / Supplied

While small may not always be beautiful, it can sometimes have quite a bit going for it.

For example, seasoned international travellers soon learn to pack economically, avoiding the struggle with oversized suitcases crammed with clothes that will never be worn. When it comes to consumables, sometimes it's smarter and cheaper to buy loose or single items rather than those attractively pre-packaged, which may seem a better bulk-buy but you finish up throwing most of them out because they too quickly pass their use-by date. And so it is that for some people the standard 750ml wine bottle is simply too big. With screwcaps they can possibly have a longer shelf life but there are occasions when a smaller-sized bottle would be more convenient.

A number of dessert wines come in 330ml bottles because the wine is usually richer and leans towards a denser, fortified style. And other styles do exist in cute 250ml bottles, such as are served on passenger ferries and airlines, but they're something of a rarity and are usually representative of large commercial companies who can command a significant volume of sales for a captive market.

Medium-sized and smaller producers will tell you that economy of scale doesn't work for bottles smaller than 750ml, which is why there aren't many of them on the market.

Smart, then, of Mission Estate - New Zealand's oldest winery - which has been bottling wine for 161 years, to identify a shifting demographic and act accordingly.

The Hawkes Bay winery realised that the standard 750ml bottle might not always suit the lifestyle of people in 2012. The population is older, increasingly urban, lives in smaller family units, is single or divorced - not to forget the vigilance now related to drink-driving. There are also issues regarding health and avoiding excessive drinking.

So it recently launched the first 500ml bottles of both red and white wine - an in-between serving size for two, each bottle containing approximately four glasses of wine. It's an innovative new format and deserves to succeed.

As we're fond of saying: "drink less, drink better".

Recommended

2011 Mission Estate Sauvignon Blanc, $9.99-$12.99
Using grapes from Marlborough, the world's most-revered region for sauvignon blanc, this has classic flavours and aromas of passionfruit and gooseberry. It has a generous long finish and is elegantly crafted. Classic Wairau Valley.

2011 Mission Estate Syrah, $9.99-$12.99
Made from Hawkes Bay grapes, which always bodes well for this
varietal. An approachable wine with delicate softness and gentle berry fruit flavours with spicy overtones. It will suit most meat and pasta dishes.

By John Hawkesby

BillyBG (Auckland Region) | 09:51AM Thursday, 02 Aug 2012

Many years ago, in the late 1980's, there were a lot of NZ wines available as either 750ml or 375ml, and the hotel where I worked made a point of having them on the wine list. Lone business travellers really appreciated being able to have a wide choice of wines to go with their meal, instead of just having the 'House Red' or 'House White'. I always thought it was to the detriment of the wine industry when the half bottles disappeared.

Steve () | 11:24AM Friday, 03 Aug 2012

Interestingly we launched our latest variety, Stanley Estates Albarino 2011 in 500ml bottles November 2011 and will be doing the same with the 2012 vintage later this year, as we are targeting the On-Trade.

independent (Parnell) | 11:24AM Friday, 03 Aug 2012

There is a very simple solution to this. Buy a bottle of desert wine with a screwcap that comes in a 375ml bottle. When you finish that wine wash/rinse and *SAVE THE bottle*. Whenever you open up a new 750ml bottle of wine, immediately fill up the empty 375ml bottle you saved to the very top, put the screwcap on and chuck it into your fridge.

It will keep for days, or even possibly weeks. Do this with Red or White wine as the colder fridge temps will slow down any degradation of the wine. Just make sure to pull the bottle out and let it warm up if you do this to a Red wine. This is a great way to conserve wine and drink moderately.