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.
