When the new packaging for wine started decades ago, I was not impressed. The canned wine tasted tinny to me. The boxed wines seemed to lack fruit, had an unpleasant aftertaste or were just too sweet for my palate.

And those screw caps…what? No cork…no way.

In the mid 2010’s, upgrades in all areas came in to play, along with a need for alternative packaging, as quality cork was getting harder and harder to find. Out came the boxes, the screw caps, the cans.

But what seemed like a good idea at the time had gotten off to a rough start.

The liner and spout in the bag-in-a-box wines needed a serious upgrade. Leaking and oxidation were issues. Canned wine suffered its own early challenges, with the wine developing a tinny, metallic taste. The original screw caps had the same issue.

Fortunately, all these areas have been addressed, and the alternative packaging trend became a “real thing’” with folks getting a much higher quality product.

It was in the 1960’s that the Stelvin screw cap cork was introduced and became a game changer…a metal screw cap with a specialized liner that prevented any type of oxidation. New Zealand and Australia were the first two wine-producing regions to really put the screw cap sealer into major play.

Boxed wines eventually moved to stronger internal packaging and improved taps on the box. Can manufacturers also recognized the issues almost immediately and developed an inert, water-based lining that resolved taste challenges.

Problems solved!

Now, we all have to remember that if you’re not putting the right wine in the box or can, or sealing it with a screw cap, issues will still remain.

The bigger, more tannic wines do need to breathe a bit, as happens with traditional corks. This means wines such as Barolo, Bordeaux, big Cab Sauvs, Syrahs, and even oaky Chardonnays, in my humble opinion, still need a cork.

Suppliers have figured this out. The wines you will normally see topped with screw caps are light bodied reds (like Pinot Noir, Malbec and Grenache), aromatic whites (such as Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling), rosés and bubbles.

So when you’re heading to a park that does not allow glass containers, to a picnic, to the beach, or boating, look to the other packaging options. I think you will be as impressed at the quality, not to mention the value, as I was.

Click below to see some of our favorite wines with alternative packaging formats…

Mike Stolese is the owner of Vermont Wine Merchants, a wholesale distribution company based in Burlington.