Those of a certain age — and yes, I’ll admit to being one of them — can remember the days of home milk delivery. It was very cool! You’d put your empty bottles out on the porch (or in an insulated metal box about as big as a milk crate with the dairy logo on it) at night and by the time you got up in the morning, there would be full fresh bottles of milk waiting. You know, kinda like trash pickup, but in reverse and a whole lot more appetizing.
Well, turns out, up in the San Francisco Bay Area, they’re utilizing this model for wine … jug wine. Yes, now that you’ve finished gasping in horror, hear me out or better yet, listen to this recent piece from the California Report.
It’s still very much a niche market, but a couple of wineries in Northern California are making the rounds to local restaurants – some no more than within a 100 mile radius – in much the same way that milkmen did. They drop off full kegs of wine and pick up the empties, a scenario which allows them to eliminate most of the costs of packaging and post-consumer waste (bottles, corks, labels, boxes, etc.) and reduce the cost of transportation (the keg weighs less).
No, it’s not ultra premium reserve wine designed for “keg aging,” but we’re not talking swill here either. Plus, the wine stays “fresh” in the kegs for up to a couple of weeks and it can be offered to the consumer at a very comfortable by-the-glass price point that still provides reasonable profits for the producer and restaurant owner. One restaurant profiled in the California Report was able to pour a $4.50 glass of Sauvignon Blanc, a price point that’s about the same as a good draft beer.
Granted, if you’re at a high-end steak house, this model is clearly not going to work, and the kegs still have to be laboriously cleaned and sterilized by hand. However, there are markets – maybe San Luis Obispo County being one of them? – where this concept of drinking could be maybe tapped into and make some $ense!