Wine on tap has recently begun to pick up steam, and according to the Washington Post, more high-quality wines are being marketed exclusively on tap for restaurant sales. I believe that this trend will continue for the following 4 reasons:
- Better value: A standard 750mL bottle holds about 4 pours. Restaurants price a glass of wine at the wholesale cost of the bottle so that even if they only sell 1 glass, they recoup the cost of the bottle. On the other hand, a 20L keg eliminates the need for 26 bottles, which saves cost of packaging and shipping. Whereas a typical California pinot costs $30/bottle, at $265/keg, it costs a restaurant the equivalent of $10/bottle.
- Better quality: When ordering a glass of wine served from a bottle, customers don’t know how long the bottle poured from has been open. On the other hand, kegs prevent exposure to oxygen, which keeps wine fresh, so that the first glass tastes the same as the last.
- Better variety: Having wines on tap is a great way to try multiple wines without purchasing an entire bottle. Customers have the option of drinking something with an appetizer, then switching to something else for the main course, or even creating a flight to match various dishes throughout the meal.
- Environmentally friendly: Kegs eliminate the needs for labels, foils, and corks. Stainless steel kegs are also often reused, which further eliminates waste.
I wouldn't be surprised if the next time I walk into a sports bar, I see this:
In Italy this trend is also starting to pick up. However, instead of restaurants, where most of the "on tap" wine is usually pretty low quality, the real boom has been in wine-by-the-tap shops, which sell wine to consumers who then take it home to drink it. A family friend has such a shop and he leverages partnerships with local small producers.
ReplyDeleteItalian wine-by-the-tap shops can benefit from a very young and loyal (often quite hipster too) customer base and from a small rotating selection of wines. Not only does this ensure the "better value" mentioned in the post, but also significantly reduces the inventory cost, especially if the shop were to be compared with a traditional specialized wine retailer which holds a lot of SKUs.
And certainly no choice overload (I've never seen such a shop holding more than 20 different wines)
I agree that this trend will likely pick up steam, although I don't know if the wine-by-the-tap shop model Sebastiano described would be legal in most U.S. states. I do think there's an opportunity to combine flexitanks (earlier post from Amanda Kent) and kegs to cut out a lot of costs for imported wines.
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