Yellow + Blue = Wine a New Way

Cary, NC- The market for green products, those that waste less and leave a small carbon footprint, is one of the fastest  growing market segments. Sip…A Wine Store sells organic and sustainably produced wines and recently had Y + B Wines in for a tasting. Y+B’s sustainability pitch? No bottle.

No Bottle

Owner Matthew Cain started his brand of certified organic and sustainable wines in 2007 with their first Malbec. The line has grown to 5 varieties.

The first thing that stands out about the Y + B wines is the packaging. The bottles are boxes with a pour spout. These brightly packaged 1 liter boxes stand tall and pourable like a bottle and are one of the reasons the company remains carbon neutral.

Technically, the container is called a TetraPak cartons and is made primarily from paper. TetraPaks are super-popular in Europe, Canada and South America. We know them in America from juice boxes, organic milk and things like cooking broth.

Being Green

Did you know that the sheer weight and production of glass for wine making adds a great deal to the bottom line as empty bottles are shipped to the bottler, and then filled and shipped again to the distributor and then the store? Not to mention they need special packaging because bottles are fragile, but they are also HEAVY (a case of nine 1 liter bottles weighs 90 pounds!). Matthew’s boxes can be shipped flat to the bottler, popped open for filling and then tightly packed once filled.

This focus on being sustainable is where Matthew derived the brand name: The Y stands for Yellow and B for blue, combine these colors to produce green, which is their business focus.

The organic wine business, although only 3% of all wine sold, is the fastest growing segment, experiencing 35% growth last year. Y+B ‘s business has quadrupled since opening in their base town of Philadelphia.

And Then There’s the WINE

I sampled three of the five (it was lunchtime after all). I can attest that the two whites: a Sauvignon Blanc and a Torrontes were sublime. Haven’t tried a Torrontes? It is one of the oldest Argentinian varietals, dating back to the conquistadores. I enjoyed the aroma and the fruitiness on that early Spring afternoon.

All are priced at a reasonable $12.99 per liter. The packaging of wine has not changed much through the ages. Whether wine is packaged in glass or a box is a marketing choice and does not influence taste. In fact these organic wines can even improve after the bottle has been opened, even after 5 days, assured April. They even last longer than large batch commercial non-organic wines.

Fact: only 15% of all wine bottles are recycled. These boxes are fully recyclable, even the caps.

Try some sustainably organic wine, you’ll feel good inside and out!

Thanks you to April Schlanger of Sip…A Wine Store for the invite.