Since the Neolithic era, humans have utilized the fermentation process as a means of extending the shelf life, increase the safety, as well as produce desirable flavors for foods and beverages. Beer and wine have been around for tens of thousands of years. The discovery of wine is likely to have only been by accident when damaged grapes spontaneously fermented within a storage vessel. Farmers tried it and enjoyed the taste of the fermented product compared to the unfermented. The rest is history as they say. Wine production is one of the oldest economic sectors in the world and presently is one of the most profitable agricultural products today. The wine industry plays an important role in the global economy in terms of production and distribution. In 2018, the International Organization of Vine and Wine (OIV) estimated that 292 million hectoliters of wine were produced worldwide. The international wine trade is estimated to be worth USD 36 billion (29.5 Euro).
Wine packaging has drastically changed over the years from clay amphorae to single serving plastic bottles. The belief that only premium wine can be packaged in glass bottles with a natural cork has slowly been changing over the years. Despite glass being an inert material, most consumers are not aging wine longer than a few months thus opening up the wine industry for alternative packaging. As the industry adopts alternative packaging options, it is accepting the potential that the product packaging can have an impact on the consumer experience. The purpose of this literature review is to look how packaging type impacts wine flavor stability and flavor.
Reference: Thompson-Witrick KA, Pitts ER, Nemenyi JL, Budner D. The Impact Packaging Type Has on the Flavor of Wine. Beverages. 2021; 7(2):36. https://doi.org/10.3390/beverages7020036
This is an excerpt from open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium.
