by James Halliday and Joel B. Payne
The past few years has witnessed an explosion in wine packaging alternatives, including the Boisset\'s French tetrapak, the American Sofia Mini sparkler and New Zealand\'s pettle. Now Australia\'s largest wine producer, Hardy s, has unveiled the Shuttle
abottle and glass package that was originally developed for the Australian performance of the Cirque du Soleil. The concept has proven sufficiently popular with the theatre audience that Hardy s has decided to launch the packaging nationally as both a chardonnay and shiraz, hoping to redefine how people drink their wine, particularly at events where glassware is banned for safety reasons.
The Shuttle features a 187ml single serve bottle, which is opened by a twist action that releases the wine into the acrylic glass that sealed it. A test market consignment of 250ml Shuttles is being shipped under the Hardy s Stamp of Australia label to the United Kingdom, where Hardy s is the number one Australian wine brand. Palandri in Western Australia has followed suit with a plastic and aluminium foil pack that, originally conceived for the Canadian monopolies that when empty and flattened covers the same area as a piece of paper, leaving a smaller ecological footprint.
Thirty years ago McWilliam\'s tried to get Clarsac and Valsac onto the market. They were soft, flat packages of wine in 250 millilitre formats that were ideal for picnics and sporting events. They failed dismally. Many analysts still have grave reservations about the economic viability of such products oriented towards niche markets. Have times changed?
