What a wonderful idea
From Dr. Vino comes
this story of how things are done in France:
Fill �er up: self-serve tanks bring wine to French supermarkets
Keg wine and wine vending machines just got supersized: 500 and one-thousand liter tanks have landed in French supermarkets.
Bring your own resealable bottles, Poland Spring containers, jerrycans, whatever. Or you can get one at the store. Select your grade (red, white, or ros�). Pump. Print receipt.
Astrid Terzian introduced this concept that hearkens back to a bygone era when wine would arrive in Paris shops in tonneaux and consumers would bring their own flagons to fill. But today, Terzian says, she started this scheme in fall 2008 to fill a niche, tapping into two key themes, environmental awareness and the economy. (She actually wanted to buy a wine property and run a B&B but it was too expensive. So she turned to what she says she knew how to do: sales.) The elimination of packaging mass means that the wine can be shipped much more efficiently from a cost and carbon perspective.
Makes perfect sense - hardware costs are minimal -- maybe $10K max for each machine -- and this allows you to sell a quality product for a reasonable price. I hope this catches on in the US.
On another note, I was in New Zealand fifteen years ago and they had these wonderful little two-wheel trailers with a 200 gallon tank filled with beer, refrigeration unit, CO2 system and you would rent these for your party. Park it outside your kitchen window, have the party and then get charged for what was consumed.
Posted by DaveH at September 15, 2010 4:24 PM