by Ned Goodwin
Despite a penchant for brands and a tendency to treat wine as a symbol of hushed reverence, the market for alternative packaging in Japan is
surprisingly buoyant. The bag-in-box market in Japan is dominated by those from the US and Australia. Although there are no exact figures for consumption totals, in the case of Californian wine nearly 800,000 cases, or around 40% of the volume imported in 2005, were accounted for by bag-in-box and Gallo\'s larger-scale glass bottles. In the case of Australia, total import volumes in 2005 achieved approximately 970,000 cases. Of this, 120,000 cases were Banrock Station s BIBs. Indeed, Global Dining, one of Japan`s largest restaurant groups, visibly displays BIB from Sicily on the bars of its popular Cafe La Boheme chain. Although this would seem to indicate little stigmatization of such packaging alternatives, at Boheme the wine is promptly poured into decanters and served upon ordering.
On the other hand, while canned wine is available from KIRIN with its concoction of local and imported bulk reconstitutes, and Peter Scudamore-Smith MW`s Barokes vaunts its Vinsafe patent out of South-East Australia, tetra-packs are not prominent in Japan. Barokes is seen in the upmarket Kinokuniya department store. Yet as Ernie Singer of importer Millesimes points out, given the average bottle price in Japan, 250ml is an expensive packaging alternative in lieu of supposed value. Singer intends to import bulk wine from Chianti and Chablis and sell it in the same sized can for much less. He points out that the Japanese penchant for daily shopping versus weekly bulk buying in the west, lack of storage space, wine s fragility and the inability to finish a full bottle as factors that augur well for small formatting and, in general, the future of alternative packaging in Japan.
