Back in my youth, admittedly a long, long time ago, cask wine was a ‘go to’ alcohol option for many. It was a feature of Friday or Saturday nights when I met up with high school mates. Of course most of us ‘blokes’ would be drinking VB stubbies. It was the girls who had the cask or, if we were celebrating something or someone, a bottle of spumante.
Even back then, as underage adolescents of the early 1980s, we knew cask wine and spumante weren’t exactly ‘high class’. We certainly knew that what we referred to as ‘spew-mante’ was a cheap champagne substitute. And that wine that came in a bag was no match for a quality drop sold in glass.
In fact, the cheapness of those drinks was precisely their attraction to us. Few of us high school kids from Melbourne’s western suburbs could afford anything more. And probably even fewer of us could have discerned a quality difference between cheap and expensive. Our focus would have been very much on getting, well, let’s say ‘friendly’.
In the (far too) many decades since, the reputation of cask wine has not measurably improved. But that could be about to change. The pendulum of perception is swinging, thanks to new technologies and attitudes towards cask wine production.
And with Australia currently experiencing a wine grape glut, that swing could save some wineries.
People with glass bottles shouldn’t throw stones at cask wine
The negative perception of cask wine has been around as long as cask wine itself.
According to Richard Angove, whose grandfather Thomas came up with the concept of the cask, the idea met with immediate ridicule. “When my grandfather originally brought the concept home, which was airless flow out of the bag to keep the wine fresh, my dad (John Angove) would laugh at him and say, ‘That’s not going to take on,’” he said.
Nevertheless, the older Angove persisted, and the rest is wine history. Cask wine grew in popularity to the point where at one stage it accounted for half of domestic sales. But its reputation has sagged over the years as an attitude of wine ‘snobbery’ grew (even high school ‘goon baggers’ like me are guilty of this).
Rebirth of the goon bag
While there may have been an element of snobbery involved in cask wine’s poor reputation, there was actual science involved. The bags inside the box are oxygen permeable. That permeability affects both the quality and the longevity of the wine within.
The solution turns out to be remarkably simple, according to Richard Angove. “We just need to up the preservative by adding a little bit of extra sulphur,” he said.
That may raise alarm bells for those who suffer from preservative-related headaches, but the extra amount is small. “It’s still within a range that’s considered very low compared to large commercial winery additions,” Mr Angove said.
Even so, is that reason enough to bring back the wine cask? On its own, probably not, but there’s another factor – important to most – that could drive its revival. Thanks to the new technologies involved, cask wine has a much lower carbon footprint than wine sold in a bottle.
University of South Australia emeritus professor of wine marketing Larry Lockshin explained just how big is the difference. “One 750-millilitre bottle would produce about 1.4 kilograms of carbon dioxide (CO2),” he said. The contributing factors are melting the glass, transporting it to a winery or bottler, and sending it to a retailer.
In contrast, a more voluminous two-litre box produces about a third that amount, says Prof. Lockshin.
A cask of thousands?
Could cask wine lead a recovery in an industry that is suffering a 2.8 billion bottle oversupply of wine?
Perhaps, but if you’re expecting to purchase a goon bag on the cheap as my high school mates and I did 40 years ago, think again. Winemaker Marcus Radny committed his whole range to cask and markets one three-litre product for as much as $65.
That would have priced ‘high school’ me out of the market. In fact, it probably still does!
Are you or were you a cask wine drinker? Would you be willing to give it another go? Let us know via the comments section below.
Also read: Seven Australian wines to try
