Boisset is taking its Tetra Pak wines upmarket as a result of its Canadian success.
The Burgundy-based producer, which makes wine in the south of France as well as Rhone, and California, sells four wines – called French Rabbit – in state-of-the-art Tetra Prisma packaging in Canada, and launches the same range in the UK in January.
Now vice president Jean-Charles Boisset has told decanter.com, ‘We are not afraid of putting more expensive wines into Tetra,’ and early next year will launch three new wines at CAN$17 (€12.20) and CAN$20 (€20.30).
Boisset hinted these will be varietally-labelled French AOC from Rhone and Burgundy, and the south. There will be a white and a red at the lower, and one red at the higher price point.
The company is dedicated to the cause of lighter, more environmentally-friendly packaging. Glass makes up around 40% of the weight of a bottle of wine, but Tetra Prisma is only 4%. A truckload of wines in Tetra is equal to dozens of trucks of conventional glass bottles.
Boisset said that the wine was a resounding success in Canada, selling five times as much in Tetra as in conventional bottles (Rabbit was first launched in glass bottles).
He added that it went down well in the on-trade there as well, but conceded winning over sommeliers in the UK – many of whom have not yet come round to screwcaps – would be more difficult.
A self-confessed ‘Tetra evangelist’, Boisset suggested they would hopefully bring some credibility to the new packaging. ‘With us behind it, people might think, “They’ve done it, why not us?”’
French Rabbit – a Pinot Noir, a Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Merlot – launches in the UK in January. A price point has not been decided yet.
Boisset said they would start with around 80,000 cases for the UK.
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Tetra Pak wines set for UK launch
Written by Adam Lechmere
