A Q&A from the World Bulk Wine Exhibition with Alex Gittins, Product Manager at Boutinot talking to David Kermode

The reality of bulk wine is that it is a necessity for a lot of producers, because it allows you to give a quality in bottle that you know will be consistent at a good price. There used to be a stigma that there were quality issues with shipping in bulk, but that’s long gone, quality can be very high, identi-cal to bottling at source, and crucially there are significant cost savings, so why wouldn’t you do it? We have great flexibility at source, where we can put our blends together to get the wines the way we want them, and then ship in a way that is more cost effective. It might not be the most glamor-ous but, especially in the UK, with duty going up and a volatile currency, there are going to be peo-ple needing to source in the most cost effective way possible and fortunately the quality of shipping in bulk is at the level that it is possible to do that.

What’s your key message from this year’s fair?

Two things are really apparent to me this year. Firstly, the number of producers here, it’s been a bigger fair because people have wine to sell again. Looking at the global wine statistics, there’s probably too much wine again and it’s unbelievable how that’s happened within 12 months, after all the doom and gloom about shortages. Secondly, prices are dropping and in some cases significantly and, looking to the future, if there’s a good vintage in Chile and Argentina again, we’re expecting reasonable prices decreases going into next year with the 2019 vintage. It’s not great for the producers because the market in some places is really going to drop, but for buyers there are potentially lots of opportunities to do interesting things in the year ahead. There is a lot of wine out there and it’s going to put downward pressure on prices.

I’m surprised that more focus isn’t placed on the environmental benefits of shipping in bulk?

Well, I suspect that’s only going one way at the moment. Sustainability is becoming more and more important and has to be more of a consideration for everyone in business, especially in Western Europe and North America, and that pressure will only increase.

What about bag-in-box? Is that an area for growth?

We fill bag-in-box for a few retailers and supermarkets and that could be an area for growth for us. It’s sensible, it’s more sustainable, it’s a great way to purchase wine if you know what you like and you’re happy buying a bit more of it. It’s an area that has significant potential. Having a great package (design) is more and more important. You have so much space on the packaging, you can make it stand out. Scandinavia has been driving bag-in-box for some time, with some great wines, and I’m sure it’s a format that will grow.