P.F. Chang's,Winery Give Boost to Boxed Variety

As bars and restaurants become more eco-friendly and value-focused, they become less tradition-obsessed, and Scottsdale-based P.F. Chang's is on a short list of restaurants offering drinkers a greener, cheaper way to imbibe.

Chang's is the first national chain to create a partnership with a winery to produce higher-end boxed wines. Since May, P.F. Chang's has been serving estate-grown varietals from 10-liter plastic bags in post-consumer-recycled cardboard boxes. They're specially designed to hold more wine than a case of 12 bottles and weigh about half as much, reducing shipping costs and carbon footprints.

With lower shipping and storage costs (a box takes up the same amount of space in a refrigerator as four bottles), P.F. Chang's can serve the Syrah Blend and the Sauvignon Blanc for about $2 less than it would normally, and the blends stay tastier longer as the plastic bladders keep flavor-degrading oxygen out.

For a year and a half, P.F. Chang beverage director Mary Melton worked with family-owned Wattle Creek Winery near Mendocino, Calif., to develop the program, the first of its kind in the country.

"I thought we'd have some pushback or have to explain what we were doing, but I think customers are getting used to alternative packaging for environmental reasons," she said. "I think they cue in on the fact that P.F. Chang's has their own brand, not so much that it comes from a box."

In fact, drinkers never see the box. The wine is dispensed from the box's tap while it sits in a refrigerator behind the bar. It's served by the glass or carafe.

Better boxed wine is popular throughout Europe and Australia but has long been associated with cheap, bad wine in America. This has been slowly changing since Target launched cubes of wine in 2003 and various brands followed with boxes and with wine packaged in plastic-coated cardboard.

Similarly, a handful of bars and restaurants in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco have for about three years been serving kegged wine, which is cheaper, easier to ship and store, and keeps wine fresher longer.

Consumers are increasingly comfortable with alternatively packaged wines, according to a recent study by Mintel, a Chicago-based market-research company. Consumers see boxed wines as environmentally friendly and value-priced.

Food & Wine executive wine editor Ray Isle said that restaurants often serve wine from extra-large bottles such as magnums and that boxes and kegs are a logical next step, although he hasn't heard of other chains adopting the boxed-wine model yet.

"Glass is heavy and costs a lot to ship around the country," he said. "Lighter packaging can substantially change the dynamics of that, creating significant savings."

Wattle Creek is the first American winery to bag wine at the vineyard, but about 20 wineries in California keg wine, as does at least one in New York. Since May, about a dozen wineries have contacted Melton about being involved in future vintages.