Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/39104
Our perfectly cleaned kegs are the freshest way to taste the wine the way the wine- maker made it.” pretty well-respected brands trust us,” says Donahoe, informing THE TASTING PANEL that Cakebread is next. Both companies are eager to dispel a lot of pre-conceived notions about wine on tap (which is the preferred term, “keg wine” having lackluster connotations). The product being put into kegs is premium, bottle-equivalent wine, not leftover juice. Also, kegs have an advantage over bottles This 5.3 gallon Keg from Mendocino Wine Company holds more than two cases of wine with less than half the storage footprint. in that a pressurized 75/25 nitrogen-CO2 blend (“Guinness gas”) keeps the wine fresh to the last drop, and while these aren’t vessels for aging wines, there are virtually no spoilage issues. In fact, says Donahoe, “Bottles are not an ideal vessel to deliver wine in. Our perfectly cleaned kegs are the freshest way to taste the wine the way they winemaker made it.” Mendocino Wine Company saw the concept as an obvious extension of its company philosophies; one keg or cask holds the equivalent of 26 bottles, but with a considerably smaller amount of packaging material and lower labor costs. Those savings, passed on directly to both retailer and consumer, can be as much as 30 percent. Silvertap’s lightweight plastic kegs even reduce potential distributors fuel costs; these costs, however, are somewhat balanced by the need to invest in special Micro-matic wine lines, which use a higher- quality stainless steel than beer lines. Another intriguing element is that both producers say the demand came first, with restaurants asking them to supply the wine in kegs. That is typically referred to in business parlance as a “slam dunk” (alternately, a “no-brainer”). Like any “overnight sensation,” industry insiders will note that certain vanguards have been serving wines on tap for years, such as Father’s Office in Santa Monica, CA, The Slanted Door/Out the Door in San Francisco and TWO urban licks [sic] in Atlanta, GA, where 42 wine kegs are displayed in a dramatic glass tower. In fact, TWO urban licks’ Todd Rushing is one of Donahoe’s partners, along with Greg Quinn, GM of Annabelle’s restaurant in San Francisco and winemaker Jordan Kivelstadt of Sonoma’s Qualia Wines. Both Mendocino and Free Flow note an impressive amount of business in Arizona (Phoenix’s Postino Central sold 100 kegs of Silvertap Sauvignon Blanc last year), and while Mendocino has penetrated Las Vegas, Silvertap has a growing relationship with Starwood properties. “Wine on tap will never replace wine in a bottle,” says Donahoe. “But I do think wine on tap will take over a sizable portion of a typical restaurant’s by-the-glass list.”