More thoughts on Anchor’s impending closure 3 Italian box wines for under $8 a bottle

AGREAT FRIEND OF mine and I were recently talking about the problem with wine.

THE RECENT SAD news of Anchor Brewing’s impending closure (which I mentioned last week) reminded me of a question I posed a few years ago: Are we getting to the point where there are too many craft breweries? The fact of the matter is that the market can only sustain so many craft breweries, and while I concluded that we hadn’t reached saturation yet, it seems that collateral damage is still being incurred.

When a giant like Anchor is struggling to compete, we have to take a step back and wonder why. Of course the pandemic had a role; it did damage to virtually everyone in one way or another. But beyond that, could an ever-expanding slate of competitors dethrone even brewing royalty like Anchor?

I’m guessing “yes.”

Because as great and consistent as Anchor’s products have been, the market has changed – even radically –over the past few decades.

Younger generations will naturally not have brand loyalty to an older brewery, no matter how good it is. It’s just the natural order of things. Couple that truism with a plethora of

For the second year in a row, wine sales nationwide were down last year compared to the year before, according to an annual nationwide study I wrote about earlier this year. In particular, wine sales are way down for adults under 60 years old. When I first heard this news, I blamed high wine prices – at stores last year in particular and at restaurants in general. I hate to say it but many restaurants charge a fortune for small glasses of fairly bland wines. And even when you’re not at a restaurant, portion size can be a problem. Unless you’re sharing a bottle with someone else, you might be intimidated to open one. In general, a standard bottle contains four glasses of wine. And not everyone wants to drink two or three glasses of wine in one night. So now you’re left with the rest of the wine in the bottle. And if you don’t drink the wine in a day or two, the wine often goes bad. I think that’s a big reason why many people don’t buy wine, especially given how much more wines cost these days.

That’s why I applaud winemakers who are shaking up their packaging, trying something new.

In recent years, wine in a can has been hailed as the key to attracting those younger, coveted consumers who only want a glass or two of wine. But I also believe there’s another solution – go bigger.

In particular, I’m talking about box wines.

But first, let’s acknowledge the elephant in the room.

Box wines have a bad reputation. When many people think of box wine, I think they think of bad wine.

But the reality is there are many, outstanding box wines out there. And best of all, if you only want one glass of wine, you can pour exactly how much you want from the box. Then, the rest of the wine in the box stays fresh for far longer than wine in a bottle, especially when it comes to red wines. Out of a bottle, you need to drink the wine within a day or two after you open it. As for box wines, they often stay fresh for at least a month after you open them.