Since its creation in the 1960s, cask wine has amassed a bad rap. We know it. You know it. Everyone knows it. If you’ve ever shown up to a dinner party or holiday gathering with a cask wine in hand, you probably got a few inevitable eye rolls. Rude, right?
While many “connoisseurs”—AKA, your friends that drink wine—believe bottled is better, the reality is cask wine has had a major transformation over the years, and we’re here to shed light on it. At Winesmiths, we set out on a mission to change the way people think about cask wine by producing premium varietals without sacrificing quality. Next time you get a raised eyebrow when purchasing a cask wine, you can drop one (or all) of these four reasons why cask is better than bottle.
Reason #1: Cask Wine Lasts Longer Than Bottled
Have you ever poured yourself a glass of wine on a Monday only to be disappointed by how terrible it tasted on Friday? You looked forward to that tasty sip, but instead of finishing off the bottle, you had to throw it away. *gasp* Wasted wine is always a shame, but unfortunately, it’s all too common with glass bottles. Thanks to oxidation, uncorking a bottle of wine means you have less than a week to drink it until it goes bad. While we all have those days where drinking an entire container of wine is an easy feat (hello weekend!), most of the time, we want to sip on a glass or two at a time.
Luckily, cask wine stays fresh for more than four weeks after opening because it contains vacuum-sealed bags that prevent air from getting in and spoiling it. If you're tired of wasting wine, ditch the bottle and switch to cask!
Reason #2: Cask Wine Is Better For The Environment
Did you know that a cask box has 13% of the carbon footprint of bottled wine? Sidenote: When you get that question right in your next game of Trivial Pursuit, you can thank us for it!
At Winesmiths, our motto is “sacrifice nothing,” and that includes the Earth, too. Sustainability is an essential part of our business, and we’re doing everything we can to minimise the impact on our environment. Our packaging is lighter than glass, which means fewer emissions are produced when transporting containers across Australia. Additionally, our packaging is made from 75% recycled materials—both the cardboard box and plastic bags inside are recyclable. When you choose a cask, you can feel good knowing you’re helping the environment!
Reason #3: You Get More Wine For Your Dollar
Precisely 2.5 times more if you purchase a cask of Winesmiths! A traditional bottle of wine is 750ml, but we offer a two-litre bag-in-cask package. And while a good quality wine can cost you $20, we sell our casks from $13 each. That means you get more wine for less money. And because we believe you can’t make sacrifices, take shortcuts, or compromise to make something great, you can be confident knowing that every sip will taste just as good—honestly, better—than your go-to bottle of wine.
Reason #4: Cask Wine is Vegan Friendly
We’re proud that our products don’t contain ingredients derived from animals. You can’t blame us for including this on our list, right?
Many winemakers use fining agents such as milk or animal proteins to remove haze-inducing molecules. But our winemakers have honed their expertise to create a balanced and healthy environment for our grapes to grow. Essentially, we’ve removed the fining process and have minimised the need for human or chemical intervention. This enables us to produce better tasting and more well-rounded flavour profiles!
So which is better: cask wine or bottled wine? If you ask us, we’ll choose cask any day of the week, although we may be a little biased. After all, it’s our business to create affordable wine that doesn’t have to come at the sacrifice of great quality. But with many other benefits, including longevity, sustainability and cost, we highly recommend giving it a try. We guarantee after your first sip, you won’t look back, and you’ll be turning all your friends from bottle snobs to cask snobs.