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Summary

Scooter basket. Pet coffin. Vinyl shelves. Zoom stand. Veg storage. Bird box. Fire starters. And, if you’re the Prime Minister – for making models in which passengers are, ‘enjoying themselves on this wonderful bus…’

Yes, all of these are the creative (sometimes baffling) uses to which wooden wine boxes have been put by creative wine types. But why do some wines come in wooden cases in the first place? What are their purpose – and, perhaps more importantly, their implications and their future?

This short & sweet Wine Blast Live version of our podcast is a response to this question from listener Andreas in Switzerland.

We feature input from leading wine producers, including breaking news from Château Langoa Barton in Bordeaux that they will be moving their entire 80,000-bottle production from wooden to cardboard boxes. They may even offer their customers the choice – with a surcharge for wooden boxes going to an environmental charity.

It’s a tangent – yes, but a fascinating and fun one. Cheers to tangents!

Video

Because we talk about it in the podcast, we wanted to share this video of Boris Johnson talking about what he does with wine boxes in his spare time:

Images

Thanks to everyone who shared images of their re-purposed wooden wine cases in action with us. Some highlights are below:

Postscript

No sooner had this programme gone out than we saw another wooden wine box re-purposing…

This one’s from Domaine Laroche in Chablis, which has been a partner of the League for the Protection of Birds for 6 years. They’ve launched a new wine box that is made to be re-used as a bird nesting box.

It was especially designed, the promotional material says, ‘for Tits.’