Vintage wine on tap? Yes you heard it right… I know, I know, if you’re anything like I you enjoy having the waiter cork a bottle of the restaurants finest at your table. It’s just something about those extra small details that make the whole wining and dining experience feel complete.
So I too was taken back when I first heard that restaurants across the U.S., and now Canada too are starting to serve wine on tap. But as you’ll see by this article written by Mia Stainsby on The Vancouver Sun website, it’s not all that bad and there are benefits in doing so, including better quality wine.
Vintage Wine On Tap Is Going Mainstream, Like It Or Not
Vintage Wine On Tap
If you’re offered wine on tap at a restaurant, take my advice. Don’t sneer, don’t condescend, don’t laugh out loud.
Just like screw tops, wine on tap is becoming serious business – that is, for mid-range wines that don’t require aging.
It’s all the rage in the U.S., and Vancouver is clambering on board. At Edible Canada on Granville Island, the wine on tap (from Nichol Winery in Naramata), is fresher and more aromatic than its bottled equivalent, according to owner Eric Pateman.
And now, two young Vancouverites have started a business to pack-age keg wines, taking the concept to an intrigued market. Their company, Vancouver Urban Winery, is the first in Canada to ‘keg’ bulk wines for bars, hotels and restaurants. That is, they pump finished wines from tanks into kegs and nitrogen guards against oxygenation. It’s ready to be served by the glass, on tap, and it keeps fresh for a long time.
Principals Mike Macquisten and Steve Thorp took over a too-cool space on Dunlevy St. to launch this pioneering business. Their primary focus is packaging wines in kegs for wineries to sell to restaurants and bars. But they’re also kegging their own wine, too, under the brand name Nice Catch. So far, they’ve kegged 22,000 litres of bulk New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and it’s ready to go; it’s avail-able for tastings at their facility and they’re waiting for restaurants and bars to catch up with taps to match. In two weeks, they’ll be receiving Chilean Malbec which they’ll also keg. They’ll keep an eye on demand before adding more wines to Nice Catch.
Vancouver Urban Winery is also a spacious venue for events (weddings, music, corporate events, parties, a quick game of hockey when the owners are restive) and for tap wine tastings to convert skeptics (winemakers, their reps, sommeliers, restaurateurs, the public) into fans.
“We’re pioneering wine on tap in Canada,” says Thorp, who shuns the term ‘draft wine.’ “They’ve been pack-aging wine this way in Europe for decades.” Like similar companies in the U.S., Vancouver Urban Winery doesn’t want consumer perception to associate keg wine with boxed wines. Food & Wine magazine selected a wine kegging company in the U.S. as one of the ‘best wine trends of 2010.’
In the U.S. in the past three years, wine on tap has gone mainstream. Even Daniel Boulud serves it in his casual restaurant, DBGB. Vancouver Urban Winery’s U.S. strategic partner, Flow Wines, has packaging con-tracts for tap wine with more than 50 big wineries in 35 states. “Wineries are now able to put better quality wines on tap because there’s no risk of it ever spoiling,” says Thorp. Read the full story here.
Obviously if you’re custom to the traditional way of drinking wine, it’s going to take a little getting use to. Ay, but a cleaner environment, cheaper prices and better quality wine, what more can you ask for.
Or do you think differently? Do you think vintage wine on tap is wrong? Is it a fad that will eventually die out? Or do you think it’s here to stay and a wonderful idea? Share your views below.
