Wineries and restaurants nationwide are introducing keg programs to serve customers wine straight from the tap, just like beer.

"We deliver the 5-gallon kegs to the winery and they fill them and deliver them back to us," explained Joe Barbera, owner of Aido Bistro and Wine Bar in Columbia, Md. "The kegs are driven by nitrogen...it's a nitrogen push that keeps oxygen out and provides the end-user with the same product the winemaker wishes the customer to have," he said.

Wine on tap offers benefits to winemakers, vendors and the consumer while providing the same quality as bottled wine. According to Matt Duggan, general manager of Palmina Winery in Lompoc, Calif., consumers welcome the trend.

"I think they love it," Duggan said. "There's a lot of romanticism with people that have gone to Europe, where you can go to the winery and fill up a jug and have your wine for the day that way," he remarked. "It's also a much more economical way because there's less production cost involved, so we pass that along to the consumer and I think that they've responded really well to it."

Wineries and vendors can reuse kegs and have cut down on packaging materials used to ship bottled wine, making keg programs a green process.
"Every time a keg is delivered here it saves 25 bottles, so a little over two cases of wine, 19-liters, 25 corks and all the packaging material that would normally get thrown out and sometimes recycled," Barbera explained.

Barbera added the best part of kegged wine is there is no noticeable taste difference.

"We've done some experiments with wine that is of the same vintage date and the same varietal in bottle and in a keg, and the majority of the people could not tell which was which," he said.

Not all varietals of wine benefit from a tap program. Wines that are produced to be long-lived like Bordeaux, cabernet sauvignon and Burgundy need time to age in glass bottles.
 
Source: AFBF Foodie News, Jan. 9, 2012
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