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Single-serve wine gets its own line

Expanding from 4,000 cases in 2012 to 40,000 in 2013, Stacked Wines engineers a proprietary packaging line to bottle its single-serve PET-based wine containers at 180 bottles/min.

PROPRIETARY FILLER. Stacked Wines custom-engineered the proprietary filler using a MAP process that eliminates headspace from the container and helps provide up to a 24-month shelf life.
PROPRIETARY FILLER. Stacked Wines custom-engineered the proprietary filler using a MAP process that eliminates headspace from the container and helps provide up to a 24-month shelf life.

When Stacked Wines LLC launched its stackable single-serve PET-based wine packs in early 2012, it had modest near-term goals for its product. As Jodi Wynn-Ryan, co-founder and Vice President of Marketing told Packaging World later that year, “We hope to eventually distribute the product nationwide, moving slowly from California into the Las Vegas and Phoenix areas in the near future.” (See pwgo.to/1444)

Not long after, Shaw-Ross International Importers picked up the brand, expanding distribution of the product to 35 states “virtually overnight,” Wynn-Ryan relates. “We went from maybe 4,000 cases in 2012 to about 40,000 cases in 2013, so it grew very quickly from that point.”

With greater popularity and visibility came greater opportunities for Stacked Wines to partner with other companies and introduce new brands using its Vinoware™ technology. Vinoware combines proprietary packaging materials and bottling technology to create a crystal-clear, stemless “wine glass” with a barrier technology that offers a 24-month shelf life.

In January 2014, Stacked Wines moved filling of its StackTek package from a co-packer to its own, custom-designed line in Modesto, CA, representing an investment of $4 million and a 1.5 million case/yr capacity. Among the advantages of the new line, Wynn-Ryan relates, are its location close to the source of wine production in the Central California region, the flexibility to research and develop new package configurations and product applications, and the opportunity to provide co-packing or turnkey packaging services to new customers. The line also allows Stacked Wines to cut costs versus working with a co-packer.

Numerous advantages
The StackTek concept was developed in 2011 by three friends seeking a better wine drinking experience. In their view, 750-mL wine bottles not only lacked the ability to keep wine fresh after opening, but they also discouraged consumption in venues where glass breakage was an issue. While Vinoware technology was at the heart of the concept, co-founders Wynn-Ryan, CEO Matt Zimmer, and in-house sommelier Doug Allan were also committed to offering a high-quality wine product.

“The word we always use is that the wine has to ‘over-deliver,’ because the bar has been set pretty low for wine in alternative packaging, and there is sometimes the perception—although I think that is changing—that the wine quality is inferior,” says Wynn-Ryan. “We feel our wine has to over-deliver on those expectations to show that the package doesn’t determine the quality of the wine. You have to start with good wine before you put it in the package.”

Stacked Wines’ name brand product, Stack Wine, is available in four varieties of premium California wine. Vinoware is the vehicle preserves that quality. The StackTek package comprises three proprietary components: a 187-mL container, a foil composite lidding film, and a plastic overcap.

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