Du Toitskloof Wine Cellar has made an interesting commitment to what has become known, derogatively in some quarters, as Chateau Box, and it makes interesting reading because it is obviously such sound common sense.

The Cellar’s new chief winemaker is Shawn Thomson who was born and raised in Montagu. He recently took over the main winemaking role from Cellar master Philip Jordaan who left recently after 26 years in the job.

In his maiden newsletter after his appointment, Shawn wrote:

“For some time at Du Toitskloof we have been promoting bag-in-box as an important alternative form of packaging for quality wines. We have explained the many excellent reasons for our decision, not the least being the fact that it is more environmentally friendly than glass. I was therefore delighted to find support for this view from no less than Tim Atkin, the eminent wine critic of UK’s The Observer newspaper, who has said out loud that he will boycott producers who continue to use the heaviest bottles they can find at a time when we are all supposed to be reducing our carbon footprint.”

To quote again from Shawn’s letter, “if you are looking to make your own small impact on the world of wine, one of the first things to do would be to switch to wines packaged in bag-in-box”.

“Of course we know we have to change the down-market image of bag-in-box in the local market. It makes good economic but also good environmental sense to do so. However, we will only succeed if we fill the bag with quality wines - as those local producers already do who export to the Scandinavian countries where this form of packaging is viewed very differently.

“At Du Toitskloof we are making our contribution to changing perceptions by putting two of this year’s gold-medal winners - our Chenin Blanc, which won at Michelangelo and our Sauvignon Blanc, which won at Germany’s MUNDUSvini - in the box. And, as always, what goes into the bottle goes into the box - and the price is about half of what you would pay for it in the bottle.

A bargain, if you ask me.”