Kegged Wine

Kegged Wine.

As an ever evolving business, looking for ways to better serve our customers, Schmidt Family Vineyards is now offering kegged wine. We are all used to going to our neighborhood bar or restaurant and asking which beer is on tap. But, when it comes to wine we often don’t ask what do you have on tap. Kegged wine has been considered taboo. In the past it was thought that you can only enjoy wine from a bottle.  Anything sold in a bag, can or keg was thought to be cheap and of poor quality.  That thinking has been changing and for some very good reasons. Matt Spurlock, SFV Sale Representative states “More and more restaurants are moving to tap systems exclusively for wines by the glass to minimize waste and ensure every glass is as fresh as the first”
What is kegged wine and how does it work? Simply put, it’s wine put into a keg.  A keg which is 1/6th the size of a wine barrel, gets filled with wine then sent to distributor who sells it to a restaurant.  Once at a restaurant it is connected to a tap where it’s gassed with Argon. This heavy, inert gas keeps the product fresh and prevents oxidization.
We want our customers to experience the best product we have to offer.  We’ve worked for years to create this fabulous bottle of Merlot.  Then, we send it to a restaurant whom sells one glass Friday and pours another glass from the same bottle 3 days later. By then the wine is oxidized and this new customer is less than impressed with the product.  As Matt put it “There is nothing worse than pouring a great bottle of wine down the sink because it has been open for a few days.”  Kegs eliminate this issue while also creating far less waste.  Because, unlike bottles which are opened and thrown away,  Kegs get returned, cleaned, refilled and reused. This keeps both the waste and the cost down. Also kegs are far easier to store than the equivalent 26 bottles of wine.  Which means, consumers gets consistency- a fresher product at a better price. As an added bonus you can often sample the wine prior to purchasing a full glass. Buyers enjoy a less risky investment. 
When speaking to Duncan Brons, Winemaker, he wants to ensure you know the wine is still made to our normal standards. The only difference is that the keg will not have the additional bottle aging that the bottles in the tasting room will have.
So the next time you’re choosing a drink with dinner, think outside the bottle and ask your server which wines they have on tap.