A few years ago, we received a request from Chef Todd Rushing of the Concentrics Restaurant Group in Atlanta asking if we’d consider bottling… er kegging… one of our wines for him.  It didn’t make sense at the time since we were ten months away from bottling, but it got us thinking.  And now, a year and a half later, we’ve taken the plunge, and put together six kegs of the 2009 Cotes de Tablas Blanc for Concentrics to pour by the glass.  The kegs are sitting in our winery, waiting for transport (right).

The prospect of fine wine in kegs has been starting to get some press, with recent articles touting the development in the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle and the New York Post, among others.  There are several reasons why serving wine from kegs is appealing from the perspective of both producer and restaurant. [READ MORE]

Keg wine. It might not sound very romantic, and it’s certainly not an entirely original idea, but Oregon’s Wooldridge Creek Vineyard and Johann Vineyards are taking a risk in a tough economy by selling wine kegs to restaurants for their by-the-glass pours. I think it’s nothing short of genius.

The wine-by-the-keg program is really nothing new. It has been around for at least a decade in the U.S. and abroad. Nationwide, approximately 60 wine kegs are in rotation in Las Vegas establishments on an ongoing basis, and wines-by-the-keg are also being embraced by restaurants and wine bars in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Napa, California; in Atlanta, Georgia and Traverse City, Michigan; and even in New York City at Terroir Tribeca and at Daniel Boulud’s downtown locale.

When Brian and Mike McMenamins, the brothers who founded the eponymous brewery and brewpub chain, initially began producing wine, they actually finished them off in kegs, using the equipment they had on hand. And while they soon gave in to the demand for glass, corks, labels, and foils, maybe their heads will now turn back to kegs. [READ MORE]

Vintners Own has a new wine program called Wine by the Glass. It is a new and profitable efficient wine dispensing system that is both elegant and streamlined. It puts the most cost effective glass in front of your client!

A growing number of restaurants are opting for the eco-friendly, cost-cutting benefits of wine on tap.It reduces the amount of bottles and corks that are thrown out, eliminates all of the packaging used for shipping and because wine is being bought in bulk, the result is lower prices for both the business and the customer.

Besides the green factor, the Wine On Tap system helps to guarantee that every glass of wine served from the tap will never be spoiled. A bottle of wine can become undrinkable after just three days, however, wine served from a steel keg can remain in its original state for up to 6 months! [READ MORE]