Whether you're a wine collector who needs to transport their prized bottles from one home to another or a professional wine distributor shipping your latest wares to new markets, your bottles will need some kind of protective packaging to keep them safe and secure on their journeys. Custom packaging manufacturers offer made-to-measure wine boxes made from a wide variety of materials, from corrugated cardboard to polystyrene foam and even inflatable plastic, but for many wine aficionados the classic, timber wine box is still the packaging material of choice.
Traditional wooden wine boxes are far from outdated and have many advantages over wine boxes made from more modern materials. However, while wooden wine boxes have advantages, they also have some shortcomings, so if you need to package your wines for transit, you should make sure timber boxes are the best choice for your wine packaging before investing in them.
What are the advantages of choosing wooden wine boxes?
Durability
Compared to wine boxes made of foam or cardboard, wooden wine boxes are immensely durable and can weather a severe beating without compromising the protection they provide to your wine bottles. They also have a considerable amount of load-bearing strength, which allows you to stack many fully-loaded wine boxes on top of one another without crushing their precious contents.
Longevity
Many wine packages made from less durable materials are 'one and done', but if properly stored and reasonably well cared for, timber wine boxes can be reused many times without any loss of protection. This makes them an economically sound option for wine distributors who regularly transport wine and would like to cut down on packaging costs, and also makes them a more environmentally friendly option.
Recyclable
The green credentials of timber wine boxes are bolstered further by their recyclable nature, and even damaged timber boxes can be pulped and transformed into other objects. Even if you don't recycle your used timber boxes, their organic nature means they will biodegrade and will not clog up landfill sites for hundreds of years to come (unlike plastic and foam wine boxes).
Customisable
Timber wine boxes can also be printed with custom designs, such as the name or logo of your vineyard or distribution company, and are attractive enough to be put out on display alongside your wines. This makes them an excellent choice for commercial wine interests that want to increase brand awareness.
What are the disadvantages of choosing wooden wine boxes?
Expensive
While wooden wine boxes are economical as a long-term option due to their ability to be reused, they do generally cost more to purchase than boxes made of foam or cardboard. This may make them an impractical option if you only need to package a few bottles of wine from a personal collection.
May require supplementary padding
Timber is also not the most forgiving of materials, and to protect particularly fragile bottles, you may need to line the insides of your timber boxes with a padding material, such as straw or shredded newspaper. This is usually only a problem if you expect your wines to encounter significant movement and vibration during their journey (for instance, if they are being transported overseas by ship).
