We launched our unique tap system with three wine taps in Spring 2009.  The winery upgraded to five taps in Spring 2010, and in Summer 2011, the system was upgraded to 11 taps total with the launch of the winery’s Barrel Room in NYC. Learning thru NY tap set up, we integrated a tap set up of 26 wines for CW Chicago with dedicate temperature controlled tap room for kegs . Tap wines at City Winery Napa will be the core of by the glass selection with 36 tap wine lines featuring 30 wines from partner’s wineries from north coast. I have always been a big supporter of tap wines, and it just makes sense for City Winery to serve fresh and good wines by using this technique, being that there are a number of benefits to this system. We launched our unique tap system with three wine taps in Spring 2009.  The winery upgraded to five taps in Spring 2010, and in Summer 2011, the system was upgraded to 11 taps total with the launch of the winery’s Barrel Room. City Winery probably sells the most volume of tap wine out of all wineries and wine bars on the East Coast.

In Europe, bulk wine “vin en vrac” does not always carry the connotation of poor quality.   When you know the right spot and the right wine (either local wineries or a wine shop), buying bulk wine is often a good way to get pleasant everyday wines for a great price. Wine by the tap is similar, but for a winemaker it opens many doors. Here are some of the benefits behind the tap system. Lower stress: Wines by the tap do not need to be bottled!! One of the worst tasks for any winemaker is bottling; there are always last-minute problems (not enough glass, not enough labels, incorrect labels, not enough staff, wine plugging during the final filtration, the threat of microbial infection during bottling, equipment breakdowns, etc.). During the winemaking process, we work hard caring for the wines.  We witness our wines fermenting and maturing in front of us.  This evolution is usually slow and we can influence it if it goes awry.  All our attention and care provided over 6 to 18 months can be wasted if we encounter any problems during bottling.  

No bottling makes our lives easier — I think we can all agree on that! Minimal SO2: When bottling a wine, most wineries will increase the SO2 content to prevent any chance of microbial infection during bottling and to preserve the wine after bottling — Recall the obvious sulfite odor found in many recently bottled sweet white wines, such as German Riesling.  I do not add sulphite before “kegging” any of our tap wines. The wine is stored at 60F and covered with inert argon.  We simply don’t need to do anything more to protect the wine. Truth In wine: Given the wine’s character (our Sauvignon Blanc did not go through malo-latic fermentation), we would have to sterile filter the wine in order to bottle it safely. Such a tight filtration would damage the wine (decrease richness and potentially induce some dryness), but it would be necessary to insure stability of the wine in the long run. Tap wines, however, do not need filtration. Greener product: With tap wines, there are no supplies (cork, label, foil, bottle, boxes) to purchase, receive and store. 

As a result, there is no waste, and this product is much greener than traditional bottling. This is a big deal! Reduced wine losses: There is no need to worry about an oxidized bottle opened last week or unsatisfied customers complaining that our wine is corked. Because it doesn’t go through the bottling process, this isn’t a concern. More fun / unique wines: There are always some small batches of wine that are odd, but interesting somehow.  cases of wine for sale ukThey are usually light or hard press wines kept separate from the classic free run wines.  where to buy dry wineWe are speaking about 15 to maybe 60 gallon lots. top rated wine inventory softwareIn these cases, bottling these small volumes is unrealistic, because bottling costs are high and because there wouldn’t be enough product to market with so few cases. 

However, with the tap system, we can feature such a wine on tap as a special “barrel/ keg of the week.” Fewer worries: You can’t even imagine how many ways a wine can go bad in bottle.  It rarely happens because we take great care to prevent any potential chemical instability (protein and tartaric precipitation for whites, copper case and color instability for reds, TCA/corked bottles) or microbial instabilities (re-fermentation in bottle, Brettanomyces development in bottle).  For example, our Sauvignon Blanc has some fresh aromas of citrus, hawthorn with a lively month feeling — it may not be tartaric stable, meaning than a few harmless tartaric crystals might appear (tartaric crystals do not change the wine’s taste but their appearance may make the wine unmarketable). I do not have to worry about this, though, because the wine is stored at 60F in the cellar and is chilled down to service temperature en route to the tap. Even if a few crystals appear, they will remain in the bottom of the kegs.

Wine education: We can also build educational value from our wines by the tap. For example, we could offer the same wine aged in French vs. American oak barrels to guests. The tap system also enables us a unique way to feature wine in wine flights for educating clients.Wine connoisseurs were upset when they started finding wine bottles with screw caps and their favorite libation packaged in boxes. Now they might start fretting when they hear that restaurants are offering wine on tap. But there's no reason for them to agonize. "Wine on tap is more of a supplement to bottled wine," says Elizabeth Mendez, wine director at Vera. The Near West Side restaurant offers three keg wines to pair with the Spanish dishes prepared by her husband, Mark Mendez. "I think the craft beer industry has helped us prove that you can get wonderful quality from a beverage on tap." Vera isn't the only Chicago restaurant rolling in the wine kegs. Scott Harney, concept manager at Eno, discovered keg wine during trips to San Francisco, and introduced wine on tap to pair with the cheeses and chocolates at the wine bar in 2011.

The wine is from Sonoma-based Silvertap. "They gave us the opportunity to make a blend ourselves," Harney says. "Doing it in kegs is much faster and we have more control, and it is a lot cheaper so we can offer a better wine at a lower price to our guests." Paul Tanguay, a beverage consultant with Tippling Bros., envisioned a very ambitious wine-on-tap program for the Spanish-inspired Tavernita. "We started out with only 12 wines on tap because we couldn't find enough quality wines available in kegs," he recalls, "but as the 2011 vintages started making it into the market, we saw a lot of producers from around the world offering wine in kegs, and now we have 21." Jason Carlen, who is planning a tap wine program at Cafe Spiaggia where he is the sommelier/wine director, says wine on tap is a long-standing custom found throughout Italy, France and Spain. He points out that in small towns and villages, locals take their own empty bottles to be filled from a keg for their evening meals. In the U.S., the tap wine trend took hold in California, where others could have dismissed it as another scheme from outliers on the West Coast.

But Silvertap, which started producing wine on tap in 2009, now distributes wine in kegs to restaurants in 11 states. There is a universal mantra for those who rally around wine in kegs. They believe that the concept is more than a passing fad because of its benefits. When you order a glass of wine and the bottle has just been opened, you taste the flavor as it was meant to be. But if you get wine that has spent too much time in a recorked bottle, oxygen starts to play dirty tricks on the flavor. The wine oxidizes and its distinct personality fades. So the remaining wine may get poured down the drain along with the profits. Or the oxidized wine may get served anyway. But wine in kegs is pressurized with a flavorless, inert gas to prevent the outside air from sneaking in. Mendez also points out that kegs eliminate the loss of bad bottles of wine that are corked or whose flavor is tainted in some other way. Harney points out another plus. "I think it's nice for winemakers who might have an idea for a new wine but don't want to go through the bottling and marketing of it ... they can try it out in kegs in one or two restaurants and get some feedback."

Kegs, which hold the equivalent of about 26 bottles of wine, also make sense from a dollars and cents perspective. Simple math shows that bottled wines are more expensive because of the cost of the bottle, the label, the cork, the foil and the cardboard case to package the wine, plus the shipping. With tap wine there is the upfront expense of the equipment (while some restaurants use the system designed for beer, Urban Union has a stainless steel one hand-milled in Napa Valley, Calif., developed specifically for wine) and the cost of shipping the kegs, which are lighter weight. Some kegs can be returned either to the winery or to a so-called filling station and be reused; others are made out of recycled material and are designed to be recycled rather than cleaned and refilled. Either way the kegs have an eco-friendlier carbon footprint. "We estimate that since we started serving wine on tap we eliminated about 5 tons of glass and cardboard waste a year, so the kegs are much greener," says Harney.