Wines and spirits packaging

1. How it looks

Wine and spirits packaging design must reflect the sophistication of the products. If you’re selling vintage wine, exclusive champagne or premium spirits like cognac, whisky, or other prestigious products, you want the packaging to reflect that. To enhance brand image and product identity, high-quality outer packaging is used – luxurious and prestigious cartons that create sales appeal.

Because the wine or spirits packaging design is so important, you want the freedom to be creative – to design and embellish as you see fit. That requires a paperboard that can handle decorative techniques like embossing, foiling, debossing and folding. Learn more about different techniques in our Graphics Handbook.

Other important characteristics you’re looking for when selecting cardboard for your alcohol packaging are whiteness, smoothness and surface finish. The graphical presentation calls for pure, fresh fibres. The use of fresh fibres, together with selected coating ingredients, also ensures good light stability to avoid fading. Embossing, lamination and hot foil stamping require surface strength. The shape of the package calls for a very strong and durable multi-ply paperboard.

2. What it should do

The main purpose of wine and spirits packaging is to protect the expensive contents from hazards in distribution, storage and handling. A strong paperboard is critically important. It is also important that the carton is in excellent condition at the point of sale. Some form of tamper evidence needs to be incorporated in the package design, to ensure the integrity of the product.

You also want the wine packaging or spirits packaging to last for a long time. Premium cognac or whisky brands may be kept in the cartons for a long time, just like champagne and some vintage wines.

Important protective characteristics of paperboard for wines and spirits are compression strength, folding endurance and stiffness. Together with good creasing and gluing properties, these characteristics ensure a strong carton. Increased protection is often achieved by using E-flute, where paperboard is used for the top liner. Also, a fitment is inserted for some cartons to give added protection. Fresh fibres provide for creases on closure flaps, which are durable for repeated opening and closing. A smooth surface provides for ease of handling. It also provides good rub and abrasion resistance, thereby preserving the graphical presentation.

Choose the right size and shape of the packaging to accommodate your product effectively. Avoid oversized packaging as it may increase shipping costs and generate more waste. 

3. How it’s manufactured

The best paperboard for wine packaging and spirits packaging requires the right raw material and a precise production process.

Good creasing and gluing properties ensure a strong carton – that’s necessary for strength and endurance. A smooth surface provides for ease of handling while preserving the graphical presentation. The use of fresh fibres provides for durable creases on closure flaps, and, together with approved coatings and additives, also assist in preserving aroma and flavour.

The cartons are usually rectangular in cross-section, with tuck-in-flap closures. The base may be crash-locked in style to give adequate strength. Exclusive products are often hand packed, whereas high-volume products are packed through mechanically assisted operations, sometimes at high speed. The cartons are usually provided with the side seam glued for erection, filling and closing. The packaging machines require low creasing resistance and low carton opening force.

If you compromise on raw materials and manufacturing, you expose yourself to risk. Inferior paperboard can cause stoppages during printing or limit what you can create with it. You almost always get stability problems, meaning your premium products will look floppy on the shelves.

4. How sustainable is it

Sustainable wine packaging or spirits packaging is becoming more and more important. Consumers want to know that the packaging is recyclable and eco-friendly. Regulatory changes are also creating new demands.

Many wine and spirits brands are setting ambitious targets to meet these demands. They want the raw material to come from sustainably managed forests. That the energy used during manufacturing is renewable. And that the wine or liquor carton can be recycled or composted. Picking a suitable paperboard product and working with the right design material will help you address these issues.

5. How it fits into your strategic supply chain

Deciding what paperboard to choose for your wine or spirits packaging also means finding out that it will work within your total supply chain. And that covers every step, from manufacturing and transportation to warehousing and points of sale.

Today, premium brands spend a lot of effort on building data and analytics capabilities, ensuring they have the right resources and program management in place to have a complete supply chain, both on regional and global levels. That way, they can ensure that paperboard for drink boxes, wine boxes and liquor packaging are available where needed.