When you think of a keg you think of beer. I know I do. Never did I think there would be keg wine, but think about it. If you leave beer out open overnight it goes flat. To much air in a wine similar things happen, it becomes oxidized. But in a bar, beer on tap usually lasts a while. There are preventive measures to make sure the beer doesn’t go bad. So why not do this for wine?
Keg wine has become a reality. Yes..believe it or not. Seems Wegmans which owns Next Door Bar and Grill are getting into the keg wine business. They are working with Tom Higgins of Hearts & Hands Wine Company to create a Riesling blend for the restaurant. If you are not familiar with Hearts and Hands, they are a small producer of Riesling, Pinot Noir and sparkling wine on Cayuga Lake in the Finger Lakes Region of New York. I’ve personally been there and had the opportunity to taste their wines and speak with Tom and Susan Higgins. They are a wonderful couple who take great pride in what they do and produce.
In an article by Evan Dawson of 13Wham in Rochester, NY, Higgins states that “when it’s in the keg, the wine stays fresh for as long as you need. The inert gases don’t affect the flavor or smell.”
There are already kegs of wine in San Francisco and New York City. I would love to hear from you if you have ordered wine from the keg. There are times when I’ve ordered wine by the glass and you can clearly tell the bottle has been open for a while. My question is how the keg of wine will hold up?
It is my understanding that Brotherhood Winery in the Hudson Valley is producing keg wine, but when I approached them for comments for this article, they declined.
Below is the Evan’s story as it appeared on 13Wham.
Please voice your comments on this subject. I’d like to hear your opinion.