Next In Your Cup - Wine?

Marks & Spencer

Mars & Spencer wine in a cup

Old-world oenophiles have raised an eyebrow or two over China’s wine-drinking habits, which includes mixing red wine with Sprite. What will they have to say about what British retailer Marks & Spencer is doing?

Enter the “Le Froglet,” individual wine glasses in a cup that are now available in Hong Kong at the M&S food shop in Wanchai. (The cups had their United Kingdom debut at Marks & Spencer stores in June.) At 38 Hong Kong dollars (US$5) for a 187-milliliter glass, the cup of wine comes in three flavors: Shiraz, Rosé and Chardonnay.

The idea seems a gamble, especially with the stigma that “wines in a box” have carried in the past. In fact, when the wine-in-a-cup creator James Nash initially presented his idea on “Dragon’s Den,” the popular BBC television show in which entrepreneurs pitch their business concepts to five venture capitalists, he got a resolute no from everyone. Afterward, Mr. Nash, a managing director of Wine Innovations Ltd., made a cold-call to M&S’s packing manager in the U.K. and the rest, as they say, is history. Today, M&S reports that more than one glass is sold every minute.

With M&S sales of mini-size and light-weight bottles on the rise world-wide — a more than 25% jump since March of this year alone – the retailer’s winemaker Belinda Kleinig said it was logical to take things “one step further” with ready-to-drink wines from a glass.

Originally conceived for customers going on “impromptu picnics,” in Hong Kong, it could be well-positioned for locals who are known to consume just a glass or two of wine with their meals.

The plastic wine glass itself took 18 months to develop, with all things considered including an “inert filling technology” — in which the oxygen is removed and replaced with an inert, heavier gas — to ensure that the wine in any given cup is not exposed to oxygen and guarantee a longer shelf life. M&S even conducted pressure tests on the cup’s paper seal to make sure it would not leak.

-Wall Street Journal