Wines and spirits packaging

Five things to consider when choosing paperboard

To give you some inspiration for wine and spirits packaging, we have listed five things to keep in mind when choosing the right paperboard.

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 withstand decorative techniques such as embossing, foiling, debossing, and folding.

Other important characteristics to consider when selecting cardboard for your alcoholic beverage 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 optimal surface strength. The shape of the package calls for a very strong and durable multi-ply paperboard.

2. What it should do

The primary purpose of wine and spirits packaging is to protect the valuable contents from hazards during distribution, storage, and handling. A strong paperboard is critically essential. It is also crucial that the carton is in excellent condition at the point of sale. Some form of tamper-evident evidence needs to be incorporated into the package design to ensure the product's integrity.

You also want the wine 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 glueing properties, these characteristics ensure a strong carton. Increased protection is often achieved by using E-flute, where paperboard is used for the top liner. Additionally, a fitment is inserted for some cartons to give added protection. A smooth surface provides for ease of handling. It also provides good rub and abrasion resistance, thereby preserving the graphical presentation. The use of fresh fibres provides for durable creases on closure flaps, enabling repeated opening and closing.

Select the packaging size and shape that best accommodates your product. 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 glueing 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 enables durable creases on closure flaps, and, together with approved coatings and additives, also helps preserve 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 printing stoppages 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 and spirits packaging is becoming increasingly 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, and 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 on the paperboard to use for your wine or spirits packaging also means considering how it will integrate within your overall supply chain. And that covers every step, from manufacturing and transportation to warehousing and points of sale.

Today, premium brands invest considerable effort in building data and analytics capabilities, ensuring they have the right resources and program management in place to maintain a comprehensive supply chain, both at regional and global levels. That way, they can ensure that paperboard for drink boxes, wine boxes and liquor packaging is available where needed.