Cask wine has long suffered a bad reputation in Australia, thanks to a perception of poor quality, bad hangovers, and the questionable Hills Hoist game Goon of Fortune.
But now, one Aussie company is looking to start a more positive conversation about cask wine, and – more than that – about art.
Pord – the name applies to both the company and the product – has teamed with prominent Australian artists and a Victorian winery to bring to market limited-edition, eight-inch aluminium wine barrels that contain four bottles of wine.
The idea for Pord had been rattling around in co-founder Chloe Streich’s head for a good five years, harking back to a scenario that she saw repeating itself time and time again.
“My girlfriends would go into a boutique wine store looking for a nice bottle of wine and seek out an employee’s help. He or she would spend 10 minutes telling them about the wine, only for them to walk in the other direction and gravitate to the most beautiful bottle they could find,” Streich recalls.
“They’re suckers for packaging, as am I. And I found it quite bizarre – that we fall in love with the packaging, have it for maybe three or four days, then throw it away despite the very reason we bought it in the first place!”
Streich knew there had to be a solution.
