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THINKING
OUTSIDE THE
BOTTLE
More and more area winemakers, wine
sellers and wine drinkers are catching on
to the many benefits that come with wine
in a keg.
One of the biggest benefits of kegged
wine is its impact on the environment.
“We see a lot of empty bottles,” said
Andrea O’Shea, who, along with her
husband Nate, is one of three owners of
Great Frogs Winery in Annapolis. “For a
restaurant that’s serving by the glass, it doesn’t make sense to put something in a bottle,
put a label on it and put a cork in it when they’re serving it in a glass and the bottle’s getting
thrown. The people aren’t ever even looking at the bottle.”
Brian Bolter, owner of Red Red Wine Bar in Annapolis, agrees. His establishment has
offered wine on tap since it opened nearly six years ago, including wine from Great Frogs. A
typical keg of wine holds about twenty-seven bottles of wine. “That’s twenty-seven bottles,
labels, corks, foil, and cardboard that isn’t going into the trash,” he said.
O’Shea says Great Frogs began kegging some
of its wine in 2015 when it was requested by a
client. “They were trying to reduce waste and
carbon footprint, and so we kind of took on the
task of providing wine for this large event using
kegs,” she said.
Once the Great Frogs team was educated
about the kegging process, they started looking
for other ways to incorporate kegging into their
business. In addition to providing kegged wine to
clients like Red Red Wine Bar, Great Frogs utilizes
kegged wines at festivals, and they have plans to
add a tap station to their tasting room.
Naturally, the company is hoping to add to its
list of clients who purchase their kegged wine to
sell in restaurants and bars. “The difficult thing
is a lot of restaurants only have so many taps
“What do you have on tap?”
It’s a common question asked
in bars and restaurants by
beer drinkers everywhere,
but rarely does one hear
the same question asked by
customers ordering wine.
This may be changing.
P H O T O O F K E G B Y T H I N K S T O C K P H O T O S / I S T O C K / K O Y A 7 9 , B O T T O M C O U R T E S Y O F G R E A T F R O G S W I N E R Y
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M A R Y L A N D W I N E P R E S S