04 Sep 2023 Cheeky box wine brand turns serious

Doos Wine started out as a fun concept but the intention, say the owners, was always to put quality wine in a box and destigmatise it. Lots of stockists and fans are buying in….

Boxed wine has a long tradition in South Africa, but still carries the stigma of being seen as “cheap plonk”. That mentality is steadily changing as big brands like Haute Cabrière, Fairview and Kleine Zalze, and many others, join the move to boxing quality vino.

This wine trend also made headlines when bag-in-box sales (BiB) overtook bottled wine sales by volume in SA for the first time in 2020.

But the creators of Doos Wine believe established brands are not working hard enough to destigmatise the product.

“We are on a journey to get all the best wines in South Africa, into our Doos,” proclaims the company’s website.

Bruce Whitfield talked to co-founder, Asher Mikkel Stoltz, about the idea behind the brand (upon advice about not possibly offending listeners he doesn’t name the brand during the interview – ‘D’ followed by the Afrikaans word for ‘east’, he says)

What started out as a fun concept dreamed up by a group of professional creatives, quickly became serious when they realised there was a real need, Stoltz relates.

It’s the Afrikaans word for box, that’s the simplest way of putting it. It’s also generically used to convey somebody that’s maybe doing something a bit silly… The connection between the two for us is quite simple – essentially there’s an idea of destigmatising what is traditional box wine.

Asher Mikkel Stoltz, Co-founder – Doos Wine

“The rationale was pretty simple,” Stoltz goes on, “looking at it economically, ecologically and practically, why should wine that is ready to drink now still be put in bottle?

“When we initiated the concept it was humorous, but we did have the intention of really putting quality wine in the box and as we started to learn more, we started to realise we were kind of tipping on a cliff…. that internationally there’s a growing movement towards this box.

“We realised the value of putting proper wine into a box again from an environmental perspective, a value perspective, a transportation perspective, from the fact that it lasts five times longer in a fridge once it’s opened.”

Doos Wine started as an online platform, but is now gaining wider traction. The brand has generated an ‘incredible’ amount of support and interest, Stoltz says, and will soon be featured in Norman Goodfellow stores.

Using a loaded name that is very relatable to South Africans, Stoltz say investors, as well as and brands and retailers, have jumped on board.

Listen to the interview here:

Source: Cape Talk, Doos Wine

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