Wine on tap now served at more than 2,500 venues nationwide
Napa, CA, July 14, 2014—Free Flow Wines, the pioneer of premium wine on tap, today announced that one year after two Florida laws were changed to allow for wine on tap to be served in the state the number of establishments serving wine on tap has almost doubled to 2,500 venues nationwide. One year ago, Free Flow Wines lead the legislative process to change two Florida laws that limited the size of wine containers to one gallon. These laws kept not only Florida restaurants from installing wine on tap, but limited national restaurant chains and venues from rolling out nationwide wine on tap programs.
On June 14, 2013, bills HB 623 and SB 658 were signed by Florida Governor Rick Scott after being unanimously approved by the Florida House and Senate. The new laws allowed for the sale of wine in individual 5.16 gallon reusable containers, or the size of a Free Flow Wines keg. Free Flow Wines now fills more than 10,000 wine kegs per month and distributes them around the country. Wine on tap is now served at more than 68 venues in Florida, and Free Flow Wines fills over 200 kegs per month for the Florida market alone. In just one year, wine on tap has saved more than more than 89,000 pounds of trash from Florida landfills alone and in 2014 Free Flow Wines will save 4.5 million pounds of waste from landfills nationwide.
“This legislation simply removed antiquated red tape that arbitrarily limited wine container sizes in Florida,” says Frank Artiles, the House bill sponsor (R-Miami). “By updating these statutes, which were written just after the prohibition era, the legislature effectively provided Florida’s hospitality industry the latitude to proceed with custom tailored wine by the glass programs through innovative new methods and with technology manufactured in Florida.“
“This legislation has proven to be a market-based win for the economy. It is estimated that due to this legislation 60,000 wine bottles did not go into Florida dumpsters this year,” Artiles added.
“As the leading provider of wine on tap dispensing equipment in the country, and based in Brooksville, FL, we have doubled our sales of equipment in the past year within this market channel in great part to Florida adopting this new wine packaging,” said John Soler, Managing Director of the Dispense Division at Micro Matic USA. “This growth has allowed us to bring on additional employees to meet the increasing demand. We believe we are in the early stage development of this market segment and see tremendous growth in the years ahead as both the consumers and on-premise operators continue to realize the benefits of serving wine on tap.”
Over the past year, Free Flow has almost doubled the number of premium wines it kegs. The company now kegs more than 440 premium wines that are served at more than 2,500 venues nationwide. Free Flow Wines is currently processing almost 10,000 kegs per month and plans to continue to grow that number to meet the demand. One year ago, Free Flow Wines was kegging 250 premium wines at 1,500 venues nationwide.
Stainless steel kegs greatly reduce the excess packaging and solid waste that comes from wine bottles or disposable plastic kegs. Over the 20-year life of a Free Flow keg, the carbon footprint of the same amount of wine poured from bottles is reduced by 96%. In addition, the company’s innovative water reclamation system replaces over 1 million gallons of water each year and Free Flow Wines has removed almost 2.5 million bottles of material waste from U.S. landfills since their inception in 2009.
“The new laws in Florida were a turning point not only for us a company, but for wine on tap as a whole,” said Jordan Kivelstadt, Founder and CEO of Free Flow Wines. “As a result we were able to bring wine on tap to a larger market, providing venues with a better way of serving wine. We expect to see this continued growth as the market continues to rapidly expand across the nation.”
About Free Flow Wines
Free Flow Wines is the pioneer of premium wine on tap and delivers the world’s wine brands to the taps of restaurants and venues nationwide. Free Flow Wines’ kegging and logistics services have allowed the wine and hospitality industries to move away from bottles to a sustainable, environmentally friendly way of serving wine on tap, while maintaining wine integrity from the barrel to the tap. Free Flow Wines was founded in 2009 and has more than 440 large and small winery clients from Frog’s Leap in Napa Valley, to 10 Span Vineyards in Santa Barbara and Banfi’s Aviatto from Alto Adige. Their clients’ wines are offered on tap to a variety of restaurants, premium hotels, sports and entertainment venues nationwide. The company is located in Napa, California and you can find them online at FreeFlowWines.com, on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Flickr @FreeFlowWine.
