Quality Standard
A wine box that looks fine in a photo can still fail in transit. We check the board, the insert, the fit, and the finished carton before it ships. These are our in-house checks, not a third party report. They exist because a broken bottle costs you more than the box.
Board and Paper Standard
We build wine shipping boxes from greyboard at 1200 g minimum. For spirits, we recommend 1400 g. Lighter board saves a few cents and then folds under a stack of cartons. We don't use recycled greyboard or high-moisture paper. Facing paper starts at 157 g, specialty or coated. That gives the print a stable surface and keeps the box from scuffing in transit.
The choice of facing paper matters more than most buyers expect. Kraft paper hides handling marks well. Gold or silver cardboard shows every fingerprint. Flocked paper feels premium but adds bulk. Leather-textured paper works for rigid retail boxes, less so for a corrugated shipper that will be thrown around. Tell us where the box goes after it leaves your warehouse and we'll match the paper to that trip.
Insert and Bottle Fit Checks
Our insert rule is simple: the bottle is held at four points, with no unsupported neck or shoulder. A velvet tray, EVA foam, blister, or paper mould all work if they follow that rule. We check every new insert design before production. The bottle goes in, the box is shaken for ten seconds, and we look for movement. Then we tilt the box 45 degrees. The bottle should not slide. Then we invert it. No release.
If a check fails, we adjust the insert. Usually it's a few millimetres of foam or a tighter pulp mould. Sometimes the whole structure changes. That's cheaper than a customer opening a box of broken glass. When you send a bottle sample, we measure the actual diameter and shoulder height, not the nominal spec. Bottles from the same winery vary more than you'd think.
Tolerances and Colour Control
Our control tolerance is plus or minus 1 mm on the insert and plus or minus 2 mm on the box body. For foldable boxes, the creases must not crack, the magnet position is plus or minus 1 mm, and the corners are 90 degrees when erected. These are not numbers we put in a brochure. They're what we measure on the line.
Colour is the hardest thing to hold. Black, deep blue and burgundy show every variation. We match to Pantone, approve a first article, and pull samples mid-run. If the first article is off, we don't start the run. If a mid-run sample drifts, we stop and correct. You'll see a difference in a dark label before you see it in a light one, so we sample those colours more often.
In-House Pre-Shipment Checks
Before a wine shipping box leaves, we run three physical checks with a bottle loaded inside. A 1.2 metre six-face drop test. Stacking top load of 40 kg or more for 24 hours. And a vibration simulation for truck and sea transit. The box has to show no internal movement after each check. If it does, we rework the insert or the structure.
We don't test one box and call it done. We pull from the actual production run, not a pre-production sample. The drop test is the one that catches most failures: a corner lands, the insert shifts, and the neck hits the board. Better we find that here than a courier van finds it on the way to your customer. These checks are part of our eight production steps, not an optional add-on.
Questions buyers ask
Do you test every box or just a sample from the batch?
We test samples pulled from the production run. Testing every box would mean opening and resealing every carton, which creates its own damage risk. We sample at set intervals during the run and after final packing. If a sample fails, we hold the whole batch and rework it before shipping.
What happens if my bottle doesn't fit your standard insert?
We adjust the insert. You send the bottle or its dimensions, and we cut the foam, pulp mould, or velvet tray to match. The four-point hold rule still applies. If the bottle is unusually tall or heavy, we may recommend a different structure, like a rigid box instead of a foldable shipper. You approve the blank sample before we print.
Can you match a specific brand colour on the box?
Yes. We match to Pantone references and approve a first article before the full print run. Dark colours like black, deep blue and burgundy are the hardest to hold, so we sample those more often mid-run. If the colour drifts, we stop and correct. You'll sign off on the printed sample before mass production.
Talk to us about your project
Send the bottle size or a sample, quantity and a reference design. We reply with structure options and pricing.
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