The next new thing in wine: Single-serving boxes.

Several vintners are pioneering the concept and packaging their products in tiny cartons made to serve one.

“It’s super mobile, it’s light, it’s easy to take with you,” says Charles Bieler, co-owner and co-founder of Three Thieves.  “I’ve never understood why there aren’t more brands doing single serve. You buy little bottles of water, you buy little bottles of [cola], you buy little bottles of coffee.”

So why not wine? Bieler admits that single-serve wine in a box “requires a more enlightened customer who’s willing to take a leap.”  

And that’s just the audience Bieler has been courting with other Three Thieves offerings. The company’s Bandit Bullets, 250-mL Tetra Prisma aseptic containers, are just the latest signs of an ongoing effort to make wine less intimidating for consumers.

These single-portion cartons feature easy-open pull tabs that offer quick access to the pinot grigio or cabernet sauvignon varietals inside, and they come in multipacks ranging from $9 to $11.

So what does research say? “We’re not a focus group kind of company—we avoid it like the plague,” says Bieler. “It’s part of the zest of who we are and what we’ve done. We want to push the limits.”

The three founders (who don’t mind being known as “thieves”) are single-minded in following their instincts and in saying they are finding much success in the approach.

Aseptic single-serve cartons. At Tetra Pak, call 847.955.6000 or visit www.tetrapack.com.