Wine Boxes

A box that carries the bottle and stays

Each of these holds one standard 75 cl bottle in laser-cut plywood. The front panel slides up out of grooves in the sides, the stained boxes carry a jute rope handle through the top, and every box comes with a flat oval glass holder that slips over the neck of the bottle and carries two glasses by their stems. The wine goes in at home and comes out at the table, and nothing about the presentation is thrown away.

A gift bag goes in the bin when the bottle is opened. These stay – on a kitchen shelf, on a windowsill, on the next bottle – and that is the difference between wrapping and a gift.

Which box becomes a nest box?

The Nichoir. Its front panel has a round hole cut clean through, a small wooden perch fitted below it and three birds engraved on a branch at the foot; a wreath of vine leaves and grapes frames the hole. Empty the bottle, slide the front closed again, hang the box outside by its rope or screw it to a tree through the back, and the box that carried the wine becomes a nesting box for small garden birds.

It is the one wine box in our range with a second life designed in rather than hoped for. If the gift is going to someone with a garden, this is the one.

Which designs and finishes are there?

Three motifs, each engraved on the sliding front panel with the word VIN: a wine glass drawn in outline with the wine pouring in from above; the silhouette of a bottle filled with dozens of small bottles and glasses; and grape bunches with vine leaves and tendrils in two corners.

Each motif comes in two versions. The stained boxes – a deep grey-brown close to black for the glass, a warm mid-brown for the bottle, a cool weathered grey for the grapes – have the jute rope handle. The light boxes are the same designs on pale unstained birch, without the rope: quieter, more informal, and the version where a fine engraving shows most clearly.

What ships with each box?

The box, and a flat oval board with a round hole in the centre and a notch at each end. Set it over the neck of the bottle and it holds two glasses by their stems, so bottle and glasses travel to the table, the garden or the picnic blanket as one piece. The stained boxes and the Nichoir have the rope handle fitted; the light boxes do not. The wine is not included.

How does the front open?

Hook a finger in the hole at the top of the front panel and lift: the panel slides up out of the grooves in the side panels and the bottle lifts out. Slide it back down and the box is closed again, which is what makes it storage rather than packaging. There is no lid to put down and no hinge to break.

How big are they?

10.5 × 10.5 cm and 33.5 cm tall, cut for a standard 75 cl bottle of still wine, Bordeaux or Burgundy shape. The Nichoir is a little larger, 12.5 × 12.5 × 34.5 cm, so that the box has room to work as a nest box afterwards. Empty, each weighs a little under 400 g.

Inside, the box is bare wood without padding: the bottle stands upright and travels well that way, but the box is not a shipping case for a bottle laid flat in a car boot.

Why keep the box afterwards?

Because it is a tall, narrow wooden container that closes. Kitchen utensils and long-handled tools stand in it; so do brushes, pencils and rulers on a desk, or a few dried stems. Or it takes the next bottle and is given on, with the glass holder along for the ride.

For events and businesses

For weddings, client gifts or a restaurant's bottles to take away we supply these in quantity, and in business quantities we produce custom engraving: logos, event branding, a date. Terms and enquiries on our wholesale page.