The box revolution

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Thomas Angove, the inventor of box wine, has died at the age of 92

Thomas Angove, passed away in a Renmark nursing home, in South Australia's Riverland, in the early hours on 30th March.

Angove was the first person to market the wine cask, also known as ‘box wine’. He came up with the concept of box wine in Renmark, South Australia and patented the idea in 1965.

Thomas, the grandson of Angove Family Winemakers founder William Angove, was awarded an Order of Australia in 1994 for his services to the industry. He became the managing director of Angove's in 1947, expanding its crushing and processing facilities and planting the 480ha Nanya vineyard in the Riverland, one of Australia's largest vineyards. While the company's winery is capable of processing more than 19,000 tonnes of grapes each vintage, it is also famous for producing St Agnes brandy and Stone's Green Ginger Wine.

Before long, the wine box became extremely popular flooding markets and people couldn’t get enough of it. It became more popular than expected, due to its light weight and stackable shape.While not necessarily considered the height of class, the wine box can now be found at just about any British wine store.

Thomas Angove's son, John Angove, now runs Angrove Wines and South Australia remains a bright spot on the global wine map.