A box of wine with your supermarket sandwich?

Those who spend hours discussing bouquet, colour and the best years for Bordeaux should brace themselves. Their revered tipple is about to be supped from a straw.

And as if that were not enough, the drink will be sold in tiny cardboard boxes more often associated with fruit drinks. The move follows the success of alcopops, but to purists it will prove more of a shock to the system than the screwtop.

The brainchild of a Bordeaux wine merchant, the Tandem range of Tetrapak wine contains enough for two glasses. The makers insist the flavour is not compromised, courtesy of a straw that sprays wine into the mouth of the drinker through five holes.

It comes in red and white; a merlot cabernet-sauvignon and a sauvignon, and is designed to sit alongside sandwiches in supermarkets for drinking "on the go".

The leading merchant Cordier Mestrezat Grand Crus, which sells wine for as much as £2,700 a bottle, is trialling the packs in the Belgian supermarket Delhaize and is hoping Tandem will soon hit the UK. Discussions are underway with supermarket chains Tesco, Waitrose and Morrisons.

"It's definitely targeted at young people," admitted export manager Pierre-Eric Sabatier. "It will give them the possibility to think about wine when they are buying a salad or sandwich. The packaging is quite fun and cheerful."

The packaging, though, remains a risk in a once steadfastly-traditional industry, which has sold wine in bottles for centuries. "Older consumers might find it a bit silly but when you look at the evolution [of wine] you think particularly towards the environment," said M. Sabatier. "We have already seen that Sainsbury is going to implement a wine in PET plastic. It's much easier and takes less energy to recycle cartons than glass."

In addition , the wine importer Ehrmanns is planning to launch the Arniston Bay brand as a 1.5l plastic pouch. The E-Pak is supposed to have a 60 per cent lower "life cycle" impact than bottles.

The Wine & Spirit Trade Association said that wine companies were looking at reducing the pollution caused by transporting heavy glass bottles with the backing of the Government's Waste and Resources Action Programme.

Kate Coleman, WSTA public affairs manager said: "We would be interested to see whether consumers take this [Tandem] up."

But one expert yesterday gave wine in 25cl boxes the thumbs down. Alan Griffiths, director of wine at the 300-year-old merchant Berry Brothers & Rudd, said: "I don't think it is a hugely good idea.

"Part of the pleasure of wine is the aroma, the bouquet when you pour it into a glass. If you drink it through a straw you lose that.

"It also brings wine to the level of fruit juices and I don't think you want to bring young people into wine in that way."