 Ray Isle (@islewine on Twitter) is Food & Wine's executive wine editor. We trust his every cork pop and decant - and the man can sniff out a bargain to boot. Take it away, Ray. A lot of people say that Burgundy, in France, is where the most pitfalls lie for the unwary wine drinker—the Burgundians have a rep, it seems, for separating saps from their shekels. I’m going to disagree. I think boxed wine is where people ought to watch their step. Of course, this wasn’t always the case. It used to be that all boxed wine was bad. That was easy. Now things are trickier, because a number of producers are actually putting good wine - and sometimes really good wine - into boxes. It’s actually possible to go out there, trade your twenty bucks for a 3 liter (that’s four bottles-worth) box of wine, and end up not only with something you can tolerate, but something you’ll actually enjoy quite a bit. Plus, you get the basic box benefits on top of that: The wine stays fresh for up to three weeks once you start dispensing it; boxes leave less of a carbon footprint, so your green friends will love you; and there’s no glass involved, so you can take your box o’ wine to the beach with you. That’s an excellent thing, given that it’s almost July and we’re all about to start roasting. Because I’m a nice fellow, I tasted through a bunch of boxed wines so that you wouldn’t have to, and sorted the bad (and the really, really bad) from the good. Here are the best: NV Pepperwood Grove Big Green Box Chardonnay ($20) 2008 Würtz Riesling ($22) 2008 Banrock Station Shiraz ($19) 2008 Powers Cabernet Sauvignon ($24) More from Food & Wine 15 Rules for Great Wine and Food Pairing From Eatocracy - Leggy and Luscious: Meet our sommelier-in-training © 2011 American Express Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved. 
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An interesting article, but I agree with some of the other feedback in that it barely touches all the points. One of the key reasons why you see less people reaching for boxed wine, is an element of 'snobbishness'. They don't want to be seen by neighbors as serving what might be perceived as cheaper wine. However, there are new products out there in the marketplace that are looking to address this issue. The Boxxle for instance: http://www.boxxlebox.com.
Yellow + Blue delicious organic wines in a 1 liter tetra pak. Check them out.
Boxed wine – apparently my sister in law has been onto something in her long-time love for boxed wine. She's a White Zin lover. I'm a red drinker, so I will check out some of the reds you suggested. And, will have to see if our local fav restaurant – Mountain Town Station – carries any boxed wine in their wine room.
This article barely scratched the surface on the great wines now available in boxes. Alain Jaume's wines from the Rhone regularly score over 90 pts in Wine Spectator and sell for over $50 a bottle. His Grand Veneur Cotes du Rhone Reserve, which WS scored 88 pts in a May issue, is available in a 3L box for around $40, a phenomenal value. Other exceptional wines in a box are the From The Tank Rouge and Vin Blanc, Maipe Malbec, and la Petite Frog Picpoul de Pinet. I buy them at newschoolwines.com which offers FREE shipping on the first purchase.
I think the real question here is, How are you going to sniff the cork if there isn't a cork to sniff?
Fellow box drinkers, for good -to- the- last drop, simply turn your box upside down, press the button on the spigot until the bladder fills with air, turn back to normal and pour. No snipping or bag squeezing required.
Thought you might be interested to know that there is a solution to this problem: http://www.boxxlebox.com/
So where's the rst ofthe storey? Five revivews doesn't make for a comprehensive analys. Which wines to avoid??
S
Wow, lousy typing; worse proof reading...must be the weather... Sorry.
Where's the rest of the story? Five reviews doesn't make for a comprehensive analysis.
Which wines to avoid?
S
the only reported what they personally tasted probably in this single tasting session for the article.
I'm sure you can find a database of reviews on more box wines if you took 2 seconds to search for it
Speaking of Bota Boxes, try their Old Vine Zin.
I live in Utah and it's hard enough finding decent wine at a decent price because our liquor stores are run by the (Mormons) State. Had a girlfriend a while back who educated me on the difference between decent wine and really good wine. Once you experience the real thing it's like the difference between breathing fresh air and smog. Drink your box wine and save the good stuff for me I say. Drinking wine from a box is like a clip-on tie, it will always be tacky.
I miss living near a Trader Joe's. The best selection of good cheap wine imo. There is a ton of great stuff there for between $2.50 and $6 a bottle if you're looking for table wine.
I don't know how many times I've gotten something at TJ's for $5-10 (or less) that I thought was better than $25-35 per bottle stuff I've gotten at higher end wine shops.
TJ's also has a nice selection of low-priced frozen meals to pop in the oven or microwave. Its really good stuff, a lot better quality than the Healthy Choice and Lean Cuisine stuff from a regular grocery store, yet similar in price. Healthy food that is easy and fast to cook at lower than fast food prices.
What a dumb article..... no such thing as a good box wine
think outside the box, it's the only way to drink wine.
Right! I never try to drink it while it's still in the box.
Right. It's so dam hard to get out of it when your done.
Tip it!!
I'll leave the image and quality discussions of glass vs box wine to the Frasier and Niles vs Martin Cranes out there, but my question concerns the greenability of the package of boxed wines. With bottles, the aluminum neck foil can be recycled (the plastic ones unfortunately get tossed). The cork, natural or synthetic, can be recycled in some cases, or simply repurposed. Glass is 100% recyclable. Now with boxed wine, other than the corrugated cardboard container, which is recyclable, what does one do with the plastic bladder and the plastic spigot? Can they be recycled or just disposed of in a landfill?
I think a lot of that has to do with the ability of your local recycling program. Here in Portland, OR, if you don't recycle everything, people point at you and make funny faces. ;) So we can recycle the plastic bladders at our local Whole Foods, New Seasons (a local market) or we can take it directly to the recyclers – which is what we typically do since we gather a bucket of all the stuff we can't leave at the curb for normal pickup and take it there every couple weeks. The plastic spigot we toss.
Even if you live in an area where you can't recycle the bladder or spigot, I guess it depends on what type of wine you are drinking – if it is really "greener". If it is bottled in another country, that is a lot of weight in glass that is being shipped on a boat here, which means more oil. Compared to companies who ship it in a massive box, then bottle it here in the U.S., or domestic companies where everything is already here and there is no shipping across the ocean.
I am thinking that boxed wine and domestic wines are both pretty "green". Once you start buying wine bottled in other countries, then you start adding to the carbon footprint.
Was reading article until I got to the writer's comment," a smaller carbon footprint",then I disengaged'as political propaganda is laced into every cnn article ...even on wine.What mindless tripe.
It can be that some live their lives with concern regarding how much they consume and how much waste they generate without regard to politics. I read this article because I have a boxed wine drinking friend and wanted a gift suggestion. By the way I was raised in a NRA gun toting, conservative, military, staunch republican family. But, this never stopped my mother from taking me to the beach to take part in a trash pick up event or planting a tree on earth day. One has nothing to do with the other when it comes to deciding how to live ones personal life.
My fav is Hardy's Cab Sav from Australia. Their Shiraz is good, too. I drink our great local stuff, but this is about wine in a box, right?
I was surprised to not see Target's Wine Cube on here. Since Target is a pretty major store, you can find it almost anywhere. The Cabernet Sauvignon/Shiraz is our favorite. They sell it in a 4 bottle box for about 16.99, a 2 bottle box for 9.99, and these little 4 packs of TetraPak cubes that are 250ml each. Great size for sneaking into a movie. :) They also go on sale quite often. There is even a facebook group for this wine. :) http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=106885189341911
My girlfriend and I live in the the remote Idaho Backcountry. Our supplies come in on a pack string. SHE drinks a fare bit of wine ( I help out sometimes). Box wine is great, a large quantity for less $$$ and no breakable bottles. Very little trash, the cardboard burns! I agree with the taste test for the wine snobs- I told my girlfriend (who is a but of one) that the biggest reason people drink wine is because of the alcohol! ROCK ON BOX WINE!
Where I grew up people drank "Ranch Wine", which was simply what there was plenty of in the vats this year. Took a gallon jug to the winery and put it under the tap.
We lived with the year-to-year (sometimes month-to-month) variation, celebrating the good years and grumbling about the bad years, just like people making wine have done forever. Così è la vita, or as the sage observed, "without the bad you cannot appreciate the good".
So true. I remember being overseas (Portuguese Azores) and taking an empty whiskey bottle down to the local store/cafe and getting it filled up with the local wine straight from the cask, for a quarter a bottle. Yep, definitely made me enjy the better wines just that much more.
FACT: Bashing Sarah Palin is a favorite American pastime. It is second only to baseball.
And she has only been around a quarter of the time baseball has. Again, what a bargin ;)
Idiot Troll
Or the Pepperwood Grove Big Green Box.... Staceyann Dolenti
Franzia "Crisp" wine is where it's at. Just "CRISP", not pinot noir, merlot, or any real wine classification... just "CRISP".
Boxed wine works for picnics. Fits safely in car trunk, splashes nicely over icecubes for a hot day beverage. I can't wait unitl the sommelier arrives with a hand truck and an assortment of boxes at my dinner table. Like a lovely ladies' dress, packaging is hard to ignore when it comes to enjoyment. Will we see on pack crazy straws next ?? The french recycle their wine glass. Why not in USA?? Wine bricks have been around for years and years. Paper at its finest hour. Or is it better to enjoy a fine wine from the Russian River Valley in a styro cup, or in a glass ? It's all good, if it makes you happy.
FACT: Sarah Palin receives more hate mail and death threats than Obama.
And with half of his I.Q., what a bargin ;)
And that inane comment has what to do with this artcle?
bdgfn. exactly. let's stay on point. by the way, the custer battle is over and the vultures are circling above...
I can't wait to try Bota Box. Staceyann Dolenti
Boxed wine is today's bota bag. You can get 2litre bota bags but boxes of wine are usualy between 3-5 litres, and may travel better due to it's rigid structure.
Wine drinkers are low class. It's all about the Single Malt Scotch.
And people who say "low class" have none...
You just can't handle a sophisticated man's drink. Peaty and salty is what it's about. Enjoy your feminine wine.
Kro, you're entitled to your own opinion, just as everyone else is. That doesn't make you right, or anyone else right. It's all opinion. And in my opinion, Scotch sucks. But, that's just my opinion.
"sophisticated man", "Salty peat", "feminine wine"...... that's just to easy...
big house red!
The answer is (in my opinion)...NONE. Whenever you hear the words wine and box used together, my recommendation is to run. Quickly. In the other direction. Just my opinion. Yours may vary.
I really enjoy the Bota Box's Malbec (about $18 at Kroger). When you consider the box works out to 4 bottles worth, it's a fantastic bargain!
"What kinda woman drinks an entire box of wine?"
My kind of woman;-)
@travis... I was thinking the same thing!
Well, the box wine folks know: You think you're out, of it, but you open the top of the box, grab some scisors and clip the top of the bag; it breaks the vaccuum seal and you'll get at least another two or three glasses out of it, but beware: once clipped, you only have another few hours before it goes. Reserved for latenight!
Next they'll be selling beer in juice boxes.
Good! Can't wait!
I'm not a wine expert. Growing up, the neighborhood connoisseurs introduced me to Wild Irish Rose and MD 20/20. As an adult, my preferred drink became gin and tonic, but some of my lady guests often request that sangria. It has no pretentious date on the box, at least as far as I noticed but what does that matter? For $7.95, it doesn't taste half bad and I can drink about half the box myself before I get a buzz.
Ok talking about boxed wine....can not resist myself!!!
TIP IT KATHLEEN!!!!!!! YOU GOT TO TIP IT, THERE IS MORE IN THE LITTLE BAGGIE!!!!
Oh Maggie Griffin should read this!!!!!
actually, you have to milk the plastic bladder. there's usually another good glass or two trapped in the folds...
With reference to the 2008 Würtz Riesling, "trocken" means only dry, not "steely!" The "icky-sweet stuff" you're referring to is the German QMP classification of 1971 where only late harvested, higher sugar content, grapes are selected for five different categories of wine ranging from the dry kabinett to the luxuriously dry & sweet trockenbeerenauslese. Perhaps just sweet would have been a better description. Do you consider a Sauternes as "icky-sweet-stuff?"
I've had sweet Rieslings and they are good.
Oops ... store was Meijer's!
For my $$$ ($4.95 the bottle) Keijer's here in Delaware, OH is featuring a selection of wines from Gato Negro (Black Cat) in Chile. The chard is very good better than some priced twice as much; better than Trader Joe's $2 Buck Chuck (now 3 buck). Gatp's reds are not bad either. Moving up the white wine ladder I also recommend Marquis de Caceres Spanish white. Very crisp and tasty at $8.99.
You mean Meijer's?
I'm wine lover since I was a kid.Originally I'm from Europe. I drink a lot of riesling wines from all over the world and I think you should try Riesling from USA made in Washington State by HOGUE winery .I sugest you to try Late Harvest Edition Riesling
Enjoy
what a terrible article, the best boxed wine is Réal Sangria.
Now we are talking, I agree!!
i like you tracy
The article should have pointed out that the majority of wine in Australia is sold in boxes.
I've found that Pinot Evil in a box is absolutely awesome. I have to travel to the better groceries stores to find it, but it's worth it and I loved it first in the bottle.
I Love that stuff! I call it, "Evil Monkey Wine" ... LOL Great stuff, my local grocery store carries it. I've bought boxes and boxes.
Boone's Strawberry Farm. That be the shizzle.
I appreciate the article, as my husband and I really enjoy a glass of wine each evening and we've been thinking about trying a box wine even though it feels so "wrong". Unfortunately, we've been hit hard by the economy and we're at a point where we need to cut our expenses as much as possible, and with some of the advice listed here we may be able to find a decent Shiraz or Riesling without going broke or giving it up all together.
I agree with the writer that some box wines are good and some just suck, just the same as bottle wine. The price of your wine does not guarantee how good it is. There are many inexpensive wines that are very good as there are expensive one that are terrible. You have to keep in mind that not everyone has the same tastes. I for one don't particularly care for red's but prefer whites and some rose\blush. Even between different types of wines there are differences. Not all chardonnays are the same just as not all shiraz' are the same. There are a lot of variables and it realy comes down to you own preference.
There is a short video with John Cleese, "Wine for the Confused" that was originally broad cast on the Food Network you may want to Google.
You haven't been hit HARD by the economy. You'd be wishing for ice to put in your glass of WATER if you had.
Here!! Here!!!
Thanks for posting this article! I have a box-of-wine in my fridge that my husband and I refer to ask Tuesday wine and it tastes fine for everyday. I have not found a higher quality version in the regular grocery store, so I'll for these at the beverage/wine store that I don't normally visit.
In terms of 'green' ... if a box is worth 3-4 bottles, what is the comparison of a box+plastic line to 3-4 glass bottles of wines with their synthetic corks?
Not positive about this, but what makes it greener is that plastic is much lighter. Lighter makes for cheaper transportation. That is, less weight means lesser fuel needed to transport (why we have to pay extra for baggage on flights).
Recycled material for the box is "in" and that is good and green and all that. What about the aluminum or whatever the material is that the wine is bagged in and is constantly in contact with?
No, this is not like some jiuce boxes. These are plastic bags.
Maybe here, but It'll never sell in Europe. Right or wrong, they're very particular about things like that, especially when it comes to the right glass for the right drink.
Actually, the Europeans like boxed wine just fine. In fact, some Europeans take empty jugs to the market to have them filled, just like some Americans take empty jugs to the market to have them filled with water.
Wine drinkers here in the U.S. are into the snooty-factor, thinking that drinking expensive wine makes them look sophisticated or gives them cachet. They pay dearly for that look, but are unable to distinguish between $200 and $20 wine in blind taste tests.
Here's an article on the wine jug filling system in used in French markets.
http://www.geekosystem.com/diy-wine-pump-france/
Ah, good. My point(s) exactly
Box wines are very popular in Europe, particularly France, but have been slower to catch on here in America. A couple of my favorites are Pinot Evil (French) and Black Box (US). Here's an excerpt from Black Box's website "years ago while traveling in Europe, Black Box founder Ryan Sproule was amazed at how many Europeans drank premium-quality box wines. They favored freshness, value and convenience over tradition. By forgoing expensive bottles in favor of bag-in-a-box packaging, European vintners were providing their customers with better wines at better prices."
That's correct. I grew up in France, and it was very common to buy quality wine in box (a "cubitainer" as it's called over there). The fun thing is that you would still pour it in a bottle and cork it before serving it, even for wines that did not need to go through aging. The "nobility" of the proper glass bottle and the proper cork stopper (never in plastic, always in cork) was to be respected, even if the wine itself comes from a box. Nowadays I serve wine directly from the box.
Like asking 'what's the best $2 steak?'
There's no reason that good, even excellent wine can't be delivered in a vacuum bag. You get the same wine in a cheaper and more convenient format. What's the downside?
Agreed. There isn't one. Snobbery and pretense have no place among real people who enjoy wine. I would love to challenge most of these skeptics to a taste test; my guess is most won't tell a good box wine from a $100 bottle.
And you can take the bag out of the box and squeeze it – it's good to the last drop, like the blues man Mississippi John Hurt used to say about Maxwell House coffee.
I weep for the future
I weep for the present!
Sigh... whaddaya gonna do?
I like the $2.50 wine you can get on the shelf at walmart. 2 bottles is enough to get me and my wife really buzzed, and it tastes pretty good. We like the white zinfandel. Seems to dehydrate me more than any other booze though.
Turpentine is a bit cheaper, with about the same dehydration effect.
Actually, turpentine costs considerably more but it, at least, has painting applications.
Goes very well with pork rinds and Vienna sausage, right?
Hey! There's nothing wrong with porkrinds! They are the second most popular snack-food after popcorn (yes, ahead of potato chips). Viena sausages are too vile to look at, though.
My dogs won't even eat pork rinds but they do relish cat scat. Enjoy!
I think you mean they are the second least popular snack food as they take up less than 1% of the snack market.
They have bottles of some Australian wine called "Lucky Duck" for about $4. It's actually not too bad. Well, for the comparable $4 you'd spend on T-Bird or M/D or something like that.
After a little research, I discovered that only two of the varietals are from Down Under. The duck's appearance on the bottle is a clue to where the wine is from (the upside-down duck is from Australia).
I prefer Box O Wine at Frank's Pick N Grab, everything is better when two letter words are abbreviated.
Walgreen's has a riesling that come in a blue, double-sized bottle for $7. It is really good, but they don't have it all of the time.
what he said
Dude!
screwe wine. buy a handle of cheap vodka for $13.
Yeah – after the first 5 shooters you can't tell the difference.
Yeah, I was really surprised when my 22-year-old son brought home something he and his friends fondly called Aristocrap. If all you are doing is mixing fun drinks with strong-flavored mixers (not so good for vodka tonics), you can't really tell that much difference. I can tell the difference between the wines, but for 95 percent of the occasions, Bota Box shiraz or chardonnay is fine. I coincidentally picked up the Black Box riesling at the store yesterday, will see how that goes, didn't realize it was that dry.
I would have liked to have seen a comparison with more popular brands. I personally like a certain 5-liter box of “Mountain Burgundy” for my everyday wine. I would also like to see a blind taste test, as this list appears to be just the most expensive 3-liter brands. Also, does a plastic or aluminum bag based box really have a lower carbon footprint than comparable amount of wine in glass bottles? Finally, why such a low shelf life for the wine once it is opened, if air never gets to the wine in the flexible inner bag?
I agree with your comments. Back in the 70's, there was a great paperback book called "Great Cheap Wine." I wish they would do an updated edition. It was based on the premise that 75% of the wine consumed was in the, say, $5 range by today's standards. It did blind reviews of Inglenook, Almaden, Gallo, etc...the Yellowtails of the day. Very helpful for me in my poor college days... and similar to today's financial restrictions! Today, you can get the same kind of help going to wine superstore sites like bevmo.com and totalwine.com. It helps even if you don't have these retailers in your area. You can dictate price limits, ratings, etc. and see which brands offer the most bang for the buck for specific varietals
once i started cooking.. i started drinking more wine..love learing to pair different wines with different foods.. i learned how to cook by using this hilarious beginners cookbook my wife got me called.. well I won't tell you the name of it here cause some of you will freak out on me (it's a bit un-pc), but if you google "whipped and beaten culinary works" you can find it.. but seriously.. dont go if you can't take a good joke or get offended easily.. consiser yourself warned.
I'm sure you'd fall in love with Mad Dog or even Ripple; that is, if it were still on the shelves. Of course you'd have to buy them in those nasty old bottles. Perish the thought.
Now that is the kind of snobbery that this article was intended to counter. The fact is, a wine is a good wine if you enjoy it. I love buying different kinds of wines, and at home we did our own blind taste test: Some $15-$20 range bottles of cab, alongside cab made by Black Box. Black Box rose to the top. If that makes us seem unsphisticated, so be it. We enjoy it!
once i started cooking.. i started drinking a lot more wine.. i learned how to cook by using this hilarious beginners cookbook my wife got me called.. well I won't tell you the name of it here cause some of you will freak out on me (it's a bit un-pc), but if you google "whipped and beaten culinary works" you can find it.. but seriously.. dont go if you can't take a good joke or get offended easily.. consiser yourself warned.
So...,wine in a box. Wouldn't that be wine in a plastic bag? Why would people drink anything out of plastic with all the public health information on how some really gnarly toxins gas out of plastic into whatever liquid it contains?
My family drinks only out of glass containers... for everything.
Yes, glass ONLY. But in da USA so many peoples are just plain imbeciles and so much brainwashed by bogus ADA, FTC, CIA, FBI,etc Also, how about nuclear testing site in Nevada, when Santa Ana winds blow to CA – all radiation comes with the wind, that's why Cedar Sinai so happy to have so many cancer money.
I agree – isn't the real issue the oxygen control and improved bladders in box-o-wine? We do a lot of informal entertaining – many of the attendees are food & wine freaks – and the house wine is Corbett Canyon.
By the case – $7.33 a box ($1.83 a bottle). Not the world's best – but certainly a reasonable wine when the real star of the evening is the food.