Tuesday, March 06, 2007

The Curse of Boxed Wine

For some wine drinkers, boxed wine is a blessing. Those who drink a glass a day appreciate how well it keeps after opening. Anyone putting on a large pool party appreciates the no-glass package, and the economy.

For some however, it's a curse, as J points out in Ashley's Big Secret Blog, excerpted here:

If you and a pal were to sit down for a nice evening of imbibing, you would pull out one bottle and drink it and, then, pull out another. Very likely you would go slowly on the second, as you have this, albeit imperfect, little voice in the back of your brain that warns you that opening too many bottles will lead to overload.

The inconvenient truth is that the benefit of the little voice telling you, “caution, caution” is completely defeated by the box. There is no way to tell how much of the box has been drunk in one sitting. So, without the little voice to warn you of impending doom, you drink and drink and it is very possible that you and your pal will not realize that too much has been consumed until you are slurring at each other or, dread, the box is gone!

I would like to propose a solution here.

Let’s publicize this problem. After all, many right-thinking people must be incensed by this irresponsible, unregulated and deceptive packaging. Perhaps someone could make a movie showing what can happen and suggesting, well, demanding would be better, that these insidious wine boxes have a gauge on them, like a gas gauge in a car to warn you of well, you know, that your $16 investment is about to pay you some unwelcome dividends.

Ashley's Big Secret Blog: An 'Inconvenient Truth' about Boxed Wine

It's true. And the fact is, I have lived in both those camps. I have friends whose aversion to boxed wine stems from the fact that it gives them no convenient stopping point, and they can't seem to put on the brakes.

The box will set you free. But whether that means free to stop at a glass or two, or free to keep going way beyond the point of immoderation, well, that's the question.

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