Boxed Wine is Fine

From the Charleston Daily Mail

09/12/2007
THE FOOD GUY BOXED WINE IS FINE AND KEEPS WELL
STEVEN KEITH

The fact that I'm following up last week's wine column with this week's on wine and beer should in no way suggest that I've lost my mind and/or fallen off the wagon. With three young boys to raise, however, it does often feel like I've fallen off the deep end.

Since I started down a slippery slope last week - proclaiming thou shalt not discriminate against screw-cap wines - then why not jump in headfirst and extol the benefits of another receptacle of the grape? That's right, I drank box wine this week. And fairly enjoyed it.

Before you boo, let me explain.

If a screw cap has become more socially acceptable because of its ability to better preserve a wine's integrity, then consider the vacuum-packed box. Its heavy plastic lining and dispense-as-you-go spout keep the wine inside virtually airtight (and thus, preserved and untainted) for literally weeks. Any wine remaining in an opened bottle is lucky to make it a few days before it starts to lose its charm.

And while the practice has been mostly limited to less-distinguished "bargain" brands in the past, more reputable winemakers are now starting to embrace the concept as well.

The cardboard carafe 'o wine I sampled this weekend was not one of those pricier labels, but the Carlo Rossi Reserve Merlot (there, I said it) was not a bad table wine for Sunday dinner.

And weighing in at 5 liters, it should get me through the better part of the week. If the boys behave.

Boxed wine is fine and keeps well - Daily Mail - Charleston

The Sutherlands on Boxed Wine for Tailgaiting

We all know that boxed wine comes into it's own for outdoor activities, and I think it's just great for tailgating! Frank and Kate Sutherland tasted two boxed Aussie Chards, two boxed French wines, and a five liter California sangria. For authenticity, they actually tasted them tailgating in a parking lot.

Wine: For tailgating, break out the box
8/29/2007

By FRANK SUTHERLAND
and KATE SUTHERLAND
Gannett News Service

Football season is upon us again, as is one of the game's most revered traditions - tailgating.

Now that boxed wines are improving in quality, we thought wine should join in on the tailgating festivities. With no glass to break and plenty of wine to go around (all the wines we tried were in 3-liter boxes equivalent to four bottles, except one that held 5 liters, about six and a half bottles), boxed wines are perfect for a mobile party.

Our wine-tasting group tried five boxed white wines to see which would keep us cool in a parking lot with 60,000 of our closest friends. The results follow.

- 2006 Banrock Station chardonnay. $17.99/ 3 liters. We smelled dusty lemon, dry earth and dried honeysuckle in the nose. On the palate, we tasted bright lemon that was juicy yet crisp with a slightly bitter finish. This Aussie chard was easy to drink and would be refreshing on a hot afternoon. It was our favorite.

- 2006 Box Star chardonnay. $15.99/3 liters. The aroma offered hay and grass. In the mouth, we tasted apples and green bananas with a full body and a long finish. Our second favorite was another Australian chardonnay in a bigger, more textural style than the first wine.

- 2006 La Petite Frog Picpoul de Pinet. $24.99/3 liters. The aroma suggested scents of melon, limestone, citrus and a touch of grass. The wine was dry, light-bodied and squeaky clean with bright acids. This wine was from the Languedoc coast of southern France and was made from a traditional grape in the region. We thought it would appeal to pinot grigio drinkers.

- Non-vintage Almaden white sangria. $17.49/5 liters. This wine-fruit juice blend was very aromatic, with scents of peach candy, orange soda and mandarin oranges. It tasted like it smelled - sweet-tart candy flavors, light-bodied and sugary, but with enough acids to keep it from being cloying. This wine had fruit juice added, which made it considerably sweeter, but it wasn't cloying. We agreed that if you like sweet wine, this would be easy to drink in the hot sun.

- 2005 Free Range white Bordeaux. $29.99/3 liters. The aroma reminded us of dried apricots, with a hint of peach and a hint of honey. In the mouth, it had relatively very little flavor -mostly alcohol. This French blend of sauvignon blanc and semillon had a muted aroma, and the only sensation we had on the palate was the burn of alcohol.
...

Journal and Courier Online - Food & Drink

Upscale boxed wines

From the Champaign Illinois News-Gazette

A new trend: Upscale boxed wines

By KIRBY PRINGLE
News-Gazette Staff Writer
December 5, 2003

With Christmas and New Year's Eve parties coming up, have I got a deal for you.

If you are having trouble ponying up money to supply wine for a large group, now is the time to think about a big ol' box of wine. And no, I'm not talking about Franzia, Peter Vella or Almaden. There is a new trend in boxed wines: quality.

The 5-liter boxed wines from Franzia, Peter Vella and Almaden are cheap, about $10. The problem is they taste cheap. Up until now, I've never found a boxed wine I like.

That changed several weeks ago when I bought the Hardys Stamp of Australia Shiraz and later the Chardonnay. A 3-liter box from the Hardys Stamp collection sells for $15 to $16 and can be found on sale at $13 to $14. A 3-liter box is the equivalent of four 750 ml bottles, which works out to about $4 a bottle, a very nice price indeed.

I've also had 3-liter boxed wines from Corbett Canyon (they sell for $9 to $10), both the Merlot and Chardonnay. They are a step up from Franzia et al, but not as good as the Hardys. The owner of Corbett Canyon, by the way, is The Wine Group, which also owns Franzia.

Other makers of quality boxed wines include: Trinchero Wine Cube ($16); Delicato Bota Box ($18); Black Box Chardonnay and Merlot ($20); Le Cask Old Vine Zinfandel ($24); and Sonoma Hill Blackburn Fine Wine ($36). Also, Australia's Banrock Station makes a boxed wine, but I do not have a price for it. All are 3 liter boxes.

Of those quality boxes, only the Hardys Stamp of Australia can be found locally. However, I would expect more liquor stores and other shops to start stocking others as they become more widely available.

What these quality boxes do is make wine more of a commodity than a drink only for special occasions. In Europe, Australia and other parts of the world, boxed wines are very popular. For example, 52 percent of all wines in Australia are sold in a box.

These buyers care less about the packaging of a wine than what's inside. That's largely because wines are consumed on a daily basis with meals. It doesn't matter that wine comes in a bottle with a screwtop or in a box with a spigot.

Boxed wines are tremendously convenient. Buying a box saves frequent trips to the wine shop; once opened wine stays fresh for four to six weeks; the per glass price is a very good deal; and the boxed wines taste exactly like their bottled counterparts.

To test this, I matched the Corbett Canyon boxes against their bottled brethren. I could tell no difference. The Corbett Canyon will appeal to people who like their wines on the softer, less oaky side. The Merlot had more plum than cherry taste, with a bit of prune and a vanilla, soft plum aroma. The Chardonnay tasted of pineapple, pear and vanilla, with a nose of pear, vanilla and a bit of fruit cocktail. Both rate fair to good. I liked the Chardonnay better.

The Hardys Chardonnay had more tropical fruit flavors and a light oak toastiness. The Shiraz tasted of dark plum and cherry, with a cinnamon finish. Both rate good to very good.

Of the box design, both have strengths and weaknesses. The Hardys spigot is a push-button affair, but at the end I found the bladder inside had a full glass of wine remaining. I had to open the box and squeeze the bladder to get the remainder out. The Corbett Canyon spigot has a screw knob that's a little less convenient, but fully drained the bladder.

While I like the idea of upscale boxed wines, the environmentalist in me bemoans the wasteful packaging. Bottles can – and should – be recycled. Cork quickly degrades. The cardboard containers of boxed wines can be flattened and recycled, but the plastic bladder is one more thing to fill up the landfills.

News-Gazette.com: Food

98 Points??? Double Gold??? Two-Buck Chuck Chard WIns Big

So, OK, Two-Buck Chuck is not boxed wine, but I'm going to include this item here because I have had so many conversations about Two-Buck Chuck vs premium boxed wines. I must admit, I am stunned. The California State Fair Wine Competition judged the Charles Shaw 2005 California Chardonnay best best of class. This was on yesterday's Business Wire. The news is apparently so fresh that the results are not even up on the State Fair website yet. Here's a segment of the article.

$1.99 Chardonnay Judged California’s Best

SACRAMENTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--California’s wine world turned upside down – pricewise – today when the Charles Shaw 2005 California Chardonnay (yes, the $1.99 “Two-Buck Chuck” made by Bronco Wine Company and sold through Trader Joe’s) was judged the Best Chardonnay from California at the California State Fair Commercial Wine Competition.

G.M. Pucilowski, Chief Judge and director of the competition, said, “Since we judge all wines totally by variety, without different brackets for price, this double-gold achievement by the Bronco winemakers is astounding.” While the complete results are to be announced July 12, Renata Franzia of Bronco’s Franzia family received the news today and the word is spreading. The Chardonnay received 98 points, a double gold, and the accolades of Best of California and Best of Class.

Dr. Richard Peterson, veteran winemaker and a State Fair judge for 20 years, said, “We have the most open judging I know. There is nothing to bias the judging: we get numbered glasses; we don’t know region, brand or price; we evaluate the judges frequently to make sure they’re tops in the field. Charles Shaw won because it is a fresh, fruity, well-balanced Chardonnay that people and judges, though maybe not wine critics, will like!”

$1.99 Chardonnay Judged California's Best

Related Tags: Charles, Shaw, Two, Buck, Chuck, Chardonnay, Wine, competition

Three Liter Box Wine Volume Up 44 Percent in US

From the Orlando Sentinel

Cheers! Outside-the-box drinking
The Associated Press
June 27, 2007

Box wine is now the fastest-growing wine category. According to data from AC Nielsen, 3-liter box wine volume grew 44 percent in the past year, compared to a 3 percent gain in overall table-wine volume.

Although wine has been packaged in a box for some time, the new boxes aren't like those 5-liter jugs of sweet, headache-inducing wines of the past. Although those are still readily available, there are now premium varieties that show more complexity. Of course, premium box wines are more pricey. A chardonnay can run $20 a box that has the equivalent of four bottles, whereas lower-quality 5-liter boxes range from $6 to $10 for more than six bottles of wine. Premium boxes are still a steal, however, since a quality bottle of wine easily can cost $10-$30 or more.

Cheers! Outside-the-box drinking -- OrlandoSentinel.com

Box Wines Blog Got Press Today

The Box Wines blog got some press today from Lenn Thompson on Hamptons.com. Lenn has another excellent wine blog, LENNDEVOURS. Lenn wrote about wine information on the web, in particular about the vibrant world of wine blogging. He mentions several good blogs, ending with Box Wines.

Lest you think wine blogs are yet another spot for wine snobbery, there's even a blog for lovers of boxed wines. The Box Wine Blog (boxwines.org), as its name suggests focuses on affordable wines that are often found in alternative packaging like boxes, cans and the like.

Hamptons.com - Wine on the Web

Related Tags: box, boxed, cask, wine, blog

Wine Packaging Trends in France

From Expatica

Wine packaging: Bag-in-box, plastic bottles, cork comeback?

BORDEAUX, France, June 22, 2007 (AFP) - In the past 12 years, France, the world's leading wine producer, has fostered just one revolution in the world of packaging -- the bag-in-box, or BIB.

The slow pace of change has been offset however by the fact that French BIB wine tastes much better than that in Britain -- sometimes called the "scourge of the summer party" -- or in the United States.

Holding back innovations in both French packaging and branding has been the complexity of its wine classifications system, as opposed to the simplicity of new world producers such as Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and the US.

"Wine is very complex in France, the customer therefore wants reassurance, not novelty," said Olivier Mouchet, wine director at Auchan, a leading French supermarket chain, at this year's Vinexpo, the world's biggest wine trade show.

BIBs, introduced in France in the 1980s, were largely ignored until recently when sales grew as buyers switched from older non-airtight "cubies", which once opened had to be transferred to bottles at home or drunk as soon as possible.

New-age BIBs, plastic air-tight containers with a self-sealing tap, allow wine-lovers to drink by the glass without spoiling the wine or altering its taste.

Mouchet said the rise of BIBs, which now represent 15 per cent of French supermarket wine sales, has doubled Auchan's sales in the last five years.

On the international wine scene, the future holds higher quality wine in BIBs, lighter glass bottles, and light plastic bottles made from PET, or polyethylene terephthalate, a compound developed in the 1970s that is now coming into its own due to its recyclability.

...

Wine packaging: Bag-in-box, plastic bottles, cork comeback?, French News, France, Expatica