Get Some Box

Prior to the arrival of junior, my wife and I typically opened a bottle of wine a week and partook as long as the wine stood up. But as soon as my wife got pregnant, she chose to go completely on the wagon. Post birth, my wife remained on said wagon as she breastfed…leaving me the sole imbiber in the house.

This presented me with a dilemma…skip the vino or open a bottle and toss the second half as it turned before my one-glass-a-night tendencies polished it off. For the most part, to the chagrin of the owner of my local wine shop and my HDL level, I stopped drinking wine. But then I had a revelation – I got some box.

What I’m talking about is box wine. It’s not what you think…not the Franzia Chablis for $6.99 you remember the girls in high-school drinking…but good wine…the kind you would want to drink with a nice meal. Really. So check your prejudices and fear of being regarded as a social neanderthal and read on.

There are a growing number of quality box wines out there from Australia, New Zealand, Chile and the US and this increased selection makes box wines an attractive choice as an “every day wine.”

What’s so great about box wine and how did it help me with my issue? That’s easy but first understand that box wine is a bit of a misnomer.

Wine that comes in boxes is actually contained within a pliable plastic bag that collapses as wine is dispensed from an included spigot. That the bag collapses is what gives box wine it’s advantage over bottled wine in terms of longevity. There’s no air in the bag to oxidize the wine. Oxidization is what causes wine to go bad. The moment you cork a bottle of wine, you introduce air to the mix. And according to experts, even the most bomdigity CO2 contraptions from Brookstone or Sharper Image can’t remove all of the air from an already opened bottle.

In terms of quality, box wine requires a bit of a leap of faith and some basic knowledge to help you make the right choice when buying. Most liquor stores only stock a few brands and those brands are largely unfamiliar. The blogs BoxWine.org and Box Wine Spot can help you out with reviews.

So if you want to get some box, here’s what my wine guy suggests you do. First, talk to the wine buyer at the store. Most likely, he or she will have an opinion about which to try and hopefully will have tried what they’ve stocked.

I highly recommend the Box Star brand…especially the Cab and Merlot. They’re from Australia and at about $16 per for 3 liters (the equivalent of 4 regular bottles) it’s a great value.

Second, check the date on the box – it’ll either be a “bottled on” date or a “best by” date. This is important because box wine doesn’t have the shelf life of bottled wine. Glass (as long as the cork doesn’t dry out) holds up better to changes in storage conditions than plastic. If you see only a “bottled on” date, you want something that’s been bottled more recently…say in the last 6 months.

Cheers! Salute! La Chaim! Prost! and so forth.