Is it really that much worse than wine from a bottle? Most of the time it doesn't seem to be all that much cheaper.

I'm not ashamed to admit I enjoyed some cheap boxed zinfindel served on the rocks during one balmy summer night in the past. Tasted like suger!

Of course, It helps that I was totally coked up at the time.

nothing wrong with wine in a box. it just depends on your circumstances...it's great for sitting around a camp fire. just take the bladder out of the box and toss it over to the next person. it's a pretty fun game we have. if your too slow and the bladder blind sides ya..you have to chug it for 15 seconds. good time....great headaches.

My sister talked of a similar "game." She called it "Slap The Bag." I asked her what it entails...

Sister: So you get a box of wine, pull out the bag, and carry it around drinking out of it. Whenever someone takes a sip, they slap the bag.

Me: How is that a game?

Sister: You don't get it.

Me: No, seriously...how is that a game?

Sister: You slap the bag you fucking idiot!

Me: Oh. Ok. That's not a game. That's just slapping what you're drinking.

Sister: You don't get it.

Well, the more popular box wines (Almaden, Franzia) are a low-quality wine. Generally speaking, they have poorer/cheaper ingredients, and there is less time taken with producing the wine. That's why it is so cheap. But if it tastes o.k. to you, go for it. (I think it tastes freaking terrible, though . . . I'd rather not drink than drink that crap.)

There are some higher quality box wines out there. There is Block, which is produced by Gallo, that hits all the big varietals (Chard./Merlot/Cab.) and is a step up from the real low tier stuff. Even better is the Black Box brand which is out of Australia. This is a very respectable wine, but it comes with the convenience of a box. As you would expect, however, these brands are a bit more expensive than the low-tier stuff, but compared to even mid-price bottles, its a cheaper alternative.

I'll get a box of the stuff if we're making sangria. Beyond that I don't consume that much wine so I suppose it never occured to buy a box of it.

I've not tried any of the higher quality ones, but Sam is right - some wine makers are doing some pretty good ones in boxes.

Same sort of thing with screw top wines. It's going to become more popular, because from what I've read a screw top beats corks hands down as far as how well it's preserved. Besides, if you're not going to drink an entire bottle, hopefully you have a rubber vacuum seal device to close it up and get the air back out again. It can make the wine last for days.



Either way, box wine and screw top wine will always be looked down on by wine snobs no matter how good or better of a product it is.

Yeah . . . screw tops are really making inroads. If I remember correctly, I read that the industry average for wine lost due to having bad corks runs about 10%. That's one bad bottle per case. Personally, that seems a high to me, but I'm not drinking a lot of aged wine. The 2002/2003 cabs that I've been drinking have all been fine . . . maybe they just haven't been sitting long enough to get skunked due to a bad cork.

I expect that screw tops will keep getting more and more popular for winemakers. There are a lot of benefits that they offer to both producers and consumers. I prefer the corked bottles, because there is just something fun about opening a nice bottle of wine. A bit of ceremony.

Yeah, why the stigma? Well, would you drink beer out of a box? Any liquid served from a box is sure to arrouse suspicion. Add in hoity-toity wine snobs, and you got instant stigma. It's nothing like the stigma I have to deal with--drinking from the brown paper bag.

Personally, I've sampled Black Box (Cab, Merlot, Chardonnay), Carmenet Chardonnay, and another Australian product whose name escapes me. They've all been very good, and they've all put me in the doghouse with my friend who works up at Knightsbridge. I do believe that the bladder inside the box does keep the wine longer than a traditional bottle and cork. Still, in our house, we consume bottled wine probably 90% of the time--unless my mother-in-law is visiting, in which case we have a big-ol' box of Franzia or Peter Vella Chardonnay in the fridge. I only hit that thing late, late at night...the Chardonnay, that is, you creep.

Well, the International Cork Makers Lobby has a real stranglehold on the industry.

I dunno, Wine being served in the same type of container as cereal is kind of a turn off for me.

That was the other one I wa thinking of, along with Black Box. For the life of me I couldn't remember its name. It was bugging me all morning. Thanks.

Nothing wrong with it, its just fun to say 'box o' wine' and is fun to poke fun at.

Went wine-tasting at a few Carmel/Monterey wineries a couple of years ago, and our guide indicated that the supply of cork is being depleted pretty rapidly these days. Thus the industry is working to diffuse the negative spin associated w/ screw-tops as well as boxes (plus I imagine both of these would cut production costs quite a bit). Out of curiosity I bought a mid-range screw-top Riesling or Pinot Grigio recently but haven't tried it yet.

Meat on a stick > wine in a box

wine in a box.

Its easier to keep in the fridge cos it doesnt have to be standing up like a bottle.

It also lasts longer if u aren't a big drinker.

I kno if a bottle is opened im my house its usually finished on the same day cos we cant b bothered with making room for it.

screw wine in a box, give me carlo rossi's wine in a jug

COMPLETELY RANDOM THREAD BUMP. HOPE YOU ENJOYED IT.

We've been drinking this lately (Chard), $19.99 at Jewel which equals 4 bottles of wine.

I've also tried the Wine Cube from Target (the Target's that have a grocery store attatched)
It's produced by Tricherico Winery which is decent. I thought it tasted better than the Black Box and $14.99 to boot!

My (wealthy wealthy) roommate from wine country (CA) always wants us to buy boxed wine because it "tastes like juice." My apple is a little too close to the white trash tree to drink boxed wine sans stigma.

wine in a box could be worse....it could be wine in a juicebox...

My wife brought wine in a box the first time I had her over for dinner. Love at first sip.

My wife drank some Three Thieves j-boxes this summer at the local town festival. Not a fan of beer, and we were wandering around listening to Dennis DeYoung and The Music of Styx play. Seemed completely appropro. Wine sucked, tho.

Fixed.

I was at a wedding recently and they were serving wine in a box. The bartender set the empty box on the counter and I said to my date, "Is there really a box of wine on the bar?" She said, "Yea." I said, "Good I just wanted to be sure I wasn't seeing things."

Wine in a box is what I would drink when I wanted a glass of wine with supper before Two Buck Chuck existed. It keeps for a long time, and gotta love the price. It also makes me think whistfully of the song "Box of Rain." Always.

wine seems so classy
wine in a box does not

I like the thought of sitting down for a candle lit dinner with a lady and plopping a big ole cardboard box with a bag of wine in it on the table. Then tearing back some cardboard to expose the plastic spout.

You leave your box of wine in the fridge...

duh.

This thread/Skinny have convinced me to add a box of wine to the grocery list for the weekend camping trip. There's no such thing as stigma in Wisconsin.

for better & worse--that's very true

Even the reds? Not being a smartass...I just don't know.

I don't think I've ever had boxed wine. Not really a snob thing...It's just that the opportunity has never presented itself; and there are alot of good bottled wines in then 7 dollar range (which I don't think is that much more expensive...so why not just go bottle?)

Well...no...I guess. I'm not sure. I retract my sarcastic "duh."

My only real experience was with the microwave sized containers of sauvignon blanc my mom bought following the great divorce. Other than that, and some girls in college, I don't think I've ever really known anybody who buys boxed wine. I have nothing against it though. Until recently, I didn't know they actually made red wine in boxes. I'd assume you wouldn't have to refrigerate it, but who knows...

the only thing that keeps wine from remaining fresh after it is opened is the air that gets to it. By putting the wine in a bladder inside the box, it can remain fresh because no air gets to the wine.

It's my understanding that screw tops and wine boxes are both BETTER for keeping the wine fresh and it's only been tradition and snobbery keeping the corks around.

I'm not a wine aficianado (paging izzy) but I suspect all it'll take to get the stigma to go away are a fair amount of the better wineries offering the option of wine in the box. At this point, I'm pretty sure that the wineries are still being slow to act on this.

I'm going to buy a box of wine after work.

I remember having a drunken shooting contest with wine in a box bags--with a .44 magnum...Watching the bags explode and having wine fly in every direction is something I will never be able to erase from my memory.

That's the best justification I've heard yet for the "right to bear arms." Exploding wine boxes. Sweet.

Don't know about boxes, however this is absolutely true for screw tops... but it's a very tough sell, especially at restaurants. Kind of difficult to convince someone to spend spend $50+ on a bottle, and then present them with a screwtop that looks and sounds like a bottle of boons farm.

I picked up a box of their pinot grigio and have been enjoying it all weekend. Three liters for $18.99!

Great stuff.