I was hoping to gage some insights on the growing industry of high quality boxed wine. I’m interested in substituting a nicer brand of boxed wine for my usual bottles in the interest of saving money and due to the environmental benefits (reduced carbon footprint in packaging). Have any of you purchased boxed wines/ thought about purchasing? Are there brands you particularly enjoy? Do you feel as though quality is lost without the corking process? I would love to hear any and all thoughts on this trend!
I think in the short term there is zero effect on quality in the boxing process. Unfortunately, I don’t have all that much else to add. Assuming that you are going to consume in a period of time where there isn’t deterioration, I don’t see any reason not to. I’ve had a number of perfectly fine wines “on tap” at bars in recent months. Can’t give you any specific recommendations though.
I’ve been boxing higher end wine for about 6 years now and have a few tips:
Look for a packaging date - under good storage conditions Oxygen uptake is reasonable within 6 months of packaging. In my experience, after 6 months from packaging, deterioration is pretty significant on most wines.
Pay attention to storage/shipping temperatures - ideally these should be stored under 60 F, as the material the bag is made out of is increasingly porous the higher the temperature and faster oxidation occurs. Bags are MUCH more sensitive to heat damage compared to bottles, and a bag stored on a shelf at 75 F is going to be in significantly worse shape than a bottle of the same wine after a few months (i.e. more oxidation). We had significant QC issues trying to ship across country and now essentially only offer them to guests out of the winery directly.
The packaging process is very different from bottling - when you fill these the “bubble” left in the bag is gas, hopefully mostly inert gas, but definitely a higher proportion of O2 compared to a bottled wine where a vacuum is pulled in the corking process.
Once the bags tapped, consume… My experience is that within a week is reasonable, but after that you’re looking at oxidation and flavor loss issues, but it does depends on the wine. While the bag collapses when dispensed, there is inevitably some air transmission that happens as well.
Finally, while we trialed some Chardonnays, we never felt we could get it to an acceptable level of O2 and other dissolved gases to release commercially. The wine has to be fairly flat (i.e. no dissolved CO2) in order to fill the bags properly, with our Chards we felt that was a compromise on the quality. I’m sure other producers have work arounds that we didn’t take, but my recommendation would be to stick primarily to Reds.
Regards,
Brian Maloney
DeLoach Vineyards and Buena Vista Winery
The best boxed wines I’ve ever tasted are the ones sold by the importer Wineberry. The last time I tasted, a few years ago, their offerings were a Cotes du Rhone red that was actually quite good, and maybe a Bordeaux red and white(?) that were completely solid from what I recall.
Welcome to the board, Emma. I’ve never tried a boxed wine but I imagine that they’ll be seen more and more. It seems a waste to open dozens of bottles of wine at a large event like a wedding, for example, where the guests will appreciate an agreeable wine but won’t be paying a ton of attention to the wine’s specifics.
What’s the smallest size of boxed wine? At home, I’d probably get tired of drinking the same wine over many nights.
My children - in their 20s and 30s - complain to me that we spoiled their palates by serving them good wine since they were young and as a result they cannot drink the box wine that their friends bring to parties. Just another data point.
Box wine is something I’d consider only if I were organizing a party or reception for a lot of people. In other cases, the disadvantages outweigh the advantages in my opinion. Apart from what Brian mentioned, I simply don’t want to consume that much of the same wine (at least here in Sweden, the boxes are typically three liters, i.e. a double magnum) within the short period of time that the wine stays fresh. Too boring.
I bought some boxed wine on BerserkerDay a couple years back that was a value. The wines were good-very good and did not seem to deteriorate after opening though they were consumed within 4 days or so. I enjoyed them enough to re-order.
I did not buy them for long term storage.
I bought them direct from the winery which I assume minimized temperature swings, but what do I know?
The 3L packaging eventually was the downfall as I really don’t like drinking the same wine day in and day out.
If you like drinking wine young and don’t mind repetition it is well worth trying.
The wine is contained in a plastic bladder inside the box, right? I’d want to know what that plastic is and if it is known to leach contaminants into an acidic solution of ethanol and water.
I drank wine from a box at a picnic a few years ago. I think it was Black Box Merlot. I would categorize it more as an alcoholic beverage than a wine.
My neighbor, however, had some Viognier from a producer in the Sonoma area. It was very good and the box size was smaller so the consumption over time issue was minimized.
Seven or eight years ago I purchased a box wine which was a Jean-Marc Brocard Kimmeridgien Chardonnay Bourgogne and it was quite good and the price was in the low 40’s. I would do it again if I saw something of similar quality.
Welcome Emma. I have personally purchased boxed wines from Black Box (the only one I liked was their Merlot) and Andegavia (I purchased a Cabernet blend, if I recall correctly, which I liked).
This topic gets discussed here from time to time and this website has a search feature in the upper right hand section of the first page. Search “boxed wines” and you will likely find a lot of additional information and opinions.
Last week in Paris, I visited my favourite local wine shop, one of 300 Nicolas in the city, In perusing the shelves I found one dedicated to boxed wine and inquired about the quality and popularity from the owner. He said they sell a lot and are at least drinkable and last for many days+ once opened as they have a seal that prevents air from exposing them to more oxidation.
Im kind old school and wince when thinking or trying let along buying wine from a box just as I still prefer corks to other enclosures for tradition if nothing else [until I get a corked wine then I reconsider- time and time again]. For now, Ill stay with the box of 6 or 12 bottles.
Many people seem to be coming at this topic from the standpoint of purchasing box wine as a consumer at retail from stores.
An application for boxed wines that I think would have more potential is as packaging for restaurants to support by-the-glass programs. Packaging is cheaper, shipping is cheaper, no chance of cork taint, and no worries about oxidized wine from a bottle that is not emptied by closing time.
Of course this works best for wines to be consumed reasonably soon after release. I would not have confidence in the ability of box wine packaging to have good aging characteristics over a period of years.
Wines on tap might be from keg, which is a great technology, other than the shipping aspect of it. (It seems to look after the wine really well, in other words.)
