Hi there, I want to conduct some research for a varsity project and would like to hear peoples opinions on Boxed Wine. Relating to the visual appeal, any stigmas, convenience of the packaging, etc. Ultimately Im curious on a general consensus of what people think is ‘wrong’ or could be improved in any sense.
I sometimes buy box wines for casual drinking. The packaging is of no value. I only buy cheaper wines in a box (something that would cost $15 or less in a bottle), which means Rose or some low end red Bordeaux. It is not something I would serve with guests. I like the fact that it is not exposed to oxygen so I can keep a box of Rose in my fridge for a few weeks to have the occasional glass.
I do like good wineries that sell the box wines direct as a supplement to their bottled wines. Had a nice one in the Cotes de Bourg.
I like that it is larger format and less glass to recycle.
Bedrock Ode to LuLu.
Kobayashi Viognier (differnt price point)
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You ask about stigma–I think box is equated with cheap. Box has anti oxidation superiority I believe. So you can position box wine for every day but the stigma takes the celebration out. Screw tops from New Zealand have overcome this.
Screw tops still require one to drink the entire bottle. Boxes stay fresher with one glass at a time over a course of weeks.
Of course the real problem with boxes is aging. Do you want your wine aging in plastic even if it does develop? So it would only ever be useful for early drinking wines.
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I think boxed wine becoming mainstream is dependent on producers that Tom mentioned like Bedrock and Kobayashi continuing to buy in. Then it’s important for us to show our “wine casual” friends that high quality wine can come in a box. Not being afraid to show up at a party with a box instead of bringing bottles. I have no problem bring/explaining it as long as the wine is good.
Personally I’d love to see more producers put their early drinking wine into the bag n box format. Especially summertime whites, rose and “house” style reds. If I could get a solid Dolcetto, Barbera, or CDR in a box I’d love it.
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They don’t develop, they oxidize.
Wines in bag-in-boxes (BIB) don’t fall apart once a BIB is opened as the bag collapses while it’s emptied, so there’s no headspace that would replace the wine, oxidizing the remaining wine. And today most BIBs are made with an aluminium layer (basically impermeable to oxygen) sandwiched between two layers of plastic.
However, the joint where the plastic spout is attached is not impermeable to oxygen, not by a long shot. It doesn’t offer nearly as good as seal as cork or screwcap, which is why a) BIBs are normally blasted to oblivion with SO2; BIBs have a best-by-date. Typically it’s one year from the filling date, occasionally two years.
When I used to work in a wine shop, we had to follow the best-by dates in BIBs and dispose of unsold BIBs that had expired (remember, BIBs are a big thing here in Nordics). I also noticed that 2-year BBE date was often a bit optimistic, because every now and then we got customer returns for oxidized BIBs and typically they were not yet expired, but were already more than one year away from their fill date.
So, in short, I’ve never had a wine that had evolved in a BIB, but I’ve tasted many oxidized BIBs. The bag just doesn’t offer a closure that would keep the wine good long enough for it to actually evolve - they just oxidize and die.
The huge difference between the SO2 is easy to compare if you find a wine that is sold both in bottles and BIBs. The BIB versions are always noticeably lower in quality because they don’t stay as fresh as the wines do in bottles and they still have to have tons of SO2 making the wines feel quite mute and often somewhat unpleasant, even skunky compared to the bottled versions.
But, yeah. Agree with the part that BIBs are only useful for early-drinking wines.
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We get these here quite a lot. They are not good. I’d rather buy four bottles than one BIB of the same wine, even with all the hassle and extra weight.
Very interesting. Thanks for sharing your experience with BIB. The only wine I’ve had in both formats from the same vintage is Bedrock Lulu rosé - both showed great. The BIB stayed fresh over multiple weeks. Maybe @Morgan_Twain-Peterson can chime in here, but I didn’t detect any excess sulfur in their BIB. I’ve tasted other BIB wines that were not good, but they were a huge step down in overall quality compared to Bedrock.
I am trying to get away from anything I consume being stored in plastic. Glass all the way, whether wine, olive oil, food storage, drinks, etc.
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I always ignored the BiB wines because I thought it was never of any quality. Big was my surprise when last week I was with my local Burgundy wine shop and they had BiB offering some great QPR compared to the bottle itself:
2022 Nadine Ferrand-Charnay lès Mâcon - Mâcon Blanc (villages):
5L BiB for 59,50
75cl for 19,50
The BiB would give you a relative 9 euro per bottle QPR.