Boxed Wines - Cheap or Chic ?

Boxed wine has long been thought of as super cheap, low quality wine mass produced to offer bland or bad tasting wine.  A new trend in boxed wine is overhauling this image and proving that great wines don’t have to come in glass bottles. 

Boxed wines have always offered some great benefits.  They are usually significantly less expensive than their bottled counterparts, and their special design allows the wine to stay fresh for up to six weeks while bottled wines should generally be consumed in one to two days. 

The convenient packaging is very portable, losing the fragile breakability of glass bottles and making it possible to enjoy wine in places like the beach or campgrounds where glass bottles are often forbidden.  The boxes also give wine lovers the opportunity to use carafes, since the box doesn’t offer a great presentation.  Since most wine bottles are fine for serving, wine drinkers often have beautiful carafes that never get used.  The box design also removes the need for corkscrews or even screw caps, usually offering an easy open and close spout. 

Boxes are also extremely environmentally friendly.  They hold more wine in comparably less packaging, and the boxes are generally recyclable.  Some of the best options for boxed wine include Black Box. Delicato, Stonehaven, and Wine Cube.  Already inexpensive wines like Fish Eye, Turning Leaf, and Franzia are also now being offered in boxes.  Hardy’s Stamp of Australia Chardonnay has recently received several surprisingly good reviews, and even Italy’s agricultural minister is considering allowing several of the country’s wines to be sold in boxes. 

With prices so much lower than traditional bottles and several reputable wineries now employing ecofriendly boxes, boxed wines are now worth a try for parties and events, and the long term freshness makes them a great choice even for everyday drinking.