You Asked, We Answered: Boxed Wine

We're really excited to enhance people's wine experience and to answer any questions you may have about any wines. So we got a request to review boxed wine, and we did just that.

To be honest, boxed wine gets a bad rap, and we weren't sure if it was deserved. We haven't had much boxed wine ourselves. We think the box idea is a great one: boxed wine is easy to travel with, easy to open and pour, and can even maintain wine for longer than an open bottle can do once opened (if there's a bag inside the box that collapses as you pour the wine).

We happen to be in Denver this weekend for a conference for our day jobs, so we dropped in to the giant liquor store, Argonaut. We asked their in-house Somm for some boxed wine recommendations, and he sold us their two top-selling boxed Chardonnays and Cabernet Sauvignons. We had a little wine party at our Residence Inn.

We ended up with the Black Box Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon, and the Bota Box Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon. Both come in convenient mini sizes, so we could try these without getting a large box. How cute to take on a picnic, or on a boat!

Generally, if you are drinking multiple types of wine, you start with the lighter one. We therefore started with the Chardonnays. Honestly, both of these Chardonnays were very similar. They were crisp, a little tart, and rather simple. Unlike you'd typically expect to find in a Chardonnay, neither were creamy or buttery at all (though to be fair, both are offered in a "buttery Chardonnay" version as well, and we didn't try those). They both had a mineral and almost vegetal quality to them, which is hard to describe. To be completely honest, we did not prefer either of these. We tried to decide which one we'd recommend above the other, and it was hard to say. Maybe the Black Box?

So we moved on to the Cabernet Sauvignon. The Black Box Cab smelled like black fruit with a lot of vanilla mixed in. You typically get that vanilla smell and flavor when oak is used, and the more vanilla, the more oak. That means they either aged the wine in an oak barrel or put oak chips in it to give it this vanilla character. This is a simple wine, but we could definitely imagine drinking this on a picnic.

The Bota Cabernet Sauvignon has clearly not seen as much oak, and it is more fruity, with dark red fruit and black cherries. But this one is almost too fruity to the point it's a little jammy, and we found it to be thin and juice-like. To be honest, this is why they tend to use all that oak on lower-quality wine: so it doesn't taste like this. While this is technically a Cabernet Sauvignon, if you're a big fan of Cabs, this wine doesn't taste much like a Cab.

So overall, we really like the idea of the box packaging (these both use TetraPak). We think this could have some great applications, as it's so easy and portable. We wish other wineries, making higher quality wine, would consider giving it a try. However, these particular wines were not our favorites, and we likely won't be revisiting them. But if we were going to pick one to take on a bike ride picnic, we'd go with the Black Box Cabernet Sauvignon.

As a disclaimer, though: if you like boxed wines like these, do not let our personal preferences steer you away. We're big promoters of "Drink what you like." As Bart says, there are only two types of wine: those you like and those you don't. Drink what you enjoy drinking, and don't apologize for it. We don't.

If you know of any other boxed wine brands we should try, let us know! And send more questions our way!