Still laughing at box wines?

Still laughing at box wines? Maybe it’s time you put a cork in it.

If you’re looking for bargain prices, convenience and packability, the box has it all over bottles.

In the wine industry, the category is called “bag in box,” or less appetizingly, “bladder wines,” for the squishy silver bags inside. While they’re still a small percentage of wine purchases, about 1 percent, sales are growing rapidly, up 41 percent in the last year, according to A.C. Nielsen Co.

And yes, quality is improving. A new category, “premium bag-in-box,” is selling for as high as $24.99, made with juice from well-known California wineries.

What are the advantages to a box with a spigot? Consider:

• Convenience. Glass breaks, corks fail. The boxes use a spigot to draw wine from a collapsible bag, keeping air out. Most box wines claim to keep up to a month after opening. A single wine drinker can have a glass at dinner a couple of times a week without opening a whole bottle that will only keep a day or two.

The popular 3-liter size holds the equivalent of four bottles but takes about the same amount of refrigerator space as a gallon of milk, while 1.5-liter boxes hold two bottles in something the size of a tissue box.

• Economy. Bargains drive wine trends — look at Trader Joe’s popular Charles Shaw wines for $2 to $3. Do the math, and box wine prices can be impressive. Because boxes are cheaper to make and fill than bottles with corks, box wines usually cost at least $1 less per bottle.

Aside from the premium boxes, which are $19.99 to $24.99 at Total Wine & More in Charlotte, N.C., most 3-liter boxes are $9.99 to $13.59, which works out to $2.50 to $3.40 a bottle.

• Environmentalism. Want to turn your wine green? The Wine Group of San Francisco, which owns brands such as Franzia and Glen Ellen, claims boxes generate 85 percent less landfill waste and 55 percent fewer carbon emissions. A truck hauling heavy bottles burns more gas than a truck filled with lighter boxes. And the box can be stomped flat when it’s empty. (Please don’t try that with a bottle.)

Now, to the disadvantages.

First, there’s fashion. It used to be that nothing told your guests “I’m cheap” faster than a cardboard box at a party. But that’s changing.

Target’s Wine Cube line comes in tastefully colored boxes with optional accessories, such as BYO nylon carriers.

And then there’s quality.

Has quality improved with the interest? We lined up a blind testing with Catherine Rabb, a Johnson & Wales University instructor who writes a wine column for The (Charlotte) Observer. Because the test was done in beach season, we focused on white wines worth taking along. Boat trips and days by the pool are places where the box advantage — no glass to break — really shows up. And boxes fit nicely in the small refrigerators in rental kitchenettes.

We rounded up seven contenders — Wine Cube’s pinot grigio, sauvignon blank and chardonnay, Franzia Vintner Select Chardonnay (the only 5-liter box tested), Hardy’s Chardonnay, Pacific Peak Pinot Grigio and Corbett Canyon’s pinot grigio/chenin blanc blend.

We took them to Fenwick’s on Providence, the restaurant Rabb owns with her husband, Don, and set up numbered glasses. Don Rabb poured, so we couldn’t see what was in each glass. The wines were tasted at room temperature, so flaws wouldn’t be masked by chilling.

For a wine expert — she’s working on her wine master certification — Catherine has an open mind about bargain wines. Last summer, she helped us with a tasting of $3 and $4 bottles.

She also knows what she wants in a beach wine: “They should be fairly neutral, something that goes good with seafood and isn’t too high in alcohol, so you can have a second glass without getting a headache.”

The surprise? Overall, these were pretty good. Not great — “there’s not a hint of terrior,” the term for well-made wine that is an expression of the place it’s made, Rabb said. “But that’s not what you want in a beach wine.”

Only one struck us as really flawed (see our tasting notes). The others were simple but not offensive.

In comparison to the bargain bottles we tasted last year — when we had to use descriptions like “baby pool” and “rutabaga” — these were OK and in many cases, the per-bottle price was even cheaper.

“If you chill these, they wouldn’t be bad at all,” Rabb said. “Which is maybe what you’re looking for in a $2.50 bottle of wine.”

Maybe the boxes won’t turn out to be just for squares after all.

A BOXY TASTE TEST
Best overall:

1. Wine Cube Pinot Grigio, $8.49 for 1.5-liter box, Target: Steely with some depth and a hint of tropical fruit flavors and aromas of pineapple and peach.

2. Franzia Vintner Select Chardonnay, $12.99 for 5 liters at Total Wine & More: A hint of sweetness and a little acidity, with aromas of pineapple and tropical fruit.

3. Wine Cube Sauvignon Blanc, $13.59 for 3 liters, Target: The aroma was odd, sort of like body odor and ground pepper, but the taste wasn’t offensive. It had a little brightness and acidity and some lingering aftertaste.

Middle:

4. Hardy’s Chardonnay, $17.99 for 3 liters, Total Wine: This was one of the few that had a hint of color — the rest were almost clear. The aroma had some fruitiness and a little toasted oak, while the taste had notes of lemon and green apple.

5. Wine Cube Chardonnay, $8.49 for 1.5 liters, Target: The aroma is “faux oak” and coffee grounds, but the taste has a dose of acidity.

Worst:

6. Corbett Canyon Pinot Grigio/Chenin Blanc, $9.99 for 3 liters, Total Wine: The aroma is toasted nuts and not much else, while the taste is acidity and not much else. Not offensive. Just ... nothing.

7. Pacific Peak Pinot Grigio, $9.99 for 3 liters, Total Wine: The only real loser in the bunch. The aroma had a cardboard smell like corked wine that Rabb called “dog hair and dusty apples.” The flavor was thin and sour, “like the worst hangover waiting to happen.”