Connoisseurs skeptical about wine in a box

When Jennifer Rudd's husband, Josh, came home from the wine shop three years ago toting a small rectangular box under his arm, Rudd was skeptical.

"I thought, 'Are you crazy? It can't be good. It's coming out of a box,'" said the 31-year-old wine enthusiast. Rudd shuddered at the thought of economy-sized boxes of Franzia, pinkish wines that could, God forbid, be stored in the fridge.

Recently, the long-maligned screw caps and plastic corks overcame their lowbrow reputations. Now, boxed wine appears to be following suit. In 2008, boxed wine sales increased by 31 percent, according to the Nielsen Company, outpacing overall wine sales, which slowed.

Traditionally the vintage of college parties, boxed wine has been gaining cachet among upper-income wine lovers. "It was very good," Rudd recalled with surprise in a phone call from her home in North Richland Hills, Texas. These days, unless she's with company, boxed wine is all Rudd drinks.

In fact, boxed wine's biggest consumers are upper-income, white households, specifically those earning between $70,000 and $100,000 a year, according to the Nielsen numbers. Those who drink it even prefer boxed wine over bottled.

So how did boxed wine shed its downmarket reputation to forge its way into an industry that prides itself on refinery and sophistication?

First, don't call it boxed wine. "Cask wine" is the product's new nomenclature, which savvy marketers say is meant to reflect its improved taste and quality. Recently, Corbett Canyon 3L Premium Cask Merlot won best in its class at the 2009 San Francisco Chronicle Competition, America's largest wine judging event. The box, which holds the equivalent of four bottles of wine, retails for a suggested price of $10.

That 3-liter size is also key. The packaging of cask wines has been downsized from its traditional 5-liter heft -- more appropriate for parties -- to a petite, price-conscious volume.

Those 5-liter boxes "are difficult to market because it's difficult to break through people who are looking for real value wines," said Jon Fredrikson, a wine industry consultant who works with wineries and suppliers. "The threshold of $18 to $22 is a lot to spring for if you're looking for bargains."

Though one may conjecture that a surge in boxed wine sales are a result of a flagging economy, the trend began as early as 2003, when Black Box and Corbett Canyon, two of the best-selling boxed wines, debuted in the wine market as the bag-in-box incarnation. Its eco-friendly packaging (resulting in 85 percent less landfill waste) appeals to green-conscious consumers.

Because it is sealed off from the air, wine in a box also has longer shelf life, once opened, than bottled wine. The six-week freshness factor makes it convenient for those like Roger Dooley, an Internet marketer from Mishawaka, Ind., to drink a glass a day to keep the doctor away. Dooley has become such a fan that, a few years ago, he even slaked the thirst of an entire Christmas party's worth of guests with a selection of boxed wines, no bottles in sight. "Everyone seemed to enjoy it and have a good time," he said.

Despite cask wine's growth, it may be a while before bottles are completely upstaged. Currently, only 1 percent of households are purchasing premium boxed wine. "The key thing that boxed wines have to overcome in this country," Dooley said, is the impression "that they're cheap and not very good."

Another downside for wine in a cardboard box, dispensed through a spout, is that it lacks the association that bottled wine has with romance, says Paul Kalemkiarian, president of the original Wine of the Month Club. "Popping a cork is romantic."