Box Wines Provide Big Slurps at $24 for 3 Liters

April 27 (Bloomberg) -- Boxes with labels like Pinot Evil, Killer Juice and Boho merlot line my kitchen counters, each sporting a neat plastic spigot. I give one a counterclockwise turn, and red wine streams into my glass. Given my low expectations, the merlot’s taste is a pleasant surprise.

Most of these 3-liter box wines aren’t the quality “juice” I’m accustomed to, yet some of the latest releases are grapey and fresh. Besides, the price is right and they taste just fine in plastic glasses.

I started down this tasting path after a colleague confessed last year that he’s “pretty much a box wine kind of guy.” Which one could he serve at dinner that I’d be willing to drink?

“Never mind,” I snidely offered, “If you invite me, I’ll bring some bottles.” With the state of the economy, his question has taken on new urgency.

Just in time, the latest box wines are going upscale and hip, touting their higher quality and planet-friendly packaging. Because the compact, 3-liter box costs less to produce and weighs less than the four 750-milliliter bottles it replaces, it costs less to transport and has about half the carbon footprint of the same amount of bottled wine.

The fruity 2006 Boho Vineyards merlot (3 liters for $24) from California’s Central Coast region is a decent companion for burgers or chili and is even more environmentally friendly. The box is 95 percent recycled paper, and printing inks are soy- based. Who knew you could be eco-snobby by drinking cheap?

Two Dozen Brands

On vacation last summer in northern Michigan, I noted the separate “premium” box section in a local supermarket that offered two dozen brands with tongue-in-cheek names. Clearly they were ahead of the economic curve. They reeked of cheap chic, which most of us can use now.

In fact, according to Nielsen, the premium 3-liter box wine category is the fastest-growing segment of the wine industry. In the fourth quarter of 2008, table-wine sales growth slowed to 2.8 percent, yet premium boxes zoomed 32 percent. Key buyers? Those with incomes of $70,000 and up, especially men.

So maybe it’s not so surprising that a fictional Dharma Initiative Red box wine made a cameo appearance last year on the popular ABC television series “Lost.” In the “Eggtown” episode, Sawyer (Josh Holloway) pours a glass for Kate (Evangeline Lilly) and then gets down to wooing her away from Jack (Matthew Fox) yet again.

Stays Fresh

Box wine itself isn’t new. The packaging system, developed about 50 years ago by Illinois-based Scholle Corp. for sulfuric acid, was first used for wine in Australia, where the now wildly popular box is known as a “wine cask.” A flexible plastic bag with a built-in spigot holds the wine inside a sturdy box. Vacuum-sealed, the bag collapses as wine is drawn off, which prevents oxygen from spoiling the remainder, as happens to a half-full bottle within a day or two. Most brands claim that opened box wines will stay fresh for a month to six weeks, though I’ve found that three weeks is usually the max.

That’s part of the attraction for 40-year-old Krishnaraj Sagar. On his way home from work in a Manhattan office, he grabbed a 2007 Bota Box merlot ($18) at Astor Wines & Spirits as I was checking out the offerings.

“I like it for drinking a glass or two a day,” he said. “It doesn’t go off.”

Of the boxed vinos I’ve tasted, I like the reds best. My top pick is 2007 From the Tank Cotes du Rhone ($36), introduced last fall. A spicy, mouth-filling blend of grenache, syrah and carignan, it’s made from organically grown grapes at a small co- op in France’s Rhone Valley. Importer Jenny Lefcourt of Jenny & Francois Selections swears the wine in this plain brown box is the same as the Domaine Les Genestas Cotes du Rhone that sells in a bottle for $15 to $16.

Another good red, launched last summer, is plump, inky 2007 Yellow+Blue malbec, made from organically grown grapes in Argentina and packaged in a juice-box-style 1-liter Tetra Pak container ($11).

Italian Approval

More good examples are coming. Italy’s Ministry of Agriculture ruled six months ago that wines with DOC quality status now can be sold in boxes.

The latest 3-liter offering, rolling out this summer, is 2007 Red Truck red, a juicy blend of syrah, petite sirah, cabernet franc文章来源中国酒业新闻网 and merlot that comes in a kitschy cardboard mini-barrel ($30). A patio or beach cookout pleaser, it’s the same Red Truck wine that comes in a bottle for $10.      Wines in boxes and special kegs are even turning up in wine bars. Maybe high-quality examples have a future in fine restaurants. Will sommeliers wheel a cart of them from table to table, artfully twirling the spigot instead of pulling the cork?

Depends on the economy, I guess.