For The Love Of Port

Has anyone bought or tried "wine in a box" that they thought was worth while?

Yes - my wife has a couple that she drinks on occasion, though of late she hasn't purchased any. (Mostly since I discovered WinesTilSoldOut.com and have been supplying her with a constant stream of new bottles to taste. )

She says that she can't really tell a difference between the boxed and bottled versions of the same wine, but typically you don't find really high quality wine in boxes in the first place. I'd call the stuff she used to buy in boxes middle-of-the-road, so it's not complete crap.

I can ask her what the brands were if you're interested.

Wine in a box sounds like it should be more widely accepted than it is. How wonderful would it be if 10/20 tawny (or whatever wine you want) was in a box and the the box lasted over year? Perfect for the service industry as well as regular folks like us.

Yeah, it's a perfect distribution system for wines that you're going to drink near term. I have no idea how wines would age in a box - in theory it's no different than a glass bottle - but it's not something I'd want to try.

But yeah, a 10- or 20-yr old tawny would last for ages in a box, because there's almost no exposure to air. Seems like a good system for a filtered LBV or Ruby Reserve too, since those aren't meant to be aged at all.

Has port ever been offered in a box?

I've never seen it, but I'm relatively new to Port (4-5 years) so me not having seen it doesn't really mean much.

This is the only one I've got a picture of, it's from Quinta do Infantado. Although the "box" actually has 6-bottles in it, I'd argue it's still wine-in-a-box since that is how it comes. I also could have sworn I've seen another inexpensive Port that was sold in small boxes, much like a juice container.

One of the brands that my wife has had before is called Black Box. The one she bought was an Aussie shiraz, as I recall, and was a pretty decent wine. The boxes contain a 5 liter bag that appears to be coated in some sort of metallic substance. They're airtight even after the spigot has been installed, so the wine really doesn't change over the course of a few of weeks.

Not that a mere 5 liters of wine lasts that long in our house.

5 liters of Port, on the other hand, might actually last me a month. Maybe.

Hmm... after browsing that web site I don't see an Aussie Shiraz or a 5 liter box. It was probably the Cali Central Coast Shiraz and a 3 liter box.

Which would help explain why it never lasted very long!

Going back into the 1990s, the number one SKU in America for ALL wine sold , was a Franzia bag-in-a-box wine that was a 5 liter version. I forget which grape variety but would imagine it being White Zin or Chard.

Yeah, my wife used to drink a lot of the Franzia White Zinfandel as well.

Wine-in-a-box

Sick-in-a-bag

- Say no more..

Tom