Drinking Inside the Box: Wine Without the Bottle

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UNLESS YOU'RE IN the third grade, beverages sold in cardboard containers probably play a minimal role at your parties. And we're guessing that the words "boxed wine" conjure up some not-so-fond memories of Franzia at frat fêtes.

But vino that's poured from a package, not uncorked, has suddenly become sophisticated. Dozens of vintners are producing quality wines in boxes, not bottles. And if you're not hip to the squares (or rectangles), you may be missing out on drinkable, affordable libations.

"You've got to sometimes step sideways and realize that it's not the way the wine is delivered," says Jim Barker, president/founder of the Washington Wine Academy, an Alexandria nonprofit group that organizes local tastings.

Why have boxed wines broken out of the cheap-as-dirt category? It's partly because more mid- to high-end brands, including Peter Vella and Delicato, have started marketing varietals packaged in 3-liter containers. Boxes, roughly the size of a sack of flour, hold about four standard (750 ml) bottles worth of vino. Wine Business Insider calls them one of the industry's biggest growers, and A.C. Nielsen found that sales of the 3 liters grew by more than 46 percent between 2006 and 2007.

Though decent boxed wine — particularly types not meant to be cellared for years (roses, whites) — is common in Europe and Australia, non-swill containers didn't really flood the American market until about five years ago.

One of the first people to market it in the U.S., Ryan Sproule founded Monterey, Calif.-based Black Box Wines in 2002 after trying a similar product at a dinner in England. "They served boxed wine," Sproule says. "People wouldn't do that here. I was expecting the wine to be not-so great, but it was really good."

Now he sells eight varieties of Black Box, from a crisp chard to a juicy cab, for $20 to $25 per box at stores across the country, including many in D.C., Maryland and Virginia. And there are 15 other brands now being produced in the U.S., some by big-name vineyards like Kendall Jackson and Beringer. Target even has a "Wine Cube" of single-serving Tetra-Pak boxes (think adult Juicy Juice). The tiny guys seem ready to stick a straw in, or at least go on a picnic or camping trip.

And, frankly, there's something alluringly decadent about a vessel of vino that simply opens with the push of a button or a rip of foil.

Unlike bottles (which must be imbibed within a few days), boxed stuff stays good for a month or more, since it's stored in airtight plastic bags inside the boxes. Slurping from one is also eco-friendly, since the environmental costs associated with making and transporting glass are higher than cardboard.

But the vino-pack trend won't squash the high-end wine market anytime soon. "Box packaging isn't meant for aging fine wine," says Roger Dooley of Boxwines.org. So, don't put that box in your cellar. "They're intended for consumption shortly after you buy them."

Dooley thinks that boxed wine will become more accepted in the U.S. over time. "It isn't that there's a biological aversion to this type of packaging," he says. "People have just been taught over the years that good wine comes in a bottle."

Want to pour boxed wine at a bash? Find it at Total Wine, which sells about 10 different brands, or at Whole Foods, which just started stocking a few types. You might do a blind tasting, comparing sips by taste, not container shape, please.

That's what Sproule does at wine shows, pouring Black Box into unmarked glasses. His 2004 Merlot even scored a gold medal at the prestigious San Francisco International Wine Competition, competing against bottled stuff.

That's pretty intoxicating for a beverage once shoved to the back of the dorm-room fridge.

Photo by Marge Ely