Black Box Wines is sponsoring a video contest. For you SNL fans, the first step is not to cut a hole in the box. They want you to serve their product to your family or friends and then capture their reaction when they learn it’s from a box (assuming they found the wine to be delicious).
I’d like to enter this contest, but my friends and family would not be surprised to get a decent wine from a box; in fact, many of them have had boxed wines at my dinner parties before. I’m all for packaging wine in a box; it tends to be inexpensive, it’s harder for me to break, it’s more transport-friendly, the wine keeps for much longer, it’s more environmentally friendly (less energy required to produce and transport compared to glass bottles) and thankfully, more producers are starting to get on the bandwagon. I lovingly referred to boxed wines in college as “wine bladders” – have you ever removed the box to see what’s underneath?
I haven’t had the Black Box Wines yet. They make 8 different varietal wines, mostly from California, with a sprinkling of northern Italy and New Zealand. They pack the equivalent of 4 bottles into 1 box and the suggested retail price is $24.99, making each bottle only $6.25.
Some boxed wine I can recommend, however, is a line called “From the Tank”, put out by Jenny & François Selections. They make both a white and a red in partnership with the Côtes du Rhône cooperative Estézargues. Both are blends: the white is comprised of Grenache Blanc, Clairette, Bourboulenc and Viognier while the red is a mix of Grenache, Syrah and Carignan. And both are natural wines, meaning the producers aren’t using commercial yeasts or enzymes, they’re not filtering the wines and they’re using minimal amounts of sulfur (importing natural wines is Jenny & François’ shtick). The white is aromatic and rich, with notes of citrus and almonds and the red is juicy and medium-bodied, with lots of red fruit. I’ve purchased them from Discovery Wines and Astor Wine and Spirits.
If I come up with a winning video idea, I’ll let you know.
A Thirsty Spirit 
I’ve heard boxed wine makes a really good projectile, ie you can heave it at a car full of Ivy League dorks.
Ah, yes. It’s quite aerodynamic in its bladder form.
boxed wine is also good for putting in your luggage and smuggling on to cruise ships.
I first sampled boxed wine in Sweden. Specifically at a mid-summer party on an island in the archipelago (name I can’t recall) where my dear friends bought boxed wine and then used it to replenish empty bottles of wine they had stashed. I’m not saying the original bottled wine was a superior grape and/or vintage. I’m also not saying, since I was staying with them, I was the only one that knew about this trickery. I will say I remember the boxed wine to be quite tasty whether it was tapped from the box or poured from a bottle.
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