Box Wines
A wine blog with news and reviews of affordable wines

Move over, Joe Camel… a new vice-loving cartoon character is in town. The Pink Panther will now have his own wine label. Appropriately enough, the wine that will be promoted by the cartoon character is a rosé made from Merlot and Cabernet grapes. MGM has licensed the character to a winery in Bordeax.

The article notes that a British trade magazine thinks the wine label could run afoul of laws prohibiting advertising geared to the under-18 crowd. Ya think? I don’t know how tightly the EU and/or the UK regulate this sort of thing, but I can imagine the furor in the U.S. if there was any kind of a mass marketing campaign using the dapper pink feline.

The health benefits of a daily glass of red wine are well established, and scientists generally agree that it’s a compound called resveratrol found in red wines that is responsible for the positive effects. Red wine has been shown to protect against a number of diseases, including Parkinson’s, cancer and heart disease; it has even been shown to play a role in extending lifespan. Now, a UK scientist is trying to quantify the differences between individual wines:

But Dr Richard Hoffman, of the University of Hertfordshire, says that while the health-giving properties of resveratrol have been well studied, no-one has systematically measured its levels in different brands. “As a result, they assume that all red wines are the same, but this is certainly not the case as the levels of resveratrol vary,” he says. Dr Hoffman’s team is comparing the levels of resveratrol in a random selection of red wines using liquid chromatography techniques to separate and collect the compounds in them. [From How Saintly is Your Shiraz?]

The objective of the research is to help persuade wine makers to include health benefit information on their labels. Hoffman would like supermarket shoppers to see how much resveratrol they are getting in each wine at a glance, allowing them to make more informed decisions on which wines offer the maximum health benefits.

It’s an interesting idea, but mandating labeling changes for wines is bound to be an arduous political process. Also, one wonders if we know enough to advise consumers on what a particular level of resveratrol means. Is more always better? Or is there a threshold that, if met, provides a maximum level of protection? Labeling issues aside, it should be interesting to see the results of the research and find out what differences exist between varietals and/or brands.

3-liter box wines are now the fastest growing category of wine packages, according to an AP story in The Napa Valley Register, Box wine becomes something worth toasting by AP Business Writer Lauren Shepherd.

Box wine is now the fastest growing wine category. According to data from AC Nielsen, three liter box wine volume grew 44 percent in the past year, compared to a three percent gain in overall table wine volume. “It’s gaining tremendous acceptance by the consumer,” said Ben Dollard, president of Pacific Wine Partners, a division of Constellation Brands. “It’s just the tip of the iceberg.”

The article also contains information about the changing demographics of boxed wine consumers:

According to a 2005 Constellation Brands consumer study called Project Genome, wine drinkers can be sifted into six different categories based on their preferences and attitudes about wine. Leslie Joseph, vice president of consumer research at Constellation Brands, said the research found that three-liter buyers mainly fit into the “image-seeker” category populated with younger males eager to be seen as trendy and hip.

“They’re the people with the newest toys,” Joseph said. And “they like to educate their friends.”

The age range of the average box wine drinker has been changing, though, Insel said.

Most people assumed the new wine was mainly for the millennials — or those drinkers who turned 21 after 2000 — who were “looking for a cool new unpretentious way to drink wine”, Insel said, “but baby boomers are buying it now.”

The road to becoming an acceptable bottle alternative to both the younger and the older generations has taken years. To attract them, Dollard’s brands — which include Black Box, Blackstone Winery and Hardy’s — focused first on how to bring elegance to the box.

This is one of the lengthier and more detailed articles we’ve seen on the boxed wine topic - well worth a read if you are interested in the business side of wines.

One category that we’ve never looked at specifically is that of kosher wines. Perhaps we’ve been overlooking a good thing, at least according to Tastings: Top Kosher Wines in the Times Herald-Record, quoting wine critic David Rogov:

“As recently as a decade ago, had anyone asked me to compile a list of 50 world-class kosher wines, I would have smiled politely and tried hard not to start giggling,” he says. “Today, with fine kosher wines becoming increasingly available, it is becoming rapidly apparent that there is no contradiction whatever between the laws of kashrut and the production of truly excellent wines.”

Rogov’s top value picks for kosher red wines were,

“1. Galil Mountain, Cabernet Sauvignon, Israel, 2005. 89 points. Medium- to full-bodied, with near-sweet tannins and plum and berry fruits, spices and a tantalizing overlay of mushrooms. ($13)
2. Dalton, Shiraz, Reserve, Israel, 2004. 88 points. Medium- to full-bodied, with soft tannins and moderate smoky oak, highlighting aromas and flavors of plums, currants and berries. ($12)
3. Baron Philippe, Mouton Cadet, Bordeaux, France, 2005. 87 points. Garnet toward purple, medium- to full-bodied, with soft tannins integrating well. Light spicy wood highlights blackberry and currant fruits. ($11)”

It looks like the best overall were kosher dessert wines:

“1. Chateau Guiraud, Sauternes, France, 2001 (kosher edition). 95 points. Deep golden yellow, with a creamy texture and herbal sweetness. On the nose and palate, honeyed peaches, apples and citrus matched nicely by generous spiciness. ($80)

2. Yarden, Noble Semillon Botrytis, Israel, 2004. 92 points. Golden in color, concentrated and balanced. Shows dried apricots, orange peel, toasty oak and tropical fruits along with deep honeyed spices. ($34)

3. Langer, Tokaji, Aszu, Hungary, 1998. 91 points. On the nose and palate, dried summer fruits, citrus peel and oriental spices, matched by fine acidity to balance the generous sweetness. Long and elegant. ($55)”

Check out the full article for more kosher wine ideas just in time for Passover. We wandered around the blogosphere a bit, and found quite a few recent posts on the topic. The Kosher Blog commented in The Annual WSJ Kosher Wine Column that the column was mostly a rehash of previous years’ efforts. JSpot.org has a lengthy philosophical discussion of the topic in Reform Movement: Drunk on kosher wine? In Kosher Wine, Not Like It Used To Be! the Wine Store Blog points out that kosher wines are no longer “very sweet, or painfully dry” but come in a range of varietals.

A boxed wine cracked the top 100 list of affordable Bordeaux wines compiled by the Bordeaux Wine Bureau.

The Selection Process: Today’s Bordeaux were selected from more than 270 wines nominated by importers and retailers across the country priced $8 to $25 retail. In February 2007, the jury tasted all entries grouped by price in a blind panel. Wines were selected in the top 100 that were an excellent representation of Bordeaux within the given price range

FreeRange Red Bordeaux 2005 was the only box wine to make the top 100 list in the blind taste test. It was also one of the least expensive, competing with wines that cost up to $25 per bottle.

Congratulations to FreeRange for putting a box wine into such an elite group!

WBW #31 was my first Wine Blogging Wednesday as a host, and I really appreciate all of the wine bloggers who took a chance on something unfamiliar - we had people tasting wine from boxes, cans, juice packs… great job, everyone, and sorry if you happened upon a clunker! Thanks, too, to Lenn Thompson for starting this community effort!

I didn’t know quite what to expect from the topic of “box wines & non-traditional packaging”. While I was quite sure nobody would discover a wine they would rate in the high 90s, I did hope that people would encounter some decent wines they could recommend to their friends for every day drinking. I also hoped that with the worldwide dispersion of WBW bloggers that we’d encounter quite a few totally new wines. After all, we hear how diverse the choices are in Australia, where more than half the wine consumed is in boxes, and that 3-liter boxes are the fastest growing segment in the U.S. wine market.

Late Additions. If you have already perused the WBW #31 summary, be aware that we’ve added a couple of more tastings to the original WBW #31 roundup. LizKitchen compared three Chardonnays from three continents, and A Guy, A Girl, and A Bottle temporarily became a A Couple With Cans for the purpose of this WBW theme. ChâteauBrys reported on a teeny (187 ml) bottle of 2002 Delicato Chardonnay.

Sofia Who? As it turns out, we had a few novel choices, but quite a few participants had difficulty finding anything beyond the mass market boxes. We also found some surprising overlap in the choices. By far the most popular choice was Sofia Blanc de Blancs, a sparkling wine in a can that comes with its own bendy straw - Gastronomic Fight Club, My Wne Education, Wine Outlook, A Guy, A Girl, and A Bottle, and Huevos Con Vino all tried this one. To my great frustration, despite the fact that the wine is apparently packaged in Indiana I have yet to identify a local source for this.

Interesting Finds. We did have a few unusual choices - I’ve never seen a Sherry in a box, but Cook (almost) Anything found a cask of Seppelt Cream Sherry. Wine for Newbies found Cuvee de Peña 2004 from the Rhone region of France. And Winecast discovered a box of Casa La Joya Cabernet-Carmenere from the Colchagua Valley, Chile. Dr. Vino came up with another interesting one, Domain Sorin Cotes de Provence 2005 Rose - but it is available only in France.

Plonk Avoided (Mostly). Thankfully, nobody bought a 5-liter box of Franzia (or Almaden or Vella) and said, “Gaaak - this is awful!” We were hoping to avoid experiences that would put people off outside-the-bottle wines for the next decade, and, by and large, we were successful. There were a few notably bad ones. Spittoon hated Tesco Sicilian Red Wine, though Andrew later pointed out that Tesco is the UK equivalent of WalMart. Winehiker Witiculture scored French Rabbit Pinot Noir a mere 9 out of 20. Grape Juice didn’t find much to like in the little plastic bottles of Virgin Vines Shiraz. Tales of a Sommelier found the Paul Masson White Wine Carafe quite lacking. If there’s one characteristic shared by these choices, they tend to come from the lower end of the non-traditional spectrum - with the possible exception of the somewhat stylish French Rabbit, these are wines that don’t aspire to greatness, or even a high level of mediocrity. Let’s recognize the sacrifices made by these bloggers - they tried this stuff so that you (and many, many readers) won’t have to!

Surprise Bargain. One box brand that I’ve avoided to date has been the very low priced Corbett Canyon in a 3-liter box. I’ve seen it on the store shelf for under $10, and mentally I’ve lumped it in the same category, more or less, as the aforementioned 5-liter plonk. I was really surprised that two bloggers who participated in group tastings reported that Corbett Canyon was a group favorite - Citizen Wine ’s group liked Corbett Canyon Chardonnay, while The Boxed Wine Spot’s group enjoyed Corbett Canyon Pinot Grigio. I guess I’m going to have to give this brand a try after all!

All in all, this has been a lot of fun and very informative. A big “thanks” to all, and let’s keep the conversation going!

Don’t expect to see these fashions popping up at your local mall, but an Australian scientist has created a dress from material woven by bacteria in a vat of fermenting wine, according to Tasteful clothes uncorked from wine slime. Some usability issues haven’t quite been worked out, notably the fact that the dress must be kept wet to prevent it from becoming brittle and fracturing. The photo that accompanies the article seems to imply that the wearer turns into something like a zombie from the Night of the Living Dead.

In order to shape the dress, slimy cellulose is scooped off the surface of the fermenting wine and layered around a blow-up doll. It then shrinks, taking the form of the body. The doll is deflated when the dress is in the right shape.

“This is art — it is not meant to be practical,” said inventor Gary Cass, a scientific technician at the University of Western Australia in Perth. “It is meant to be a provocative object, to spark debate about future fashion.”

Who says all the big scientific discoveries have been made? Clearly, groundbreaking research of great import is taking place Down Under. I can picture the conversation with the purchasing department at the University of Western Australia… “Right, I need a wine vat and a few hundred gallons of grape juice… oh, and don’t forget the blowup doll… why, female, of course… what do you think is going on down here in the lab? Better get a spare in case of a puncture.”

UK wine drinkers will be able to avoid the labor of uncorking a bottle and even pouring the wine when Al Fresco Wines introduces pre-filled plastic wine glasses this summer (A Glass of Plonk for the Lazy). The glasses will be sealed with foil and will contain red, white, or rose wine and will retail for the equivalent of a bit more than $5 per pair.

The glasses were originally designed for caterers at outdoor events who wanted to avoid the service time involved with wine bottles.

Al Fresco Wines, who spent £500,000 developing the Tulipa, said it offers “a greater range of drinking opportunities”.

Somehow, I can’t imagine this is great wine, but I suppose it may let wine go where it might not have gone before. I suppose too that it reflects greater demand for wine in less formal settings. Bordeaux Undiscovered notes in a post about the upcoming Cheltenham Gold Cup that the new format will be handy for racegoers who must try to balance numerous items without spilling.

First, a quick reminder - next Wednesday, March 14, is Wine Blogging Wednesday! The theme of WBW #31 is non-traditional wine packaging. So, if you haven’t already done so, head out to your well-stocked shop, find something that isn’t a standard bottle, and file your report next week. Pass the word to your fellow wine lovers. I know that for the last few WBWs, I’ve been scrambling at the last minute to find something that fit the theme - there’s still enough time to shop at your leisure.

While we’re on the subject, WBW was featured in the Baltimore Sun: Wine tasting with no real crowd or even place. It’s a mix of negative and positive:

A collection of blog posts, no matter how well-written, surely is a cold, cruel substitute for an actual wine event. A virtual tasting lacks the ambience, the face-to-face interaction, and, well, the sheer volume of wine that make up a typical tasting event. Real wine tastings can be romantic, date-worthy affairs. Virtual wine tastings … not so much.

Yet, undeniably, wine enthusiasts are enjoying these virtual events. They’re educating each other on wines from around the world. They’re networking and making friends. And they’re having fun along the way.

I’ve been to a few in-person wine tastings that didn’t offer much ambiance… some random people standing around sipping wine. At one, a lady in attendance was wearing such powerful perfume that it demolished any subtle aroma notes in the wine. Of course, as the article notes, a real wine tasting often offers lots of variety.

Let’s try and make WBW #31 a great event, and a fun way to network with other wine enthusiasts - pass the word while there’s still time!

Legendary winemaker Ernest Gallo has died at 97:

Ernest Gallo, the marketing genius who parlayed $5,900 and a wine recipe from a public library into the world’s largest winemaking empire, died Tuesday at his home in Modesto….

[Ernest and Julio Gallo] founded the E.&J. Gallo Winery in 1933, at the end of Prohibition, when they were still mourning the murder-suicide deaths of their parents. Ernest and Julio rented a ramshackle building, and everybody in the family pitched in to make ordinary wine for 50 cents a gallon — half the going price. The Gallos made $30,000 in the first year.

We haven’t always had good things to say about Gallo products, but the influence of Gallo on the American wine industry and California wines is undeniable. Full story here.

One odd trivia item from the story:

Fresno County records say their father, Joseph, shot their mother, Susie, to death in June 1933, then killed himself. That was two months before the founding of the Gallo winery.

Supposedly, that incident led to Gallo’s secretive behavior. Julio Gallo died in 1993. Ernest Gallo’s longevity might be a boost for the “glass of wine a day for health” fans.