Is Boxed Wine Becoming Gourmet?

Boxing wine hasn’t historically been regarded as the best method of storing varietals. The inexpensive wine has often been a favorite among those in college. However, Jordan Salcito for the Daily Beast has sampled the new boxed varietals on the scene and has admitted the taste has improved substantially.

Boxed wine’s bad rap
According to the source, boxed wine was invented in the 1960s by people in Australia. Often called “goons,” the wine was a favorite among the Aussies. Boxed wine is also referred to as bag-in-box wine because there is a plastic pouch inside the outer cardboard box. Oxygen tends to seep into the bag, so more sulfur is added to the batches in order to prevent the wine from oxidizing. Additionally, a large amount of sulfur dioxide has been known to stop a wine from refining with age while dampening some of the smell.

Gourmet bag-in-box
Some wineries are trying to make gourmet boxed wine. The company Jenny & Francois makes a bag-in-box rose called “From the Tank.” It’s made with organic grapes from a New York distributor Southern Rhone Wineberry.

There is also Black Box Wines, which has received a number of accolades including 40 gold medals by national and regional wine critics.

New packaging
Tetra Pak, a Swiss company, has a unique take on the bag-in-box. There version is made with 75 percent paper, made from Forest Stewardship Council-certified wood, according to the source. The packaging is fully sustainable as the cap is made from sugar cane.

Taste
Salcito attests to the flavor of some of the newer boxed wines, and has put them up against bottle varietals for blind tastes tests. However, you have to try some of the newcomers yourself to see if there is any comparison to the bottled vintages. If you take a culinary arts program online, you’ll want to know what are the trends of the industry, including wine.

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