best boxed red wine review
We've received your email address, and soon you will start getting exclusive offers and news from Wine Enthusiast. Now you'll be the first to hear about: Exclusive discount offers on wine accessories and storage Food and cocktail recipes Wine event invitations...and more! The 26 Best Boxed Wines Back in the 1980s and ’90s, the average boxed wine was one-dimensional headache water geared toward buzz-seekers, not wine lovers. Sadly, this dark history still hangs over the American wine landscape, spooking plenty of producers from embracing the box or Tetra Pak (Europeans are far less skittish about boxed wine). Still, what goes in these maligned vessels has come a long way. Grape farming and winemaking techniques are leagues better than 20 years ago, and with more wine drinkers than ever before, the competition to seduce your palate is fierce. Will you find a life-changing sip among this group? Maybe, but probably not. Still, when it comes to convenience, portability and pleasing drinkability, these are safe bets.
9. Bota Box 2012 Shiraz (California) 10. California Rabbit Chardonnay (California) 11. Fish Eye 2013 Pinot Grigio (South Eastern Australia)
buy cheap wine online australia 12. French Rabbit 2011 Pinot Noir (France)
best wine shops central london 13. Fuori Strada Off Road 2012 Sangiovese (Tuscany)
buy best wine online india 14. Fuori Strada Off Road 2012 Grillo (Sicily) 15.Hardys 2012 Shiraz (Australia) 16. La Petite Frog Picpoul de Pinet (Languedoc) 17. Maipe Andean Culture Malbec (Mendoza) 18. Nuvino 2013 Sauvignon Blanc (Central Valley, Chile) 19. Nuvino 2013 Malbec (Mendoza) 20. Nuvino 2013 Chardonnay (Cape Winelands, South Africa) 21. Selektion Steinschaden Grüner Veltliner
22. Wineberry Bourgogne Blanc Baronne du Chatelard (Burgundy) 23. Wineberry 2013 Château Tassin Rosé (Bordeaux) 24. Wineberry 2011 Château Moulin de la Roquille (Bordeaux) 25. Wineberry 2012 Domaine Le Garrigon (Côtes du Rhône) 26. Wineworks White Wine (Virginia) If you’re hosting a holiday party this year, you may be eyeing the wine aisle with consternation — and not just because . Wine is expensive, man. Especially if you need enough of it to lubricate a big family dinner. ( especially in an election year.)But if your concerns have you heading hunchbacked in shame toward the back of the store where they hide the boxed vino, perk up.Boxed wine is actually a great Penny Hoarder option, and it doesn’t have to taste terrible. Aside from the obvious advantage of being cheaper, buying boxed wine is actually smart for a host of other reasons — so much so that some vintners are starting to sell even their in cardboard.Well, first of all it’s nigh impossible for wine to go bad in a box, either before or after opening.
That’s because of the vacuum-sealed bag the box — which you may or may not remember from college. It keeps the wine almost entirely out of contact with oxygen, which means you’ll never open a box to find your wine’s already turned.(This is true, too, of the almost-equally maligned screw cap… but that closure doesn’t share the box’s ability to keep the wine fresh after opening.) And that cute little spigot? It works to maintain the wine’s vacuum seal, even after you’ve had a glass (or five), which means you can keep an open box of wine on the counter for weeks instead of just a couple of days, like with a bottle.And although it’s true that cork allows wines that need it to age with grace, most easy-drinking table quaffs don’t benefit much from sitting in a bottle, or will be drunk too young for it to matter. Boxed wine also carries a much and you can take it into glass-free zones, like campsites. But enough about why it’s awesome: Which one tastes best? Eight adventurous TPH staffers and I tasted seven boxed wines, ranging from $11.46 to $21.99, to figure out which wine we wouldn’t be embarrassed to serve at a party… after sneaking it into a fancy decanter, of course.
To control the experiment (and our day-drinking-for-work budget), we kept our tasting to a single varietal, or type of grape: cabernet sauvignon. We can’t say for certain that our findings will hold across varietals. Maybe our least favorite brand just happens to flub its cab, but does a bang-up job on pinot noir or sauvignon blanc.But even so, some of our results were pretty surprising — and they might just help you nail down those holiday dinner plans. Here’s what we tasted, started with the cheapest option:We started with the bottom of the barrel — or rather, the steel tank. (Let’s be real: Walmart’s proprietary boxed wine has probably never seen a day in oak.)But for its price, this wine put on a pretty good show… although I’d never have called it cabernet if I’d known better. It was way too light in color and had almost no body.Although the box boasts the wine’s won “90+ medals,” it fails to say from whence those designations were awarded. There’s also no indication of where the grapes were grown.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯Many staffers noted a significant presence of acid, but without much tannin to back it up, this wine came across as a little sour. There was a fruity presence in the blueberry or blackberry zone… but the wine’s claim to “a hint of toasty oak” was a stretch.But staff writer Lisa Rowan called it “totally drinkable,” and even senior editor Heather van der Hoop, who grew up near a wine region and thus has fairly lofty standards, said it’s “the kind of wine [she] would drink… after [she’d] already had a bottle.” And more than one taster found the flavor oddly reminiscent, scratching their heads until the memory hit them. “It’s like church wine!” exclaimed editor Caitlin Constantine.So it might be a keeper if you prefer your drink, as email marketing specialist Colleen Rice put it, with “shades of Catholicism.”Verdict: Nobody’s favorite… but surprisingly drinkable for such a cheapie. (And possibly what they keep behind the altar!) Is there such a thing as a “classic” boxed wine?
If there is, this is it. For better or worse, Franzia’s reputation precedes it. But while this Chilean cabernet’s color and body are a closer to legit, tasters found it less flavorful than the less-expensive Oak Leaf. Like, a lot less flavorful. As van der Hoop put it, “It doesn’t taste like anything! I could be drinking water right now.” Most also found it less smooth on the palate, too, noting that it was acrid on the finish.I was already skeptical before I read the box, which claims it pairs with beef stew, chocolate truffles and “dinner party.” That’s not a pairing, Franzia! Purchases of this wine do, however, support the . So I guess there’s that.Verdict: This one has a (bad) reputation for a reason. If you need a box this cheap, pick Oak Leaf instead.Another cabernet out of Chile, Corbett Canyon also designates itself an “award-winning wine”… without specifying which awards it’s talking about. It also claims to be “Full-Bodied with Classic Hints of Cherry, Vanilla and Toasty Oak,” and yes, all those words are capitalized.
Our tasters had an ambivalent response to this one. Some said it had even less flavor than Franzia, and almost everyone agreed they could taste less fruit — in my own tasting notes, I couldn’t distinguish even a single one. Three staffers said they straight-up didn’t like it.But two called it “easy drinking,” noting a nutty, smoky flavor.“If you put this in a decanter on your table, people wouldn’t be like, this is definitely from a box,” said van der Hoop. “Especially if it was the second thing you served.” In fact, it was her runner-up favorite.“It’s pretty drinkable,” agreed director of media relations Lizabeth Cole — whose hospitality degree means she knows a thing or two about wine.Verdict: Not as much of a crowd-pleaser, but a pretty solid option on the cheap end of the scale. The first wine we tried that actually had a vintage, this California cabernet sauvignon actually resembled cabernet sauvignon. It has a medium ruby color and lives up to its promise of being “medium-bodied,” and it was the first wine we tasted with any noticeable tannin at all.
It was also the first in the lineup with complex flavors. Staffers tasted black cherry, blackberry, plum, smoke and even green tea notes. The majority enjoyed it well enough, though only our photographer, Samantha Dunscombe, deemed it her favorite.Plus, as Cole mentioned, “the box is really cute.” (I mean, she the head of our PR department.) And importantly, the box actually where its awards come from: Its 2013 cabernet sauvignon was voted a Best Buy by Wine Enthusiast; ditto its 2013 Nighthawk dark red blend, which was actually second overall on the list . I would, however, love to meet the person responsible for the fanciful description of the finish as “boisterous.” As our staff writer Lisa Rowan remarked, the drinker’s might be boisterous upon finishing a bottle… but it seems like a stretch for a descriptor of the wine itself.Verdict: A good middle-of-the-road wine to serve as a base for sangrias or a simple table wine.With its opaque, almost maroon color and a nose of tobacco and campfire, this boxed wine from Valle Central, Chile promised to be a whole lot bigger than some of its cheaper counterparts.
And sure enough, it delivered — but not necessarily in a good way. “That is cough syrup,” concluded van der Hoop. “It’s kind of like purple drank,” said Rowan. Undeniably flavorful, this wine had a medium-plus body with notes of blackberry and vanilla, a classic characteristic of oak. But email marketing specialist Colleen Rice and I thought the vanilla characteristic tasted painted-on, like the vintner had dumped vanilla extract in the barrel. And while the dark fruit flavors were big and jammy, they also came across as overstated and artificial.“It’s not worth turning my teeth purple,” said Rice.Black Box wines have won many awards from Wine Enthusiast, including Gold Medals and Best Buys. And it was certainly a denser and juicier wine than most of the others on this list — so if that sounds like your jam (get it?), it might work for you.Verdict: Although apparently highly rated and relatively expensive, our staffers weren’t on board.Ding, ding, ding: We have a winner!
Although it lacked the tannin and acid typical of a cab, this red out of Valle Central, Chile, was easy to drink. It had notes of cherry, plum and blackberry pie, though many tasters thought it was more woodsy or smoky than fruit-forward. Medium-bodied and smooth, it inspired several staffers to help themselves to a second pour.“If you gave me a glass of this, I wouldn’t think it was boxed,” admitted Rowan. And editor Caitlin Constantine decided it’s going into her home rotation. Verdict: This was the most well-loved boxed wine amongst our staff and is a great option for an easy-drinking table red. And although it’s on the pricier end, it’s still a great deal: $20 for the equivalent of four standard bottles. The most expensive of the bunch, this California cab brought all the traditional characteristics to the table: It displayed notes of vanilla, blackberry, plum and dark cherry, and arrived at the classic cassis, or blackcurrant, flavor. While it had the most tannin of the bunch, it was low in acid and was much jammier and fruitier than the House Wine.