"Box" wine questions

I am not the least offended, but I don't buy bag-in-box wines. Not because I think they're intrinsically inferior, just because I love trying different wines, and 3/6/9 liters of one wine don't appeal to me. But I don't have anyproblems with others using. B-in-B wines are good for long-term keeping (as bag collapses, should be basically as good on day 30 as day 1). I wish my occasional drinker friends had B-in-B wines, rather than serving me wines that had been in fridge for

3 weeks!

in article 4339f102$1 snipped-for-privacy@newsfeed.slurp.net, KokomoKid at snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com wrote on 9/27/05 6:24 PM:

I'd pretty much agree with Dale on the issue of boxes being too large to satisfy my desire to try different wines. That holds true, even when we're entertaining, so just the quantity isn't the real issue for me either

Anyway........ of the boxed wines, Black Box seems to get pretty good marks. It's a product of the Constellation stable, and the Paso Robles Cab is apparently made mostly from fruit grown in the Central Coast appellation of California. Not generally prime Cab territory, but could be OK. At Black Box prices, though, you can't expect too much.

Then again, I'm still seeing cases of Charles Shaw exiting our local Trader Joe's every time I'm there, so....... enjoy!!!!!!!

Bagged wine should last several days if refrigerated. The principle is that the bag collapses around the wine, reducing contact with air. It really depends a lot, too, on your sensitivity to the taste over time.

Depends what you mean by long term.

30 days is fine, but 2 or 3 months after opening I think you'll notice some oxidation.

They also have a limited shelf life BEFORE being opened - so check any best-before date stamps.

The bags themselves let in some air, which explains the shelf life, and once they are opened the tap is also a source of air ingress.

Salut/Hi KokomoKid,

le/on Tue, 27 Sep 2005 20:24:46 -0500, tu disais/you said:-

Only in being gratuitously offensive in the above paragraph.

certainly. Domaine de l'Ancienne Cure Bergerac Rouge. Excellent vfm at only €2.50 a litre in 5 or 10 litre boxes.

Available frome the grower only of course, but he'll ship anywhere within reason.

Yes: Ch. Rollan de By and Tour Haut Caussan. Box design by Escada.

Proprietor Jean Guyon's Vinexpo stand was totally made up from these boxes. I can mail a picture if somebody wants to put in on the web. (Just hit relpy button to mail me).

M.

Jean Guyon gives a shelf life of 15 months for the unopened box. Once opened, they give a six month drinking period.

M.

Boxing(actually bagging) wine is a great idea. A consumer bag storage system would be wonderful. Pull the cork, and put the first half of the bottle in a properly prepared bag.

I found a decent syraz blend, and a decent chard blend a couple years ago in saintsbury's in london.

If one is careful about pouring and sealing, the partially filled bag should last a significient percentage of the same time as the full bag. One could probably easily generate a equation to relate surface area to volume to determine aging.

It would be interesting to do a blind tasting with half emptied bags of say 1,2,4,8,16 and even 32 days aging to see if those who say they can tell the difference after a day or two.

Always wanted to decant a bottle of something extremely obvious, like '95 Insigna into a box, take it to a snooty BYOB where nothing on their list is allowed in, and offer a taste to all interested and see if they can come close.

C>Sorry if I'm offending all you serious wine snobs in this group, but here >goes.

Try Black Box.

My wife and I like Hardy's (Australian) Cabernet, which is in a 3 liter box. The same wine is available in 750ml (and, I think 1.5L) bottles. They also have a Shiraz that we like. They compete well with other varities that we find in similar price range. We try to use all of any bag wine within 30 days after first use, and don't buy in quantities more than expected use in

90 days (figure it is on the reseller's shelf for an unknown time also). As others have mentioned, seems like a year or so is maximum storage recommended. We do find considerably less taste difference after several days than the bottles, even though we use a VacuVin on the bottles.

Hardy's is a LOT better than anything we have found from Franzia, and is also better than the Sutter (we have bought some Sutter in the little 187ml bottles to carry on trips). Almaden is also not as good as Hardy's, although better than Franzia, in our experience.

Hope this is helpful to you. Jim

I concur with Black Box Merlot being drinkable. Have not seen them offer Cabernet but wish they would.

I used boxed wine to get my dad to switch from drinking crap beer to wine. It works for him since he is not overly picky, just likes a wine that is not too sweet, and does not have anyone around who will split bottles with him. He only wants about a glass a day.

My spouse makes me hide the box under the cabinet!

I find the bags to last about a month without problems. I can't make one last any longer than that! Good to have around for guests who are not serious wine drinkers or to take to a casual outing.

Just don't squeeze the bag when you are pouring out the last drops -- the sediment can be awful.

Nell Paris

Thanks for the very useful replies to my post.

I haven't bought any in a while, but as I remember there were both a cabernet and a shiraz.

in article snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com, Nellie Paris at snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote on 9/28/05 7:13 PM:

Just so you have the info, Black Box does, indeed, make a Cabernet. Here's the site link.

Where to find it is another question. Their "Contact Us" numbers are in the Monterey and Central Valley areas of California. I've always had great response calling wineries direct for distribution info.