Chateau du Cardboard – What’s in the Black Box?

Hello Everyone! If you’re like us, you’ve probably noticed that there appears to be a new section of wine growing in the shop where you usually purchase your wine: the boxed wine section. Traditionally, that section has been fairly small on the bottom shelf next to the jug wines and was mostly occupied by the brand Franzia (which Rachel’s uncle immediately labeled as “Chateau du Cardboard – great for hot days at the lake). But times are changing and there are more labels and more choices consisting of varietals from Paso Robles, New Zealand, Italy, and Australia.

We became intrigued by box wine about 6 years ago when Delicato Shiraz from California – in a box! – started gaining all sorts of accolades. Before this, you didn’t see many varietal wines in a box (Franzia “Mountain Chablis” is not really Chablis, but a form of Chenin Blanc blended with others grapes). Our first box wine gamble 6 years ago was Three Thieves Bandit Pinot Grigio, and the box looked more like a soy milk carton than anything else. Additionally, it was different from the others since it was the equivalent of a one-liter bottle, slightly larger than the standard box size (generally the equivalent to four 750-ml bottles). Out of curiosity, we picked it up and found it to be pleasant. The wine had much of the acidic character of Pinot Grigio due to the stainless fermentation and lack of secondary malolactic fermentation. However, a California Pinot Grigio such as the Three Thieves tends to have more fruit than its Italian counterparts, particularly due to the warmer climate. There are more tropical fruit and apple flavors than the crisp, mineral flavors found in the wines from cooler areas of Italy such as Alto Adige and the Veneto. This was a good wine to have a glass before dinner, but for the most part, due to its size, price, and re-closeable top which preserved its freshness, we used it as the white wine for all of our cooking needs and bought it fairly regularly. It’s always fun to share your glass of wine with what’s cooking on the stove.

A quick note on cooking with wine: do not use the stuff in the grocery store that is called “cooking wine.” This is not really wine at all, but a wine-based product that is loaded with salt and other preservatives. Only cook with wine that you would drink normally. This doesn’t have to be an expensive wine. These days with the advent of screw caps, we regularly use an inexpensive Chilean Sauvignon Blanc as our cooking wine. You don’t want to ruin a sauce, braise, or other meal because you used bad wine.

Black Box New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc

We hadn’t been buying the Bandit for the last few years, primarily because we switched our wine shopping venue, and because the afore-mentioned screw caps made it easier to keep the wine fresh for longer periods. But then, we came across the Black Box Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand. It was quite a bargain and a bit different from the Bandit above. It held three liters of wine, the equivalent of 4 bottles, and had a bag and spigot inside from which to draw the wine, which is great at maintaining freshness. With a price around $23, it was definitely worth a try since our favorite New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs run around $12 a bottle, and this was coming in just under $6 a bottle. Like the Bandit, this wine was nice to drink, although a little rounder/softer than our favorites. Overall, it had more tropical fruits rather than the citrus lemon and grapefruit that we are used to finding in New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. It also had a little less acidity. We rated this a buy again and have a box in the fridge now. Sometimes, you just want a glass of wine and don’t want to have to open a bottle. We still have the refrigerator white chilling for the weekends when we sit out and enjoy the garden.

Black Box Riesling – Snake River, Columbia Valley

To many people, the wine that they have the highest expectation of and the most disappointment with is Burgundy. For us, it has been Riesling. In the mid-90s while Bryan was studying chemistry, one of the professors was German and got us turned on to wines from the Mosel Region in Germany. These are incredible wines that combine the sweetness of tangerines, figs and honey with a nice crisp acidity of green apples and minerals. When it works, it’s heaven in a glass. But when it fails, it’s very disappointing. We’ll talk more about German Riesling in another post, but we have had some Rieslings out of Washington State before and find them promising and very good, especially some of the higher end wines like Eroica or the dry Rieslings from Bonny Doon. On first taste, we thought that this was going to be a great bargain. However, we found that the wine lacked the needed acidity to balance the sweeter flavors that Riesling offers. As the wine warmed up a little bit, it lost almost all of its acidity and became quite flabby and overly sweet. This was not a buy again for us.

Black Box Cabernet Sauvignon

This was the last box wine that we tried recently. Again, the whole purpose is to find a wine that offers great value, and the ability to get a glass or two of wine without opening the bottle and having it be oxidized within a day or two. If there was a theme around all of these wines, then it is that they tend to be softer than what we normally would choose in that particular varietal. For the Cabernet Sauvignon, this means smoother tannins than what you would find in more expensive wines. The Black Box Cabernet Sauvignon is sourced from the Central Coast of California including Monterey, Paso Robles, and Lodi. One of the characteristics of these regions is that they are very warm, and thus the grapes reach a high level of ripeness. This brings out the blackberry and cherry flavors and the wines tend to have fewer tannins. The Black Box Cab is balanced with some oak aging to give it a bit of vanilla and toast, which helps restrain the fruit. We would buy this again for the ability for the single glass of red wine.

The boxed wines provide a great opportunity to have the single glass when you want it, and will keep for some time. The price/volume ratio is great. The easy dispensing spigot is nice and you can keep the whites easily in the fridge and the reds on the countertop. The box prevents light from spoiling the wine. The selection of higher quality boxed wines is growing and Black Box is providing a good value for you.

Drink what you like, like what you drink!


Rachel and Bryan Gavini