An Ode to Boxed Wine

Can we take a minute to talk seriously about boxed wine?

I have no particular love for Clif Wine - someone brought it to my birthday party, though, and I love free things!

I’m not exactly a wine snob.  I live in the Bay Area in California, so I’m surrounded by a lot of very good wine.  I can appreciate it, but I’m going to be honest -- most of the time I don’t think I can tell the difference between a $15 bottle of wine and a $50 bottle of wine.  As a result, the wine I drink is usually around $9 and I can buy it at the Walgreen’s down the street.  Don’t judge.

Anyways, I don’t believe my wine pedigree is good enough to really judge wine, but there has been a lot of talk recently about the growing trend of boxed wine.  I can’t say either way whether or not there are any good, drinkable boxed wines out there (though I lean towards thinking there are) but I have found a great reason to buy boxed wine on the regular: for cooking!

Boxed wine is sealed completely differently than bottles of wine, and as a result an open box of wine can last up to a month in your refrigerator!  This is fantastic for me, as so many great recipes call for just a cup or less of white wine at a time (my own lentil soup recipe is a wonderful example of this).  I have never had trouble finishing a bottle of red wine, but white wine just isn’t my thing.  If I only used a cup of it...well, the rest of the bottle used to go to waste.  Now, I can always keep it on hand without worrying about it becoming oxidized!

Thank you, boxed wine!