Growth Wine Category: Think Inside The Box

A friend of mine, Elizabeth, is a gifted event planner. A few weeks ago, she found herself in a sticky situation. A new client wanted to throw a casual, last-minute cocktail-style party – on the following night – for 75 people on a hot summer night in the southern United States.

She needed easy, cool wines. She needed a lot of them. And she needed them fast. “Why not pick up some boxes of wine?” I suggested when we were on the phone and she was driving from one errand to another.

I heard her put on the brakes. Then, for a long moment, all I heard was silence.Except for the sound of her eyes narrowing. “What?” I said into the pause, starting to smile. “I can’t believe you just said that,” she said. “Boxed wine? Really?”

And so begins the dance that boxed wine companies have been performing for many years now. It’s a three-step dance around issues of convenience, economy, and pragmatism, and the cadence is picking up. With the US being the largest world market for boxed wines, adding an incremental 84 million units between 2012 and 2017*, it’s a dance worth learning for both producers and consumers. (Source: Euromonitor International)

Convenience

Boxed wine companies try to convince the general public – who complain that wine is too complicated – of the convenience and simplicity of the wine-in-a-box system. Boxed wine has many advantages, including its storage. Unlike bottled wine, you don’t have to refrigerate the box once it’s been opened and exposed to air. Refrigerating an open bottle slows down the oxidation process, which helps preserve the wine. But the wine in a box is inside a vacuum-sealed bag. So no exposure to air. And therefore no oxidation to slow down. See? Simple and convenient.

Economy

Boxed wine companies try to convince the general public – who say they don’t want to spend a lot of money on decent wine – of the economy of this purchase. Say you and a friend each drink a glass with dinner one night. With a bottle, you’ve got to recork it and keep it cool until the next day, when it will likely be on its last legs. With boxed wine, you just close the spout and come back to it in a few days or even a week later. Most producers claim their boxed wine lasts up to four weeks.

Pragmatism

Boxed wine companies try to convince the general public – who say they’re turned off by the pretensions of wine – that wine in a box is a pragmatic, environmentally aware option. First, boxed wine is meant to be drunk young and fresh, within a year of packaging. (It’s a statistic that syncs nicely with another statistic from the US market about the extremely high percentage of wine that’s consumed within 24 hours of purchase.) Second, the packaging is often recyclable along with other paper products. Third, boxed wine leaves less of a carbon footprint than wine in glass bottles.

With those three factors in its favor, it’s easier to understand the growth of boxed wines’ appeal. I am not saying that you’ll definitely find an ethereal wine experience inside a box of wine. In most cases, ethereal will be another conversation, another event, and another set of circumstances altogether.

But I am saying that there’s a time and a place for boxed wine too. When the time is a hot summer night, say. And when the place is a casual cocktail-style party where the focus is more on the conversation and interaction than on contemplating the wine. It works out fine. Just ask Elizabeth.

NOTE: Of the boxed wines I’ve tried recently, the Andegavia brand stands out. Named after a wine growing region in western France where wine was once stored and shipped in large barrels or casks, Andegavia calls their higher-priced, sustainably-packaged product “cask wine.” I blind-tasted their Napa red blend (97% Cabernet Sauvignon) against two other bottled, Napa Cab-based blends from the same vintage. The Andegavia was discernibly different, for me, in taste and experience than the other two. But it showed itself admirably, especially weighing additional factors like cost and environmental packaging. I can definitely envision a time and a place for this wine, as well.