Box Wine Image Changing

Filed in archive Wine News on April 3, 2007

According to a report from the Associate Press, the image of the frat party wine box image or the drunken yahoo-party-goer sucking down the contents of wine in a box is starting to change. Maybe "starting" is the key word here because as far as I'm concerned, I can't go there yet. Heck, I'm still getting used to screw caps on my wine bottles!

Well, you decide. Are you buying this or not? From Box wine image changing with new premium brands, but pace is slow:

With better wine varieties now available in boxes, wineries are attempting to give the category a new identity [...]Box wine is now the fastest growing wine category. According to data from AC Nielsen, three liter box wine volume grew 44 percent in the past year, compared to a three percent gain in overall table wine volume.

"It's gaining tremendous acceptance by the consumer," said Ben Dollard, president of Pacific Wine Partners, a division of Constellation Brands. "It's just the tip of the iceberg."

Vintners have been doing a good deal of experimenting in the last few years. Wine now even comes in plastic bottles and cans. Although wine has been packaged in a box for some time, the new boxes aren't like the five-liter jugs of sweet, headache-inducing wines of the past. Although those are still readily available, there are now premium varieties on the market which show a bit more complexity with hints of berry, apple or oak.

Of course, the premium entries are more expensive. For example, a Chardonnay can run $20 for a box that contains the equivalent of four bottles whereas the lower quality five-liter boxes sell for between $6 and $10 for more than 6 bottles of wine.