Falling Star Boxed Wines

Image from Stardusts and Sequins used under the Creative Commons license.

 

In our on-going quest to discover good wine in a box (see here, here and here), we were excited to hear about Falling Star boxed wines from Argentina. As we remember the press release, the producers claimed that Falling Star would rapidly become the biggest-selling wine in a box because the quality of the wine was so high.

In time samples came our way, and.... well, we can say that we finished the 2009 Cuyo Chardonnay ($20/3L). We found nothing remarkable about the wine, but it did not take up much space in the fridge, and it was often handy to have a drinkable white at the ready with no deliberation about what bottle to open, let alone chill. So high marks for convenience, at least.

We were disappointed by the 2008 Cuyo Malbec ($20/3L). Malbec is Argentina's signature grape, so we expected much more from this wine, and the box remains nearly untouched.

Our hopes remain for the 3L bag-in-box category. As soon as someone actually does package a high-quality wine this way, the market will be theirs. But so far the promises to do so have gone unfulfilled.

Disappointment in a can

We could not be more excited about wine in cans. Putting wine in cans is great for convenience, for the environment, and for quality. We've talked about wine in cans before, but to briefly re-cap, cans come in more appropriate sizes, and are lighter and easier to carry than glass bottles. They do not require a cork screw, and there is no cork to possibly affect the wine's taste. And they are easy to smuggle into movie theaters.

Consumers tend to view new packaging types with suspicion, assuming that only inferior wine would be placed in a bag-in-box, TetraPak, or can. It is important to prove such customers wrong by having very good wine in these new packages. If a skeptical consumer musters up the courage to try a canned wine, and the product disappoints, they are unlikely to try wine in a can again.

When we learned of  Barokes' Australian wines in cans, we eagerly requested samples. We received four wines: a Chardonnay, a Shiraz, and  two sparklers. Unfortunately, we did not like any of the wines. Both whites, the Chardonnay and the blanc de blanc sparkler, tasted flat and oxidized. The Shiraz was simple and sweet, and the residual sugar in the wine grew so cloying that we were unable to finish the 250-mL can. The red sparkler, mysteriously called blanc de noirs, was particularly disappointing because we have very much enjoyed sparkling Shiraz in the past. This wine (a blend of Shiraz, Cabernet and Merlot) had good bubbles and ample tannin but lacked the fruit to match.

We hope Barokes reconsiders their strategy and improves the quality of the wines in their lineup. Meanwhile, keep a lookout for Wild Pelican canned wines, and please let us know if you see or hear of any others.

Box wines--what's the deal?

A dear reader recently asked us about wine in boxes. Before diving into a reply, click here to take a look at the Santa Rosa's Press-Democrat thoughts on the very subject.
(Short version, they like the Black Box brand, which you will recall is produced by Constellation, as well as jugs that consumers can take to stores and wineries to fill up.)

Wine in boxes is a wonderful idea. The wine is actually inside a plastic bag inside the box. The bag collapses as the wine is dispensed, so the wine remains free of oxygen. An opened box wine can stay fresh for weeks, and is a convenient thing to have on the counter, especially when you would like a glass of wine but do not want to commit to opening a bottle.

Boxed wine is also great from an environmental perspective. A box, barely the size of two bottles, typically holds the equivalent of 4 bottles of wine, so more can be packed into each shipment, reducing the carbon cost of moving the wine around. That cost is further reduced by the very much lower weight of the package. And the package is almost entirely recyclable, although whether the plastic parts actually get recycled is an open question.

The one thing boxes are not (yet) good for, is long term storage of wine. If you buy a box, plan to drink it within the year. This has to do with the nature of the plastic, gas permeability, and details beyond the scope of this blog.

For all of these reasons box, or "cask" wine is very popular in Australia and, we are told, Europe. The box has had trouble catching on here, and producers blame the generally dreadful quality of the "wine" sold in 5-liter boxes, such as Franzia, Peter Vella, etc. We use the quotation marks advisedly. These producers may have cleaned up their act, but at least a few years ago many of the 5-liter beverages were in essence wine-flavored, alcoholic sugar-water. Yum!

In our experiments with boxed wine, we have found that the 5-liter-related stigma may not be the only thing holding them back. We have found that the first releases of the wines is generally pretty good, but subsequent releases show a marked drop in quality. We have all but given up on boxed wine, as a result.

So we turn to you, dear readers. Have you found a boxed wine you enjoy? Or dislike? Do tell which, and why? We eagerly await your reply.