Yesterday, on the way out for dinner, we stopped at Putnam, one of our two wine stores (Putnam and Saratoga Wine Exchange) to get a taste of whatever they had open and browse for a bit.They only had one bottle open, but it was good, so we bought it. I'll write that up later, after we have it for dinner. As we browsed, I noticed they had two new brands in alternative packaging.
I am always on the lookout for good box wine, because it shouldn't be that difficult to make a decent one, and sometimes we want to take wine places that don't allow glass (like the Saratoga Racetrack for my annual Alabama Party), for example.
I asked the guys for an honest assessment, and they both said the wines were good at their respective price points. C'mon, you gotta give me more than that! Last year I bought two different boxes for the track party, and no one wanted to drink them. The white I wound up loading with fruit to make a sangria, and the red, well, I drank it because it was there.
These guys didn't work there last year, so they didn't know which boxes I meant, but they were confident that wouldn't happen with either of these. I picked up the 1-liter malbec at $12.89, or $9.66 per 750ml. $10 should guarantee a "good" wine, as discussed in the comment thread here. And it was good. Only the second time I've been happy with a box/carton wine, and I'll have no problem buying more and bringing to the track next year. Now, I've had better malbecs, and cheaper too as Argentina is a great region for bargains, but this wine was solid. Add the fact that it's organic to the alt-packaging, and you have a great "green" wine, which makes the price premium palatable.
Check Y&B out here. Here's another good link about box wine. The difference in environmental impact between a shipping container or truckload of box wine vs. bottles is enormous, and developments like this should be encouraged with our shopping dollar. There may be nothing like bringing a dusty bottle of good wine out of the cellar to pop and pour with a good dinner, but for regular consumption, we should all be drinking out of these in 10 years.
