The Good And The Bad About Box Wine

"You look like my mommy after her box of wine." -- Ralph Wiggum on "The Simpsons"

I was in my local wine shop last week, The Wine Depot in Horoměřice, and noticed part of a wall devoted to boxes of wine.

I was intrigued.

I'd been hearing that boxed wine is actually pretty good nowadays -- (I'm not talking about those small boxes of cheap-o wine you see in the local grocery shops) -- that respected vintners are getting in on the act and that's it's not all Franzia and Boone's Farm swill.

I asked the wine clerk on duty, and she confirmed the rumors. The stuff they were selling is very good, she said. I decided to give it a try.

The wine is inside a five-liter plastic bladder inside the box itself. Pull out the spigot and start drinking!

The wine stays fresher longer -- for weeks (if it could possibly remain undrunk for that long) -- because no oxygen ever gets to it.

I've now tried two Italian varities, both from Farnese -- a lovely, smooth Sangiovese Daunia and a brutish Primitivo that really seemed to knock me on my butt(but in a good way).

The two wines averaged out to about $6 per liter -- a fantastic deal.


There's only one problem. Or maybe it's not a problem.

I've found that I'm drinking a lot more wine -- a lot more -- than I did before. And I drank my fair share before.

When you have a seemingly endless stream of good wine flowing out of a convenient spigot in your kitchen, it's hard to resist going back for another glass. And another.

Imagine if wine instead of water came out of your kitchen faucet when you turned it on and you'll get the idea.

A bottle of wine naturally imposes some limits to your drinking.

I'll keep working at this problem and get back to you.