It used to be that only your beer-drinking friends served wine in boxes. And they honestly thought they were doing you a favor. But, hey, there were 5 liters of juice in those boxes (actually a bag inside the box) and even after a couple weeks in the fridge, the wine didn’t get any worse.

It turns out that the bag-in-a-box system works so well to preserve open wine that some producers have now put their premium wines into boxes – vintage dated and everything. The packaging – once considered gauche – is gaining respect. 

The bag-in-a-box system goes back to the 1950s when it was invented as a container for battery acid. (And for awhile, the wines destined for boxes might as well have been battery acid.) The plastic bladder inside the box is airtight. When you pour wine from the self-closing spigot, the bag shrinks, allowing no air inside.  After all, it’s contact with oxygen that prematurely ages wine.

While the system has remained pretty much the same over the years, the boxes have gotten smaller. Most of them now hold 3 liters of wine – the equivalent of 4 bottles. The producers advertise that the wines will keep for 6 to 8 weeks. We haven’t tested that. (No open wine remains un-drunk for that long in our households.) Since cold temperatures retard a wine’s aging further, we recommend you store the box in your refrigerator. Red or white.

If you frequent wine stores as we do, you’ll see lots of the same names from one place to the next. But here are a few we think are worth searching for. Not as cheap as many . . . but good quality.

FOUR Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay (California), $40

From the Tank Côtes-du-Rhône Vin Rouge, Vin Blanc and Rosé (France), $40

Le Bord'Eaux Merlot (France), $30

Vinchio Kroara Barbera and Cortese (Italy), $25

Box wines are perfect for poolside this summer. If you have something more highbrow in mind, pour the wine into a pretty decanter. Who’ll know?

Cheers!

Barbara and Beverly
The Saucy Sisters

The Saucy Sisters are wine and spirits experts with a twist. A twist of humor, that is, that they use in their books and in their live performances.  Their next Brentwood appearance is “Wine Tasting for Floozies” at Durego on Friday, July 22. For more information, call 615-925-9586. You can email them at Saucies@SaucySisters.com or find them at www.SaucySisters.com.