What's new
Fantasy Football - Footballguys Forums

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

What's the best box wine? (1 Viewer)

R

RokNRole

Footballguy
I think I should switch from beer to wine to cut down on the carbs and for the health benefits. I prefer lighter body reds like Valpolicella. I'd like something decent that comes in a 5 liter box I can just keep in my kitchen for a few glasses after work.

Are there any good boxed wines?

 
I'll bite. I drink A LOT of red wine and for years stayed in the $15-$20 bottle range for just normal, sitting on the couch-watching TV wine.

I decided to try Black Box cab several months ago, and I have not looked back. It's not great-great, but it's perfectly fine. 4 bottles to a box...stays fresh for weeks, runs about $21/box.

 
Ray Karpis said:
I'll bite. I drink A LOT of red wine and for years stayed in the $15-$20 bottle range for just normal, sitting on the couch-watching TV wine.

I decided to try Black Box cab several months ago, and I have not looked back. It's not great-great, but it's perfectly fine. 4 bottles to a box...stays fresh for weeks, runs about $21/box.
Click to expand...
I'm in.

 
Snickers said:
Actually, not true at all. Boxed wine has come a long way and Loft, Black Box and Big House all have good offerings.
Click to expand...
Hmmm....Although it goes against my better judgement i may check one of these for an upcoming river trip.  

 
sbonomo said:
Hmmm....Although it goes against my better judgement i may check one of these for an upcoming river trip.  
Click to expand...
Go check what some of them rated out during blind taste tests at Wine Spectator. Just from a value standpoint, it is totally worth it. Big House makes a good value table wine for $12-15 a bottle. The same exact wine in a box comes out to less than half of that price per bottle. 

 
:lmao:  

most dedicated shtick on the boards these days. 

Is this Tanner?  Zartan?  Truck?  Dentist?  Dr Detroit?

 
RokNRole said:
I'm not worried about calories I'm worried about carbs.
Click to expand...
hate to break it to you: that's just one big box of [fermented] grape juice, your carb savings is negligible. you'd be better off with Michelob Ultra. 

as to the "best" box wine? 

- LOFT is not awful. it's Cab Sauv for red though, so it might be too heavy for your tastes

- Black Box will get the job done too as suggested above

- Naked Grape Pinot Noir sounds like something you'd like...$18-$20 for 3L

and personally, i'm not scared of Gallo Family Hearty Burgundy...$7 for 1.5L 

 
If you have an Aldis near you they have some decent cheap bottled wine. Their house wine Winking Owl is $2.99 a bottle for all varieties plus they have better options between $5-$10 a bottle.

 
Hawks64 said:
Koya'd have to be in on it, me him IRL and he's posted some videos of himself :shrug:
Click to expand...
Koya's also met one of my coworkers. As I said this is my real like in all its glory.

Ask him if you don't believe me

 
Last edited by a moderator:
RokNRole said:
Didn't notice it was sweet until I got home. Next time I'll go for something drier
Click to expand...
not sure what you've got in terms of Franzia selections, but i'd stay away from the "Fruity Red Sangria" and "Moscato" if you don't want sweet. 

 
Quint said:
not sure what you've got in terms of Franzia selections, but i'd stay away from the "Fruity Red Sangria" and "Moscato" if you don't want sweet. 
Click to expand...
It just says " chillable red". I didn't read the back of the box. It tastes like sangria. Not getting it again.

 
Jules Winnfield said:
Okay, please continue
Click to expand...
I prefer, in this order, Champagne, Chablis or Sancerre with oysters.  The sweetness of the oysters pairs perfectly with bubbles in my opinion.  If not available, my back up is the a delicate Chablis (you can find these for 15-20 per bottle).  I will be honest, i am not familiar with the Picpoul varietal, but based on the description I will retract my statement that it is a completely wrong pairing.  It sounds like a poor mans Chablis if you will.  

 
Picpoul Blanc and Chablis (especially Grand Cru and 1er Cru) are really two different animals imo. Picpoul lacks the minerality found in Chablis, and Chablis is generally less acidic than Picpoul. 

and while i'm not a big fan of oysters personally, i did have them paired with a Txakoli recently and it was really good. 

 
Target's boxed chard is not bad either. I seem to remember their red blend won some awards a couple years ago as well. 

Boxed wine is my go to for family parties. Considering my entire family were beer drinkers that I showed the light of the magic of wine, they don't get all pretentious and scoff at the box. They just pour and enjoy. 

 
when people ask me what type of box wine to pick up i say get a mirror and they say huh and i say buy a mirror and look at yourself and then ask what in the hell brohan just what in the hell take that to the bank 

 
Quint said:
Picpoul Blanc and Chablis (especially Grand Cru and 1er Cru) are really two different animals imo. Picpoul lacks the minerality found in Chablis, and Chablis is generally less acidic than Picpoul. 

and while i'm not a big fan of oysters personally, i did have them paired with a Txakoli recently and it was really good. 
Click to expand...
Txakoli was one of the grapes I was coming in here to talk about.

Look, I love champagne just as much as anyone and I've had them paired with oysters on a number of occasions. I've also paired champagne with potato chips, homemade french fries with some sea salt, truffle buttered popcorn, fried chicken, etc...but guess what? To me, it's just too easy to say champagne because their are very few things champagne doesn't partner with. Get off the everyday downtrodden path and lets talk about three different grapes which are perfect pairings for bivalves.

1) Muscadet AOC - Melon de Bourgogne

The Loire River: A large all over the map snake of a river, its birth is deep central France with a start of going north, then makes a left turn on its way west toward the Atlantic at the Bay of Biscay. As we get closer to the ocean on our river raft, a new geology emerges and do you smell that? Take a deep sniff...you get a big whiff of sea in the air. It is here we arrive in the Muscadet region and the grape here is Melon de Bourgogne, which is is a very old and classic pairing with oysters. How classic? In the Montparnasse region of Southern Paris, where some of the greatest oyster bars of the world are found, Muscadet is often the ONLY option for your wine with oysters. I mean, here we are in Paris, which is a simple hour train ride to the Champagne region, and yet, no champagne to be found at this oyster bar. The salinity found in the Muscadet air imparts and conveys its character onto the grapes, making for a unbelievable trade-off of flavors that sing together like few food and wine duets could ever hope to accomplish.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Quint said:
Picpoul Blanc and Chablis (especially Grand Cru and 1er Cru) are really two different animals imo. Picpoul lacks the minerality found in Chablis, and Chablis is generally less acidic than Picpoul. 

and while i'm not a big fan of oysters personally, i did have them paired with a Txakoli recently and it was really good. 
Click to expand...
Exactly.

Chablis vineyards are grown in what was once a prehistoric sea. All those shelled creatures died when the seas receded, and their shells made it way into the geology. You don't have to dig far into the limestone and clay and find fossilized shells and sea creature skeletons. 

Picpoul has very big acidity. Picpoul translates to "Lip Stinger" because of this bracing acidity. Picpoul is a region in Languedoc, and if you ever get a chance to go to the vineyards along the Thau Bassin, these are some of the oldest vineyards that you will find amongst the Mediterranean coast lines.

At one time, this was the largest white wine producer in the Languedoc Rousillon (but I'm not sure of current release numbers so I don't want to say that it still is) 

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Picpoul de Pinet AOC - Picpoul de Pinet

So, let's head south to the Mediterranean coast line and we will stop just south west of Montpellier in the Picpoul de Pinet AOC. It is here the Picpoul grape makes green-tinged, toned, firm, and bucking bronco acidic wines, BUT, give these grapes to a solid grower and winemaker, the harshness can be balanced and corralled, which will give you a exhilarating and glistening wine. Why oysters? Well, some of the vineyards in the Picpoul de Pinet, in fact, are literally right next to oyster beds found in the area. So, as the evening rolls in and the winds start blowing, it not only sends the daytime high temps away but you start to taste the sea salt in the air, and as we saw in Muscadet, this sea salt air ends up on the grapes and will make itself known by bringing the taste of the sea into the wine bottles. Again, just like in Muscadet, the closeness of sea to our vineyards, along with a fresh and bright wine, we have a stunner of a pairing!

 
Getariako Txakolina D.O. - Txakoli

Pronounced CHOCK-oh-lee and it comes from a grape known as Hondarrabi Zuri, (zuri meaning white in Basque) while there are also red made from Hondarrabi Beltza (beltza meaning black in Basque) and rosé from a blend of the two grapes 

Similar to the first two that we talked about, it's just like real estate. Location, location, location...okay a little geography helps as well. The Basque region is located at the northern edge of Spain, over the mountains from Rioja. It is here that the gastronomy of seafood is where amazing quality and style exist, and the bright citrus and minerality wines of Txakolina are paired to no end with oysters, squid, octopus, fried tapas, cured meats, and hard cheese (The very famous Basque-made sheep's milk cheese Idiazabel is a wonderful pairing!)

It is a low alcohol wine with just a touch of fizziness to it so you'll see the wine poured from a shoulder level into the glass to keep that effervescence bubbling and you pour a smaller amount than usual to keep that effervescence fresh. 

Txakolina seem like a simple wine but actually, there's a lot that goes into the production of making these wines but that is for another day.

If you can find the rosé, get it. They aren't big fans of rosé in the Basque region, and a big majority of it gets shipped to New York and they don't produce a lot of the rosé, so that is why I say, buy one if you see one. 

 
Last edited by a moderator:
If some of you don't believe me about pairing champagne and potato chips, just try it. National Potato Chip Day is a real thing and every year I am fortunate to be invited by one of the best wine distributors I have ever worked with and they open up nothing but Grower's Champagne (something I would love to talk about on here) and they purchase over 100 different kinds of potato chips.  It's awesome when you try it with a potato chip flavored with dill, sea salt, black pepper, jalapeño, bacon and cheddar, whatever stupid flavored Lay's puts out, etc...I have also made homemade potato chips and seasoned them with so many different things under the sun because we had an herb and vegetable garden at my old employment and they would come out and we would host an event with our members and guests 

 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Ministry of Pain
So I bought into a "Craft" Beer n Wine store with a Drive-Thru
2
Replies
81
Views
4K
Instinctive
Instinctive
GordonGekko
How Has The Widespread Normalization Of Social Media Impacted Your Life / Your Children's Lives? (22/30)
Replies
4
Views
789
GordonGekko
GordonGekko
woodstock
This Article Is Righteous And Prescient About So Many Things, Oh, and Nü-Metal And Twilight Are The True Outsider Art, The Only Rebel Poets
Replies
8
Views
1K
GStrot
G

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 1 (members: 0, guests: 1)
Back
Top