Box Wine, Wine Cube, Jug Wine, Cask Wine. There are probably more names placed on wine in a paper or plastic container than you can shake a stick at. To begin this article we will start with a short history of the Cask Wine (as box wine was originally named) industry. The inventor of wine in a paper container is an Australian named Thomas Angove. The idea was issued a patent on April 20, 1965. The wine was sealed in a polyethylene bladder and than placed in corrugated boxes. The idea was then taken by Charles Malpas who patented a plastic, air tight tap welded to a metallised bladder. Than in 2003 Central Coast AVA based Black Box Wines started to place what they considered to be premium wines in a box which was supposed to change the stereotype that box wines were the same junk wine as "Jug Wines". This also worked out well with the environmental crowd who saw less glass and more recyclable paper as a benefit to the environment. Now that we have shared a little bit about the origin of the box wine industry let's move on to what I think about the actual wine placed in these boxes, in particular the "Wine Cube"
Today I am going to review one of those wines in a paper box known as "Wine Cube". The wine I am going to review was bought for me at Target stores and is what they have branded "Wine Cube" with the varietal of Cabernet Sauvignon. Here is how I came to try the "Wine Cube". My Wife and Daughter came home from shopping at Target one day and had "a surprise" for me. The "surprise" was the Target stores "Wine Cube". Well after putting on a fake smile and telling them how I appreciated their thoughtfulness I considered exactly what if anything I had done wrong to make them mad. They said they thought it would be fun for me to review the wine inside and let my readers know what I thought about it. I wasn't exactly pleased considering the wine was in a paper carton like Coconut water (see the photo) but agreed to give it a try and do a review. Well folks, here is that review.
 |
| Desert Wine Girl Jr. with Coconut Water and Cube Wine |
Looking at the "Wine Cube" which sells for $2.49 I noticed that there is no Vintage (the year the grapes were harvested) listed. There is no winery listed prominently on the cube or even the name of the Vineyard. If you want to see the winery the wine came from which in this case is Trinchero (
http://www.trincheronapavalley.com/) you have to go to the back of the "Wine Cube" and look at the bottom of the container. Basically you are told what varietal the wine is and the state the wine is from, that is it.
Let's proceed to the pouring and tasting part of this wine. I was immediately
impressed at the color of the wine, there was actually some real depth
to the wine. A nice deep Burgundy color wine was now sitting in my
glass. There was no light or pale Red color that I half expected to see. As far
as I could tell the wine appeared as if it had come from a bottle. On
the nose the wine was Oakey and mixed with a deep Blackberry. There was
a sense of ever so slight bitterness on the finish but nothing to scare
me away. There was a nice Black Cherry. Here was a big surprise, there
were even surprisingly some Tannin's present that added a sense of
seriousness to the wine. The wine also had a nice mouth feel to it that
at times was a nicer mouth feel than some wines I have tasted that cost a
lot more money and came in a glass bottle. The wine was balanced and
smooth. There were hints of Oak that I tasted as well as smelled. I opened the carton of wine and here is what I discovered. The "Wine Cube" opens by twisting a small, round , plastic cap. No there is no pull foil or puncture hole for a straw. When twisting the cap a seal is broken on the cap and will allow you to know whether the wine was opened or not prior to buying it. The second safety seal is just inside the mouth of the cube and is a a foil type material. The first thing I noticed when I opened the wine is that the foil which is supposed to keep the wine from becoming spoiled was ripped and torn away. I had initially thought that this was a bad thing and was debating as to whether I should throw the wine out or not. I thought better of that idea when I realize I remembered the the safety on the cap had been intact. I figured even if the wine was spoiled it probably wouldn't change the taste of the wine in this cube. It took a while but after reviewing the entire package I noticed that the plastic cap had little legs that actually rip the foil as it turns, a nice idea I thought. I poured a small amount into my good wine glass and this is what I discovered.
 |
| "Cube Wine" cover with legs |
Now for the bottom line here. I really enjoyed the wine. If you poured the wine into a glass for company without letting them see the container it came from I am sure the wine would be loved. It of course would be up to you to decide whether to keep it a secret exactly where it came from. I would like to write here that the wine was terrible and that I did not enjoy it but that would not be true. I thought the wine was pretty good. The big question I think here is WILL I buy the Cube? I can honestly tell you and this may or may not come as a shock that I will NOT buy the wine in a cube or a box or anything other than a glass bottle. The only exception I see is if I am somewhere that glass is not allowed. While I do write this article based on the average persons wine world which is why I even tasted this wine in the first place, I still want SOME type of tradition or etiquette for my wine. As I have stated before in other articles, I still prefer Corks to Screw Caps and I will go on record stating now that I prefer glass to paper. My overall feeling about this wine is that it was probably wine that was either left over or made in excess that wasn't bottled by Trinchero in the typical manner for whatever reason. Target probably approached the winery with the idea to bottle some of their left over wine into the "Wine Cube". Trinchero in turn probably looked at this as a great way to earn money for a wine that was going to go to waste. Let's be clear here. None of this means that the wine is bad wine, it could be great wine that might sell for a lot of money if put into a glass bottle and had a fancy label slapped on it. I do think that this was a smart decision on the part of Trinchero. The weird thing here and I believe the problem that I see is that they actually put their name on the package. To me I think that is a bad idea since the idea of wine in a box (or bottle) usually carries a bad connotation and the belief that the wine is simply junk and not drinkable. I would think that would bring down customers opinion about the Winery and cause "real" wine drinkers to stay away from the Winery which would (or could) start to become associated with cheap wine. Most wine brokers (Costco) who by the way sold $3.7 billion (yes a B) in alcohol last year will buy good wine from Vineyards and charge half of what the winery would normally charge but keep the Winery or Vineyard secret so that that bad connotation is not made. This works out for the consumer pretty well as the Winery. By the way I have heard that their own wine label which is Kirkland is awesome and made from top notch winery's look for a review on their own branded wine in the future. In finishing up here I thought the wine was worth the money and was good for areas where glass might not be allowed but at the same time you want some decent wine.
On The Desert Wine Guy Rating Scale I give this wine 87 points.
The Desert Wine Guy
https://www.facebook.com/DesertWineGuy
https://twitter.com/DesertWineGuyLV
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgCUb3w1n2S_UGU2yYRkFYQ/videos
www.Thedesertwineguy.com
No comments:
Post a Comment