I have a good selection of Merlot on hand for the rollover and wanted to keep a good amount of basic table wine.

I never bought those boxed wines (wines in a bag in a box) and was wondering if anyone had any experience.

What size are the bags/boxes, how long do they keep unopened and after first opening. Any brands to watch out for?. I know the bag/box wines tend to be cheaper so I would hate to buy a dozen and find out that the go back quickly.

-- hamster (hamster@mycage.com), November 07, 1999

Answers

For what it's worth.Those boxed Wines are loaded with juice additives and other flavorings.Thats why they are cheaper,they are not 100% wine.

-- Dan Newsome (BOONSTAR1@webnet.tv), November 07, 1999.

There's been a fairly recent change in the box wines for the worse. Seems that they changed the wording on the boxes to include verbage indicating it wasn't pure wine in the box and have gotten real creative with the box contents. All it has to be is something like 5- 10% pure wine anymore. I checked dates on the few packages I found with this feature and I recall they indicated it needed to be used within a year. There are still some decent cheap wines in 4 litre glass jugs if you aren't too picky. Sure liked the asceptic packages though...fit on the shelf better (space wise) than round jugs.

DCK...Can you buy Merlot in 55 gallon drums?

-- Don Kulha (dkulha@vom.com), November 07, 1999.

We've abandoned any idea of storing wine in boxes and are going strictly to jug wines for bulk storage of table wines. Even on Kaua'i, we're able to get 4 liter bottles of Carlo Rossi for $8.99. With anything, be sure you like it before you store a lot!

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), November 08, 1999.

If you don't like it or it goes sour (can happen!), use it for making salad dressing. (Where do you think they get wine vinegar from?)

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), November 08, 1999.

Here in California's wine country, one can buy good Merlot in 20,000 liter stainless steel casks. They're designed for export. How's that for a barter item?? Fill 'er up!!

-- likes wine (not@work.now), November 10, 1999.

I cringe when thinking of the shipping charges for the steel casks!

-- Sara Nealy (keithn@aloha.net), November 10, 1999.