Last Thursday night, I had dinner at my parents' house. After I finished my first glass of wine, my mom said, "Oh, we're out of bottles. We'll have to switch to the box." She gestured to the counter, where a box of Franzia chardonnay sat. I actually thought the box of Franzia was there as a joke.
So I switched to red and my mom called me a wine snob. Which is fine.
For the record, I am totally not against box wines, but I am against bad wine. And for me to call wine "bad", it has to be pretty horrendous. Really, I'm not a wine snob.
But I digress. As it turns out, that conversation provided some nice foreshadowing. The next day, DC Jason sent me (along with the other friends we email with) this article about cheap white wines, and our conversation quickly diverged into a discussion of the merits of box wine.
(Brief aside regarding that article: forgive me if I'm not convinced by the author's tone that cheap wines are really a great option. Why hire somebody so condescending to write an article like this one? They couldn't find wines they actually liked to recommend?)
Back to the wine chat. Our friend Matt pointed out the inherent "green" qualities of box wine. (Yes, I am annoying myself by using the word "green.") He's obviously on to something, as this short Mental Floss article and this longer Dr. Vino NYT Op-Ed suggest.
So what does this mean for my drinking habits? Well, probably not too much actually. I'm going to take to heart the comments of Mental Floss commenter "owl", who pointed out that the oak forests of the Mediterranean rely on cork harvesting to stay healthy. So unless I'm at my parents' house and they completely run out of wine, chances are I'm going to stick with the bottles.
**One last note: if I had plans to go camping anytime soon, I'd totally pack boxes of wine - or, at least, the bags from the inside of the boxes. However, since I don't really like camping, probably that's not going to happen either.
4 comments:
Hi Kit,
The Montado cork oak forests are home to more than cork oak trees. We've got lots of info about the wine stopper debate, the Save Miguel campaign, and more.
We'd be honored if you'd visit (http://www.wicanderscorkoakblog.com) and let us know your thoughts.
Thanks.
Team Wicanders
You'll appreciate this. I actually read somewhere that the TetraPak thingies that a lot of boxed wines come in actually AREN'T as green as previously thought, because most communities don't have the equipment to recycle them. Ha! One point for the non-green team!
Both interesting and a good reason to keep drinking out of bottles. I like it!
I have Bin 604 in Harbor East order me a box wine that I found through much searching. It's called Cuvee De Pena and is from France. I love it and it is only slightly more money than the normal stuff they carry. It also lasts a long time and I can take however much I want out to use for recipes or just drinking.
Renee
Post a Comment