Cork Free! Boxed Wine - Pinot Grigio

Episode Transcript

Hello! And welcome to the Wine Pair podcast. I’m Joe, your sommelier of reasonably priced wine, and this is my wife and wine-pairing partner in crime. And we are the Wine Pair.

In today’s episode, we continue our Cork Free series - where we drink wines that come in packaging that does not have cork - like bottles with screw caps , or wine in a can - and this time we are dealing with something that I have to admit I am a little worried about - boxed wine! And not just any boxed wine, but Pinot Grigio in a box. Now, I do like Pinot Grigio (yes, sometimes called Pinot Gris) in general, but I am not so sure about wine in a box.  So, you may be wondering, why did we select Pinot Grigio for an episode about wine in a box if we are not so sure about wine in a box? Afterall, it seemed like most of the choices for boxed wine were chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon. Which I really don’t like - and you would know that if you have listened to our podcast before. 

Well, I thought about this long and hard, and I figured that it might be unfair to judge a boxed wine that was of a varietal that I don’t like very much - because it may not fairly determine if it is the format of the wine - that it is in in box - or the wine itself that may affect our judgment. So, in order to reduce the impact of one of the variables, I decided to choose a varietal we like, with a format we are skeptical about.  

Now, you also should know that we are not skeptical of wines that don’t have corks - quite the opposite in fact! We love screw cap wines, and we liked our sparkling wines in a can, so maybe, just maybe, we can find a wine in a box that we can tolerate. We’ll see.

But first, as always, we have to start with another topic so that the people in listening land can understand better who these idiots are that host this crazy podcast. So, in this episode we are going to talk about - duh, duh, duh - ice cream.

Carmela, one of your favorite things in the whole world is ice cream, so I have some interview questions for you about it. Are you ready?

• Why do you love ice cream so much?
• What is your favorite flavor of ice cream, and why?
• Why do you insist on getting vanilla ice cream when we have guests over?
• What is the secret ingredient you put in your ice cream, and can you talk about your strange microwave habit - that I think you have stopped doing. Not sure why. 
• Finally, can you tell the listeners at home about one of our first fights as a married couple many years ago that centered around ice cream?

Now, you may be wondering why I decided to talk about ice cream. Well, believe it or not, and I am not making this up, a few years ago Baskin-Robbins introduced wine pairings for mother’s day - I am not joking. And one of their pairings was vanilla ice cream and pinot grigio. They claimed that the creamy and buttery vanilla flavor paired well with the fruit of a pinot grigio. (https://www.dairyfoods.com/articles/92897-baskin-robbins-debuts-wine-and-ice-cream-pairings)

Ok, let’s get back to the real topic of today’s podcast - wine in a box. I will say that it feels like the wine in a box section at the store is kind of a sad place. Maybe it’s just me, but the boxed wine gets its own special section, apart from the varietals, as if they put the boxed wine in a Time Out. So, I would say, right off the bat, boxed wine comes across as a “lesser than” choice.

The other thing about boxed wine is that some of the boxes are just too big. For our episode I tried to find some smaller format boxed wines, but a lot of the ones I was looking at come in these mega-sized boxes, so you really have to commit if you are going to drink these wines. Now, boxed wine is supposed to keep much longer because it just doesn’t get the same exposure to air that a bottled wine does - the bag sort of keeps deflating as you pour out more wine and air doesn’t get back in. For the smaller format boxed wines, however, like we got, they just have screw tops and so once you open them, you have to drink them. But that’s ok because they are smaller. Even so, I should warn you that the size is deceptive, in the same way that the size of the wines in a can is deceptive. These little boxes are 500 ml, which is 2/3rds of a bottle of wine! So, don’t fool yourself into thinking that these are half bottles. They are more!! Danger, Danger!

The good thing about these bad boys, though? Like a can, they don’t break, they are easy to carry and store, and they have a screw cap!!! Hooray!!!

The other thing about many of these boxed wines is that there is just not a lot of information about them - it is unclear where the grapes are from other than in a very general way, and it is unclear how they are produced, etc. so the write-ups on the boxes tend to be very much about the flavors of the wine and how long the wine can be stored, but it was really hard to find information that a wine dork may want to know about. And I think that is is the point. I think the point is that these wines are really for everyday drinking, something you put in your fridge or on the counter when you want a glass, and you don’t want the bother of opening a bottle of wine for just a single glass. 

The other thing I learned which is really interesting about boxed wines is that they claim to be a little better for the environment. Boxes take less energy to make than bottles, they are easier to recycle, and they can be produced and shipped more easily. So, other than convenience, there may be some other reasons why you might want to have a boxed wine. The Vendage wine says that it is “earth friendly” - creating 90% less waste than wine bottles. The 101 North Wine says that it has a smaller carbon footprint than glass bottles. And Liberty Creek just says it is portable and lightweight and asks you to remember to recycle. So, there’s that. 

Anyway, let’s get to tasting so we can see what we think.. Are you ready?

Pinot Grigio, I should say, is most known as an Italian wine, but all of these wines that we are tasting today are from California. I think. But Pinot Grigio is also grown in Germany, France (Alsace), Australia, New Zealand, Hungary, and other places like Canada and the Czech Republic. Interestingly enough it is related to Pinot Noir and is a pink grape. So, the wine is white because when they make it they don’t let the juice mix with the skins, unless they are making a rose’ version of the wine. 

And, after we taste and review these wines, we are going to compare the tastes and smells we think experienced with those of what would be expected from a Pinot Grigio

Wines

Wine: 101 North Pinot Grigio

Region: California

Producer: 101 North

Year: 

Price: $4.47 (500 ml)

Retailer: Safeway

Alcohol: 11%

Rating: Joe 6 Carmela 6

Wine: Liberty Creek Pinot Grigio

Region: California (this like the 101 are made in Lathrop, CA, just east of SF and San Jose, and south of Sacramento)

Producer: Liberty Creek wines

Year: 

Price: $4.99

Retailer: Safeway

Alcohol: 11.5%

Grapes (if not clear):  Gluten free?!?!

Rating: Joe 7 Carmela 7

Wine: Vendage Pinot Grigio

Region: “American”

Producer: Vendage

Year: 

Price: $5.99

Retailer: Safeway

Alcohol: 12.5%

Rating: Joe  2 Carmela 2

Taste profiles expected

• White peach, lemon zest, lemon-lime, cantaloupe, raw almond, crushed gravel
• Apple, pear, apricot, nectarine (stone fruit)
• Zesty
• Honey, saline, ginger, spice

What is the wine we are finishing tonight? 

Well, that was super fun! 

Ok - for those of you who are still listening, we would love to hear from you. Tell us what you like and what you don’t like, tell us about some wines you want us to try, tell us if you want to be a guest on our show. Or, just tell us about a wine you love or you hate and we’ll chat it up. You can visit our website at thewinepairpodcast.com and leave a voice message or send us a note. You can comment or reach out on Instagram at thewinepairpodcast. You can reach out to us at joe@thewinepairpodcast.com and we would LOVE to hear your comments. And we hope you’ll subscribe and follow us and tell all your friends and family and enemies and loved ones and everyone!

Thanks for listening to the Wine Pair podcast, and we will see you next time. And, as we say, life is short, so stop drinking shitty wine