Wine in a Box may be Greener, But Will I Buy It? Part 1

Once upon a time, my very good friend Susan and I opened a bottle of wine that her father had gotten for Christmas from a colleague. We drank the whole bottle. I believe we were both of legal drinking age, but I wouldn't swear to it. 

We will never forget that bottle of wine. It was Avia wine - a red, and we thought it was good. We went to the local liquor store to buy some more (not that same day!) and it cost a whole $2.99 (her dad's colleague was some big spender, huh?). 

It didn't take us long to discover that there were much better bottles of wine out there. Since that night in her living room when we drank our first bottle together, Susan and I have consumed many, many more bottles, both together and separately, and fancy ourselves amateur oenophiles.  

That bottle of $2.99 red may not have been as fabulous as we thought, but it did have two things that we still appreciate - an actual bottle and a cork made of cork. 

As I've mentioned before, however, my times they are a changin', and I'm trying to green all areas of my life, a little at a time. There seems to be quite a buzz about wine in a box lately. The buzz is saying that an open box stays fresher longer than an open bottle AND more importantly that the box is a greener option than the traditional bottle.

But I want my bottle and I want my cork!

Okay, now that I've had my little fit, here's the argument for the lasting freshness of wine in a box.

Wine isn't just poured into a box. Inside the box is a collapsible bag and outside of the box is a tap. The bag collapses as the wine is dispensed and the wine inside the box never gets exposed to air, thus lengthening the amount of time it stays fresh.

I've been seeing commercials for Fish Eye wine in a box that touts the freshness factor. Turns out that in 2007 two Wall Street Journal Columnists did an experiment to test how long the Fish Eye wine stayed fresh. After six weeks they found that the quality of the wine was still good.

I can buy the fact that the wine stays fresher in a box. But can I actually buy the wine in the box from the store? I'm not sure.

Monday in Part 2, we'll look at the reported environmental benefits of wine in a box. Until then, tell me this. Have you ever bought wine in a box? If you have, how long did you keep it and what was its condition at the end of its life?

To read Part 2 of this post, click here.