I’ve never been very much of a wine drinker, though recently , I’ve been known to savor a good Cab or Chardonnay with food or otherwise. I have often kept a box of wine to have around for guests or special occasions. Randy Cross would understand. I’m the 49ers fan he denounced back in the 80's. Sorry Randy, but some of the 49er faithful aren’t 100% Budweiser drinkers, but we can still make quite a noise when it counts. First we have to put down the wine...

Boxed wine stays fresh for months making it a practical approach for the occasional wine drinker. All kidding aside, you can get some pretty darn good wine now in boxes. I’ve been buying the Wine Cube over at Target for a year or so. The 2005 Chardonnay (Australia) and the 2004 Cabernet (California) are wonderful values. It works out to about $4 per bottle. I don't care nearly as much for the Shitaz blends. As much as it pains me to say, the California Chardonnay is not as good either. Justin Timberlake (and SNL) notwithstanding, I’ve never tasted better wine from a box than the Target offering. Congrats to Target. Who would have guessed!

After awhile, the avid boxed wine drinker discovers that boxed wine does not go over all that well with the wine snob crowd, the new lady-friend crowd, or any crowd for that matter. Even then I could appreciate more expensive and better made wine. One thing to avoid embarrasment is to fill a decanter before serving the boxed wine. 

I even went on a wine tasting trip to Napa and Sonoma counties. My travel buddy lady friend was glad to do some sightseeing, presuming it would lead to more adventurous pursuits. So we headed out for Napa one Wednesday afternoon, and began with some of the local wine tasting bars in town. The wine bars charge about $5 for a couple of ounces of wine, not all that great a value. But it’s nice to try really upscale wine ($30/bottle and up), several varieties, from different wineries, one after the other. It gives a wine connoisseur a way to avoid any mistakes when buying expensive wine. Every darn one of the samples we tried tasted excellent!

It’s nice to be drinking outside of the box on occasion. There are so many great wine deals these days. For instance, TJs has several good selections at about $10 or less. My favorite right now is Mission Point Pinot Noir, 2004 vintage, Central Coast, $8.99. Mission Point Pinot Noir is a very smooth and lip smacking selection, with enough oak and tannin to drink with food, but light enough for anytime and continuous enjoyment. It reminds me of a top notch Italian Chianti that my travel buddy lady friend would really appreciate. I must have her phone number around here somewhere.

by Peter Jul 21 2007 00:45:07 This thread discusses the Content article: Wine Drinking Outside the Box I think I'll do some more wine tasting reviews...