Unboxing Boxed Wine #3: Finally, a winner

As regular readers of this blog know, I've been on a fool's errand for months, trying to verify, or not, the wine industry's claim that better wine is now showing up in boxes. It has not been pretty. It has not been successful.

Until now.

La Vielle Ferme, by a Rhone producer that makes, among other things, a $100 Chateauneuf du Pape, is a decent Tuesday night sipper: fruity but dry, a nice balance of acidity and tannin, a bit of wood. It goes down easy but has some interest. The aromas alone were surprising: rich, even lush.

To be fair, I don't want to brag it up too much: I'm grading on the boxed wine curve here. But this wine cube compares quite favorably to most $10 red blends I've come across over the years.

A box of La Vielle Ferme cost $27 at my local Total Wine. You can buy a bottle of what I think is the same wine, under the same label, for about $8. With 4 bottles of wine in a 3-liter box, you're paying the equivalent of $6.75 a bottle if you buy in the rectangular format.

Plus you get the added benefit of the wine staying fresh in your fridge for up to a month. Yes, it'll last you a month of Tuesdays, plus a few Mondays and Wednesdays thrown in.

Your mileage may vary.