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The best boxed wines - our expert's choice

Great wines don’t have to come in a bottle. We've got the best boxed wines for parties or enjoying at home.

By Joe Fattorini | Published - 24 Oct 2024

Many years ago, I was on a tour of the Torres winery outside Barcelona. As we walked past a pallet of wine boxes, the owner, Miguel Torres, looked mortified.

“This is for Sweden only,” he insisted. “They make us package it this way.”

He’s not so reticent now.

More than half of all wine sold in Sweden (and Norway) is in boxes – and the rest of the world is catching on. Invented by an Australian winemaker who took his inspiration from bag-in-box battery acid containers, the wine box is perfect for this time of year when friends pop over for pre-Christmas drinks and discover you have your own ‘house red’ on tap.

Reds like Laylo Malbec 2023 (12.5%, £34.99 for 2.25L), which is supple, with dark berry flavours and floral aromas. It’s a delicious, versatile party red and the equivalent of £11.66 a bottle.

Once you’re done, I know someone who likes the pretty boxes so much they convert them into filing containers.

Wine in a box lasts eight months to a year. If you can wait that long. And once you open it, it lasts four to six weeks. If you can wait that long.

Buying wine in a box is also the single best way you can make wine more sustainable and better value.

Take Chicken Rosé, the perennially popular pink wine from La Vieille Ferme (12.5%, £15.50 for 1.5L). You get more fresh, strawberry-scented wine for your buck: this is £7.75 per bottle versus £8.50 in an actual bottle.

But thanks to better bags and wine technology, it tastes just the same.

In fact, some have done away with the box altogether. Le Grappin is the small producer in France that came up with the name ‘bagnum’ for a magnum in a bag.

Its Rouge Grenache Syrah (13%, £31 for 1.5L) is delicious. It has all the things you look for in a juicy, craftsman-made Rhône red: hand-harvested, careful winemaking, élevage in old Burgundy barrels – and served in a bag with special finger loops to make it easier to carry.

I genuinely recommend this to go with your Christmas turkey and trimmings.

Long gone are the days when boxes of wine were just standard grapes, too.

Bowl Grabber Alvarinho (12.5%, £23 for 1.5L) is a fragrant white that’s bang on trend. It’s also made by a celebrated Master of Wine, Barry Dick MW. It’s peachy and zesty and fabulous with seafood. It’s also a great aperitif.

Incidentally, a ‘bowl grabber’ is a snobby term for someone who holds a wine glass by the bowl, not the stem. Barry is a keen rugby player who is eager to kick that sort of nonsense into touch.

Even when you have no parties in the diary, you can enjoy wine from boxes one glass at a time for weeks. My picks are Porta 6 Lisboa Red (13.5%, £21.25 for 2.25L) – soft, juicy, hearty, and with an autumnal-wintery spice.

And Viña Sol (12%, £20 for 2.25L), with its fresh citrus fruit, and easy drinking style. It’s made by Miguel Torres – a man who is much happier for you to see his boxes now.

Written by: Joe Fattorini

Joe Fattorini is a British radio and television presenter, wine expert and sommelier. He's known to millions around the world as “Obi Wine Kenobi” the expert presenter on The Wine Show.

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