Boxed Wine - which ones are good?

[fairy]

Hi,

Looking for help again (!)

I'm having my FIL 60th birthday party at our house, bouncy castles is booked so the kids are ok, but I need help with the drinks for adults. I would like to get a box or two of a white and red wine but having never bought one I don't know where to start.

We like New World wines on the whole, and I would be interested in using them on a personal basis too. So any ideas?

Fairy, go to a Bordeaux Direct or Majestic and they will help you make up a case of assorted wines, especially if you tell them your tastes. This is the best way to get variety and what you like as well as trying some of their suggestions

In the supermarket you should see boxes of wines you recognise. If you like new world wines I know you can get boxes of Barramundi.
Have fun!!!

Sainsburys sell the boxes of Hardys and Kumala which are nice. The Hardy one with a koala on the front is lovely if you like a dry fruity wine. Unfortunately Valpolicella is my limit with red wine (with lemonade peasant that I am). Not sure if Jacobs Creek do the Shiraz Cabernet in a box but that is lovely.

Agree with Pamina, the Banrock Station red is lovely, not so fussed on Banrock White mind you.

Have to agree on the Banrock station (red) - it's lovely!!!

Another (red) Banrock Station fan!

How long do they stay drinkable for after opening? And how many bottles are they the equivalent of? I'm not sure how many litres they hold. Since I drink about 3 bottles of wine a week, would it be more cost effective to get a box?

Have to say none IMO. I think they're all yuk! Especially the whites, might as well carton vinegar and be done with it!! Maybe that's just my expensive taste buds, who knows. Don't get the chance at the moment, so maybe its the green eyed envy monster rearing its head. Only a few more days to go then pregnancy over and maybe I'll indulge again, but it definitely won't be boxed. Not v helpful I know, sorry.

Agree with Pamina about the attractive portability of boxed wine. I'm not normally a big fan of it myself (although let's face it - when it comes to it I'll drink anything), but hubby and I recently went on a few days' break to La Mamounia in Marrakesh without the kids. This is a ridiculously expensive hotel, well out of our normal league, but husband helpfully works in the travel trade, so we got it all very cheap. Even a normal sandwich at this place is £10, so knowing this in advance and not even being able to imagine what booze might cost, we cunningly bought a box or wine at the airport and smuggled it into our room in our luggage. Thereafter we kept it in the safe (who needs expensive jewellery?), away from the prying eyes of chambermaids, and while the full cost paying clientelle were down in the piano bar shelling out wads for their G & Ts, we wre happily sitting on our balcony, staring out at the Atlas mountains and quaffing cheap plonk. Just call me classy.

I quite like the red Barramundi box (especially at the moment, as Tesco have 20% off Aussie wine). It's handy for being able to chuck a couple of spoons into gravy/spag bol etc and stops those 'oh the bottle's open so best finish it' sort of moments (which only occur after the first one is finished...)

Thanks for the tip Pamina, didn't realise the gorgeous Pendulum comes in a silver box as well as a silver bottle! Grizler loved your post have done a very similar thing at v expensive hotel in Madiera, hey and all those G&T's were probably just T's (ice 'n' slice of course!!) Still smiling..

Top tip that a friend passed on was to decant boxed wine - as and when you need it - in to big jug. (Doesn't have to be cut glass/pyrex will do!) Letting wine breathe really does make an average plonk taste tons better. Know it's hardly breaking news, but I never used to bother and it makes a big difference.