As a publisher focused on reviewing inexpensive wines, we can’t ignore the “bag in a box” segment, also known as “boxed wine.” We’ve actually reviewed a couple boxed wines before and we’ve found some decent ones out there. Boxed wine doesn’t get much respect. In many ways, that’s deserved. There is some heinous stuff out there in boxes. But more and more producers are putting quality wine into boxes and I think you’ll see that trend increase over the coming years.
I was intrigued when I came across this particular wine. After all, we’re big fans of Chilean wine at Cheap Wine Ratings. I was curious to find out what a bag in a box wine from Chile would have to offer. Here’s what I found.
Some red wines will occasionally have a mint aroma to them, which can be hit or miss in terms of whether it makes the wine interesting or it becomes a nuisance. This is one of those wines with a mint aroma, and in this case I think it’s too strong and it detracts from the enjoyability. There’s also some cherry and soy sauce on the nose, but it’s really hard to get past the mint. On the palate it’s cherry and plum flavors, but not a lot of complexity or concentration. The acidity and tannins are sufficient. It’s a drinkable wine, but not one I get excited about. But hey, it’s dirt cheap!
Wine: Gran Verano
Variety: Cabernet Sauvignon
Vintage: 2008
Alcohol: 13.5%
Rating: 80
Price: $22.00 for 3L (equal to four 750ml bottles)
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Disclosure: This wine was received as a sample.
I don’t have a lot of background on Peñalolen to share. The winery was founded by Ricardo and Isabel Peña, who brought in Jean-Pascal Lacaze as their winemaker. Peñalolén also happens to be the name of a community at the eastern edge of Santiago, right up against the Andean foothills. This is part of the Maipo Valley and while the Peñalolen winery also produces a Sauvignon Blanc with grapes from Casablanca Valley, the grapes in this Cabernet Sauvignon are from Maipo.
Maipo may be Chile’s best known wine region, probably due to the fact that Santiago resides within this region and most large Chilean producers started in Maipo. It’s also the only official Chilean winemaking region without a coastline. Most wine produced from Maipo is red and the region is best known for its Cabernet. So, let’s find out how this one holds up.
The nose is really nice on this Cabernet, with rich vanilla, chocolate, coffee and blackberry aromas. It’s a touch chalky too. The palate has massive fruit on it, like blackberry, plum and cassis. Chocolate flavors hit the mid palate and finish. But it’s the mouth feel that really makes me like this wine, pure velvet. The bottom line, this is a very nice wine.
Wine: Peñalolen
Variety: Cabernet Sauvignon
Vintage: 2008
Alcohol: 13.7%
Rating: 87
Price: $18.00
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Disclosure: This wine was received as a sample.
It’s a quick review tonight—not that any of them are exceptionally long. I like to get right to the point. So, let’s get there.
The 2006 Main Street Winery Cabernet Sauvignon is a blend of 92% Cabernet Sauvignon and 8% Merlot, with grapes from Lake County (54%), Monterey County (24%) and Santa Barbara County (22%). The wine did spend 12 months in a combination of French and American oak.
There is not a ton of intensity or complexity on the nose, but it’s pleasant. The aromas are mostly leather and black cherry. The palate shows black cherry and plum flavors, but it tastes slightly under-ripe to me. The acid level is good, but it’s not well integrated, giving this wine a bit of a pucker. That pucker is most noticeable on the finish, which has a wild cherry quality to it. It’s a drinkable wine, but not outstanding.
Wine: Main Street Winery
Variety: Cabernet Sauvignon
Vintage: 2006
Alcohol: 13.5%
Rating: 81
Price: $10.00
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Disclosure: This wine was received as a sample.
When I’m not enjoying a bargain wine, in other words when I splurge, I have a preference for Italian wines, especially those from the Piedmont region. If you know wines from this region, you know that many of them have exceptional depth, structure, complexity and balance. Simply put, they’re beautiful wines. Most of them don’t come cheap, so I’m not able to enjoy them every day. But given my affinity for both Piedmont and Chilean wines, it caught my eye when I saw that this Chilean wine has roots from Piedmont. The founder of Santa Ema, Pedro Pavone Voglino, immigrated from Piedmont to Chile in 1917. He was the son of an Italian winemaker and planted his first vineyards in Chile in 1931.
While that might not tell you anything about the wine, there is more to enjoying wine than just looking, smelling and tasting. Enjoying wine is an experience. There’s a ritual involved, like the whole process of pulling the cork, pouring, swirling. And there’s an emotional element. We develop a fondness for certain types of wine, regions, winemakers, brands, etc. For me, finding a wine with connections to both Piedmont and Chile sparked a fondness for both regions, and a curiosity.
I have to say, I wasn’t disappointed. This is a really nice wine.
I love the aroma profile of this wine. It has the balance between earth and fruit that I think makes a wine interesting. It’s slightly herbal too. Sage, coffee, cocoa raspberry and blackberry make for an interesting bouquet. The palate has solid blackberry, cassis and raspberry flavors, along with nice, smooth tannins and near-perfect acidity. It’s a good wine.
Wine: Santa Ema Reserve
Variety: Cabernet Sauvignon
Vintage: 2005
Alcohol: 14%
Rating: 89
Price: $12.99
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Now, what regions, winemakers and brands do you have a fondness for?
The general rule here is that most reviews are for wines that are $20 and under, but I have to admit that that’s not all I drink. After all, how could I legitimately compare bargain wines to higher-priced ones if I never tasted those. And every now and then I get samples sent to me for wines that are just over my general price limit. This is one of those occasions and I’m not going to exclude it just based on price. If it’s out of your personal price range, then don’t buy it. But I know that a lot of readers here have a pretty broad price range, and they come here to get ideas for bargains or just to find tasty wines to try. And I would actually spring a couple extra bucks for this wine.
We’ve reviewed a number of X Winery wines in the past, and admittedly I have yet to find one that I don’t love. X Winery is based in Napa, California and they produce Amicus wines—which are more high-end (i.e. more expensive) than those just labeled under the X Winery brand.
One thing that I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned about X Winery before is the fact that they use FSC certified corks. The FSC is the Forest Stewardship Council and their certification of the corks is basically an endorsement that the corks were harvested by a cork producer that uses environmentally friendly and sustainable production methods. While you’ll read a lot about sustainable wine farming and production, there’s a lot more that goes into getting wine to you than just the juice. This is one more step toward sustainability that a wine producer can take.
But enough chat about corks, let’s taste the wine!!!
The intensity and depth on the nose of this Cabernet Sauvignon is awesome. It’s a little bit dusty, with toasted oak aromas, blackberry, plum and tea leaf. The aromas are a little bit on the earthy-side—which I love—but that’s not at all saying that it’s void of fruit. The flavors start with a big cherry pop… no, wait, let me clarify… it doesn’t taste like cherry pop, rather cherry flavors pop out on your palate. After the cherry, plum flavors come to life. The mouth feel is rich and velvety. The tannins leave a silky feel on your tongue long after you swallow (or spit, if you’re doing a tasting).
It might be a little pricey for true bargain hunters, but in terms of quality-to-price ratio, it’s a good wine.
Wine: X Winery Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
Variety: Cabernet Sauvignon
Vintage: 2007
Alcohol: 14.9%
Rating: 90
Price: $24.99
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Disclosure: This wine was received as a sample.
A lot of fun has been poked over the years at boxed wines. And rightfully so. Most of the wine sold in boxes over the past couple decades has been disgusting. But that’s starting to change. It’s not the container, it’s the wine… and there are a few producers now putting some tasty juice into boxed wines.
You no longer need to avoid boxed wines, but like any other wine you’ll still find some that are better than others. Actually, you may want to get used to the idea of boxed wines, as many in the wine industry predict that you’ll see more and more of them over time. The reason is simple, shipping costs. Bottles add a lot of extra weight to wine. While I didn’t weigh it to find out exactly, this box of Black Box wine felt about as heavy as two bottles of wine to me, yet it has the equivalent volume of four standard 750ml bottles of wine.
There are other benefits to wine in a box, besides shipping weight. The wine stays fresh longer after you open it. When you open a bottle of wine, the exposure to air degrades the quality of the wine and within a couple days it’s no good. But with bag-in-a-box wine, air does not enter the container when you open it, allowing it to stay fresh for up to 30 days.
Black Box wines is not very old as a brand—they started back in 2003. They source grapes from regions around the world, including Napa Valley, Sonoma County, Italy and New Zealand. The grapes in this Cabernet Sauvignon are mostly from California’s Central Coast.
I’m simply floored by the aromas coming from this wine… it’s wonderful, however only moderate in intensity. Cherry and blackberry make up the fruit, but there is also a nice dusty, herbal quality to this wine that I would describe as tomato leaf, tobacco and leather. The palate has plenty of fruit flavors, like blackberry, cherry and plum. I can’t say it extraordinary complexity beyond the fruit on the palate, but it’s still a very enjoyable wine. The tannins are soft and pleasing. The bottom line, this is a great wine for the price. Very enjoyable.
Wine: Black Box Cabernet Sauvignon
Variety: Cabernet Sauvignon
Vintage: 2008
Alcohol: 13.5%
Rating: 85
Price: $23.00 for 3L (equivalent to four 750ml bottles)
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Disclosure: This wine was received as a sample.
There’s not a lot of back story to this wine. It’s Turning Leaf, which is one of wine giant E.&J. Gallo’s many brands. You’ll find it in just about any grocery store that sells wine. It’s mass produced… so there’s lot’s of this stuff out there. There is not a quaint story about a family of winemakers that have passed down the winery from one generation to another. There’s not pontifications about terroir. It’s just wine.
I’ll be honest. When I get a sample like this, I’m not that excited about tasting it. But the producers use technology to their advantage to create a decent wine. It’s not unique, it’s not exciting, but it’s decent. Like the majority of wines reviewed here, this one was tasted blind. I like to make that clear after I’ve hinted at a bias against a production wine like this.
Black cherry and blackberry dominate the nose of this wine, with reasonable intensity. The palate has fairly heavy tannins, giving it a silky mouth feel. The black cherry flavor is huge. It’s a good wine, but not sophisticated. It’s much better than I would expect and reasonably priced.
Wine: Turning Leaf
Variety: Cabernet Sauvignon
Vintage: 2008
Alcohol: 13%
Rating: 84
Price: $8.99
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Disclosure: This wine was received as a sample.
OK, so first my apologies for letting over a week go by without a new review. While I can say, “I’ve been really busy,” ultimately that’s just an excuse and I hate excuses. Rather than that, I will promise to do better this week.
If you’re a regular reader, it will come as no surprise that I’m reviewing yet another Chilean wine. The outstanding values coming from Chile are too good to pass up.
We’ve actually reviewed some other Los Vascos wines before, including a previous vintage of their Cabernet Sauvignon. This particular bottle is labeled as “Special Selection” and it’s only available from Whole Foods. So, I guess that means it was “specially selected” for them. It is from Colchagua Valley and it is 14% ABV, just like the Los Vascos Cabernet Sauvignon that’s not labeled as “Special Selection,” so I honestly don’t know if there’s any real difference between the stuff labeled as “Special Selection” that you’ll find at Whole Foods and the regular Los Vascos Cabernet Sauvignon that you’ll find elsewhere. In other words, the “Special Selection” part could just be a marketing thing. Nonetheless it’s a good wine.
Dusty earth, black cherry, blackberry, leather and cedar aromas give this Cabernet outstanding complexity on the nose. The palate brings huge cherry flavors, along with coffee and black pepper. Soft tannins and crisp acidity round this wine out to be a good one. I definitely recommend this one.
Wine: Los Vascos Special Selection
Variety: Cabernet Sauvignon
Vintage: 2006
Alcohol: 14%
Rating: 88
Price: $10.99
We’ve reviewed a couple other Forest Glen wines in the past and I have to admit that they consistently perform surprisingly well in blind tastings. Forest Glen is one of many brands owned by Bronco Wines, best known as the producer of Charles Shaw (aka: two-buck chuck).
Most of the Bronco brands are bargain wines, and most wine snobs would not think of them as a “fine wine” company. I’ve tasted a number of their brands and some are definitely better than others. To be blunt, I’ve found some to be best as lubricants to the drain of my kitchen sink. But Forest Glen is one of their brands that has yet to disappoint me, and this Cabernet Sauvignon continues that trend.
The nose has a good bit of fruit with blackberry and cherry aromas, but there are also some other interesting characteristics, like vanilla, licorice and cedar. I’m really surprised by the complexity in this wine. The palate is well balanced with great acidity, tannins and fruit. Blackberry and black cherry flavors are the most prominent. It’s a good wine. and for the price I might even say it’s a great wine.
Wine: Forest Glen
Variety: Cabernet Sauvignon
Vintage: 2008
Alcohol: 13.5%
Rating: 86
Price: $11.00
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Disclosure: This wine was received as a sample.
A few weeks ago, we reviewed the Montevina Zinfandel. Tonight, we check out their Amador County Cabernet Sauvignon. I’ve already given a quick background on Montevina in the previous review, so let’s be quick about this and get right to the details.
The nose of this wine smells like a new leather wallet that’s been soaking in a pitcher full of cherry juice for two weeks. It has good intensity, plenty of fruit and a bit of complexity. The palate is almost a fruit bomb, with a good bit of dark cherry flavors. It also shows a touch of strawberry jam, dark berries and some dark chocolate on the finish. While I like the flavors, there isn’t much depth to them giving the wine a rather thin mouth feel. The acidity is good, but I would like slightly heavier tannins. It’s a good wine, but more fruity than earthy. I’d only recommend this if you prefer a very fruit-forward in your Cabernet.
Wine: Montevina
Variety: Cabernet Sauvignon
Vintage: 2007
Alcohol: 13%
Rating: 84
Price: $10.99
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Disclosure: This wine was received as a sample.
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