Boxed wine isn’t something you’d normally get excited about – unless it’s Green Week and grapefriend is telling you about some good, non-bottle grapes and packaging! Then you’re so excited you can’t even stand it!

After yesterday’s post you know all about how wineries are getting green in the vineyard and in terms of how they make wine. Today we get into the sexy green containers.

boxes

Boxed wine is usually relegated to overly make-upped aunts, swilling back some nasty juice during the holidays. No more! Some boxed wines being made now are actually decent – good for your mouth AND the earth. Check out these facts about Bota Box:

• bag-in-box wines create 85% less landfill waste than glass bottles
• packaging is about 35% lighter than glass and 44% smaller
• packaging is made from 100% recyclable, unbleached, post-consumer fiber. VOC free inks and coatings are printed on non-bleached Kraft paper, bonded together with cornstarch instead of glue.
• the bag doesn’t have phthalate plasticizers or Bisphenol-A (BPA) and can also be recycled.

EARTH ALERT: Bota Box is donating a portion of its sales to the Arbor Day Foundation who’ll use it to plant 30,000 trees nationwide. Also, Bota Box will donate a buck for each new user who likes Bota Box on Facebook.

The 3-liter box (= 4 bottles) is $19.99 and lasts up to a month since the internal Mylar bag is hermetically sealed and the tap doesn’t let air into the bag when you’re pouring.

OK, so how does it taste? I tried the Malbec and I have to say, it was pretty nice! Very smooth and had some really nice blackberry flavor. To be honest, I liked it more than a lot of Malbecs I’ve had. I wouldn’t say serve this at a really nice dinner party, but for like a day picnic or bash where no one’s really paying attention this is a fantastic value.

pouches

Come on, any wine that markets itself by saying you can go hiking with it is one grapefriend is down with! The Clif Climber pouch ($17 for the 1.5-liter pouch) has 80% lower carbon footprint and 90% less waste than two glass wine bottles. Also, 1% of all sales go to 1% for the Planet, who partnered with Trees for the Future to help communities plant trees around the world.

I tried the Cab. It was so-so, but again nothing horrible and I’ve had way worse. And you can hike with it.

non-foil caps

Most corks are covered by tin foil , but since foil doesn’t hold wine in or protect the cork it’s really just more of a decoration. Wineries like Sokol Blosser covers their corks with only a small piece of paper. (It was also the first vineyard to be certified Salmon-Safe, which means they protect and restore salmon habitats by planting trees on streams, growing cover crops to control run-off, and apply natural methods to control weeds and pests.)

shipping

This isn’t packaging of the wine, but so much wine gets shipped in more packaging and I’ve seen a lot of great alternatives to bubble wrap. Many wines come in recycled cardboard dividers and use recycled paper. This sweet little note told me so.