Think Inside the Box

In our house, my dad loved his French Colombard and Chablis. His wine preferences ran toward the boxed, those spigoted dinosaurs that lived on the top shelf of the fridge and screamed "cheap" and "sweet."

But these days, I'm here to tell you, there is a plethora of excellent, and I mean fit-for-fancy-dining, box wines. From France and Spain and other countries known for their expertise with the grape, box wines have hit the wine glass running. Even well-known vineyards in Europe are jumping on the cardboard bandwagon, cutting back on their use of glass bottles, labels and corks without sacrificing the quality of their product.

Each box contains three liters or the equivalent of four bottles of wine and can cost less than $30, a real bargain for your budget. And articles and websites from the New York Times to Treehugger are touting its green bona fides. I like the box because I don't have to open a whole bottle in order to have a glass of wine with dinner, and since an open box can stay fresh for weeks, I don't have to worry about the wine going off.

So if your local wine purveyor doesn't carry at least one box wine, ask him to consider it. Then just pop the spigot, pour a glass and toast your new cardboard friend.