It’s the one thing in wine that’ll get you laughed out of any dinner party. The cardboard box. Franzia. Slap the bag. For decades, boxed wine has been the universal punchline, the drink of broke college students and questionable life choices.
But here’s what nobody’s talking about: boxed wine is quietly taking over the world. In France, nearly half of all wine sold comes in a box. In Italy, it dominates exports. And while bottled wine sales in the US are dropping across almost every price category, boxed wine is the one segment pulling the entire industry upward. So I bought a $100 boxed wine from one of the most legendary wine families on the planet to find out if fine wine actually has a future in cardboard… or if we’re all doomed.
What I found genuinely surprised me.
I’m Dustin, and I’ve tasted thousands of wines—my mission is to make wine accessible and fun for everyone by cutting through the snobbery and complication with honest, helpful reviews for non-wine people.
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TIMESTAMP
0:00 The Wine Industry’s Biggest Taboo
0:24 Three Big Questions About Boxed Wine
0:47 The $100 Box That Changes Everything
1:08 Welcome to the Channel
1:31 From Battery Acid to Boxed Wine
2:12 The Australian Who Started It All
2:34 How Franzia Conquered America
2:54 The Cheapest Alcohol on the Planet
4:00 Boxed Wine Is Already Winning Globally
4:37 The US Market’s Dirty Secret
5:15 The Pandemic Effect on Box Wine Sales
5:36 A Quick Word From Our Newsletter
6:09 Can Box Wine Shake Its Reputation?
6:32 Meet the $100 Tablas Creek GSM
7:15 The Moment of Truth: Tasting Begins
7:52 The Verdict (I Can’t Believe It)
8:21 What GSM Means and Why It Works
8:41 The Future of Wine Is in a Box
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16 Comments
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Yeah, I enjoy Kirkland Cab Sauv for 15$. 3 liters!!! Not bad and such a deal. Miles Raymond approves.
Holy crap! I had no idea the amount of boxed wine France and Italy were doing.
I think box wine like black box which is not good gave me the impression all box wine was yuck but I must say Dustin with this video I may have to take another taste with an open mind.
I'm curious whether high-quality wineries will investigate boxes smaller than 3 liters. If a 0.75-liter bottle from such a winery now costs $50, I'm not sure how many of us will want to slap (almost said "plonk"!) down a multiple of that amount for a wine one may or may not really enjoy. That, and as Dustin pointed out in an earlier video, boxed wine has a really limited shelf life, so boxes aren't suitable for wines that are meant to mature in the bottle with the right kind of cork (there's another topic for a future video, Dustin!).
I’ve had palatable boxed wines, more than a few. I have never spent over US$40 for a 3-liter box, the most expensive being an orange wine from California that I rather liked.
I rarely get a spoiled box. On your earlier video reviewing boxed wines, I think that many of your boxes were old and spoiled. At least some boxes have a date on them: when they were filled. I saw a box of South African Sauvignon Blanc today that had a date in 2023, and though I’d had and liked the brand before, I didn’t buy it, fearing that it was too long ago.
Then again, what do I know about wine, having had so much of the boxed stuff?
Most boxed wine I buy is for cooking, but if I have a small glass after I remove a bottle’s worth for the beef bourguignon, it’s generally okay.
Natural Light is nowhere near the cheapest nastiest American beer…
I would buy Tablas Creek in a box. There is nothing wrong with the technology, at least for wine meant to be consumed young. The problem is that boxes have become associated with headache-inducing low end wine in the United States, and few higher quality producers have used this packaging method. I live alone, and I don't always want to open a bottle of wine and feel obligated to drink through the entire thing before it goes bad. Sometimes, all I want is half a drink, and I don't want to open a bottle of wine if this is all I want, so I drink spirits instead since they don't go bad as long as the bottles are kept out of light and heat. Wine in a box solves this problem since it lasts for a few weeks once opened, but I don't like low end wine that causes headaches. I once made the mistake of drinking a glass of Franzia from a box at a friend's house, and that was all it took to cause a horrible headache. If I see a box of Tablas Creek or anything else of comparable quality, I will be very tempted to buy it.
Boxed wine can grow, but saying ‘boxed wine is the future of wine’ is an oversimplification.
First: wine sales declining doesn’t automatically mean the package is the solution. The demand shift is being driven by broader things: people drinking less alcohol, younger consumers buying less wine than older generations did, and competition from RTDs, cocktails, and spirits. That’s not a packaging problem.
Second: bag-in-box is great for a specific use case—everyday, value wine, convenience, and reducing waste after opening. If you want one glass at a time over a week, box wins.
But premium wine isn’t going to move to boxes at scale for a reason: aging, gifting, and restaurant experience still rely on bottles. Consumers associate glass with quality, cellaring, and occasion. Also, most fine wine programs and collectors aren’t switching to boxed formats.
Third: even in global export data, bag-in-box is still a small share compared to bottled wine. So the realistic take is: boxed wine will keep growing in its lane—value and casual consumption—but it’s not replacing bottles. The ‘future of wine’ is segmentation: some wine in boxes, some in cans, some in bottles, and premium still heavily in glass.
Still wine will be as good or as terrible whether it's served from a bottle or from a plastic bladder in a box. I've pretty much gone to the convenience of boxes for keeping ordinary table wine on hand.
Given most people today drink wine within the first 72 hours of purchase, boxed wine is a great way to go! Preserves it better, more approachable, and better for the environment. People like us who buy bottles and age it for years are a huge minority.
Another great video, I love your channel!
I don't want all the plastic exposure. I will stick to bottles.
Tour de Franzia. Teams of two, finish a Franzia box, and run around the house 5 times
Give me BEER IN A BAG
The inventor of the wine cask was Thomas ANGOVE not Angrove. You'll need to correct that.