If Wine in a Box is just as good as Wine in a Bottle... why does Boxed Wine Expire?

A friend of mine asked me; or sort of was trying to make a point that Wine in a Box is just as good as wine in a bottle and why should he pay more for a wine in the bottle which is more expensive.

I basically told him. That…” it’s a pretty safe bet that a more expensive wine is usually a higher quality wine”....but whether it is a better wine would be totally up to him. He looked at me a little strangely. Like I was from another planet.

Only you can decide if you like a wine or not.

I also told him that in expensive wine there are 3 things you can look to that makes things more expensive and it has to do with techniques…

1.       are they using oak... and how;

2.       time in the whole process of making the wine;  and

3.       the terroir (the whole location, land and climate thing)

 

In value wines to find it’s hard to find those 3 things in play and if you do the wine would probably be coming from a developing country.

I also added “that is what is great about wine…It’s in the eye of the beholder."

Likewise; according to an article I read from the Wine Spectator; the bags in the box will let microscopic amounts of oxygen pass through, into the wine, and after a while, that oxygen will make the wine taste less fresh. Which makes sense.

Bag-in-the-Box wines aren’t meant for long-term aging, so that’s good, honestly the packaging doesn’t really allow for it. You really don’t see cellars full of plastic bags of wine. Can you imagine life with giant Wine Capri Suns in the cellar...Probably not.

By the way the “expired” wines will not make you sick, but they might not taste like they did when you first bought them; most likely the fruit flavors have likely faded alot, and wine has taken on nutty and oxidized characteristics on the nose and flavors. But...some wine is awesome like that and is made to be that way...But, that's a whole other story!