Best Boxed Wines

Boxed wine is the comeback story of the decade.

Greg Dupree / Food Styling by Julian Hensarling / Prop Styling by Julia Bayless

Here’s a tip: set aside all your cardboard-based prejudices and head to the boxed-wine aisle of your local bottle or grocery store. What was once home to shelves of homogenous, lackluster plonk is now a globetrotting category, full of thoughtfully made options that rival their bottled counterparts from southwestern France, Sicily, California, and beyond.

It’s economical—consider that each box contains the equivalent of four regular bottles—plus, choosing boxes over bottles helps the planet. “Wine is an agricultural product that has been greatly impacted by the effects of climate change,” says Melissa Monti-Saunders, founder of Communal Brands, a wine importer/distributor that carries several boxed wines. “If people want to do their part to reduce that impact, buying packaging alternatives to single-use glass is a meaningful way to accomplish this.”

So make room for boxed wine at your table — and after dinner’s over, know that, because of the collapsing, oxygen-free bag inside that box, it will stay drinkable for weeks to come.

Greg Dupree / Food Styling by Julian Hensarling / Prop Styling by Julia Bayless

California winemaker Andrew Jones has taken Field Recordings’ fan-favorite orange wine, Skins, and made it even better by adding a touch of Chardonnay and putting it in a picnic-friendly box. This savory, peppery wine pairs with everything you’d want to eat outdoors, from potato salad to crudites.

A quintessential Chardonnay from Monterey, California, each sip of this wine is full of mango, banana, passionfruit, and pineapple notes. The finish is a little buttery, making this an overall familiar and comforting sip.

With its eye-catching cylindrical design and woven satin handle, Juliet wins style points, and the wine inside is also delicious. A classic expression of California central coast Sauvignon Blanc, it’s floral and lemony.

Alileo makes this wine from Sicilian grapes, like Zibbibo and Grillo, the latter of which makes for a crisp, lemon-forward wine that doesn’t overpower you with too much acidity. It’s a surprising and excellent pairing for oysters or shrimp cocktail — your guests (and wallet) will be delighted.

Earlier this year, Nomadica founder Kristin Olszewski made the leap from canned to boxed wine. This 100% California Chardonnay is balanced and crisp with pleasant notes of banana, green apple, and vanilla. The box is wrapped in custom art by Maureen Meyer, making it radically more chic than most competitors.

Greg Dupree / Food Styling by Julian Hensarling / Prop Styling by Julia Bayless

Everything about this rosé is easy. It’s very widely available, its notes of hard strawberry candy (Jolly Ranchers, anyone?) and raspberry jam are entirely gluggable, and it comes in two sizes: a miniature box that’s just under a bottle’s worth of wine, and a full-size one that amounts to four bottles.

Consider this wine, with its notes of jasmine, melon, and strawberry jam, proof that paler rosés are well worth drinking. Gratsi’s rosé is dry and refreshing; in fact, it’s so smooth that you likely won’t notice that it’s a bit boozier than many rosés at 13% ABV.

With its long shelf life — we found it to be totally drinkable seven weeks after opening — Ami Ami is sure to become a refrigerator mainstay. A blend of Syrah and Malbec from southern France, this medium-bodied rosé has a tart, grapefruity finish and a slightly floral nose. (The Ami Ami red and white wines are also impressive.).

Red wine drinkers will enjoy this 100% Syrah rosata (Italian for “deep rosé”) just as much as rosé loyalists. Structured tannins meet tart cherry and raspberry notes, and the finish is delicate and just a little sweet.

If any winemaker can pull off selling a $95 boxed wine, it’s Jason Haas of Paso Robles star producer Tablas Creek. This Rhone-style rosé includes Grenache, Mourvedre, and Couinoise, making for a medium-bodied, slightly peppery wine with a welcome punch of acidity.

Greg Dupree / Food Styling by Julian Hensarling / Prop Styling by Julia Bayless

This juicy blend of predominantly Sangiovese with a little Trebbiano for acidity will have you wondering why more boxed wine isn’t made with Tuscany’s most famous grape. It’s earthy enough to satisfy Chianti fans, with a pleasant finish of dried tea leaves.

Pioneering natural wine importer Jenny Lefcourt’s long-running collaboration with Domaine de la Patience in southern France led to this box. An incredibly drinkable, light-bodied wine full of bright strawberry notes with a peppery finish, it’s perfect in a cooler for picnics and backyard barbecues.

Even Malbec naysayers will want a glass of this juicy, bright Malbec from southwestern France’s Cahors region, the original homeland of Malbec (where it’s known as Côt). Serve it chilled, preferably alongside a bowl of coq au vin.

Fruit from the Yakima Valley and Columbia River regions in Washington state packs this bold, crowd-pleasing red blend with dark chocolate and red cherry notes. It can stand up to a hearty steak but also plays nicely with a charcuterie platter.

This medium-bodied Pinot Noir is a textbook example of everything there is to love about red wine from California’s cool-climate regions. With its bright strawberry and cherry notes, it's balanced and irresistible.