Carlo Rossi

With Christmas fast approaching, the need arises to cut corners on normally expensive hobbies like being a wino. Its times like these I go on the hunt for a boxed wine the gives you a lot of bang for your buck.

My local liquor store offers many boxed wines of the "light and fruity" variety, which I am personally not as fond of. I mean, if YOU like those kinds of wine thats cool, but I personally like finding a box that tastes like it came from a bottle.

Among the white Zinfandels, blushing reds and white sangrias I found this box that said Cabernet Sauvignon. It cost me $17 which wasn't bad considering it contained 5 liters of wine which is just over 6 1/2 bottles of wine.

On the nose it was definitely fruitier than a bottle of Cab and the smell of the alcohol stood out more. It had hints of tobacco and light spices and a little berry. It was certainly not over powering to my nose.

It did have a Cabernet taste, but a much mellower one. I suspected it had a lower alcohol content, so I checked the box which confirmed that it contained 11% instead of the usual 13% for a bottled Cab. It had a peppery berry taste and a refreshing yet short finish. It had a medium to light body and was low on the tannins.

I would say this wine was a good purchase for the amount to price ratio. It would probably be nice with a casual lunch or dinner or even a picnic. Typically, box wines are best drunk within the first month for the best flavor and I hope we can make this box last that long as to save our pennies for Christmas shopping.