What's Going On in the World of French Wines

The other day, a friend of mine told me about a wine dinner that she had attended recently at a local restaurant. It was called an ‘80s Wine Dinner and was advertised as an evening of ‘80s-themed food, fun and wine. Unfortunately, the wines for the evening were not actually from the ‘80s. While my friend couldn’t remember all of the specifics, she did happen to mention that the first course featured a white wine spritzer…which she also said was not a highlight of the night.

After I stopped giggling, I got to thinking about what I would pick for a decade themed wine dinner (short of featuring wines all from that decade, which if you ask me is really the way to go). I won’t lie – the 80s were not a decade where I was much aware of wine – grape juice, yes, wine, no. But thinking about the ‘90’s and the last few years (By the way, exactly HOW do we refer to this decade? The ‘00’s? Looks weird…) got me to thinking about wine trends and how what we drink has changed over the years.

If you look back at auction lists, our tastes in wines has definitely changed. At one point in time (more than a hundred years ago), German wines commanded top dollar. Over time, this changed with the wines of Bordeaux and Burgundy gaining top billing for collectors. In the ‘70’s (according to my parents) wines like Mateus Rose and Lancers were all the rage as was the development of the White Zinfandel category. And the ‘80’s? Well, definitely a time for wine coolers – in fact if you look at wine consumption figures, there was a huge jump in the consumption of wine in the ‘80’s that was directly attributed to the success of wine coolers. (I might not have ever had one, but I do remember the Bartles & Jaymes commercials) When these faded from popularity, there was a corresponding drop in consumption that we have only recently finally made up for. Other interesting trends were the rise of Riunite (Riunite is nice, Riunite on ice!) and the emergence of the French “vins de table” category.

I think if you look at the ‘90’s, you could consider the expansion of wine-making around the world as the biggest trend. Wineries in the “New World” really started to flourish and attract more and more attention – especially those in places like Australia, New Zealand and California. The resulting increase in production has not only enhanced variety, but competition among wine regions has also upped the level of quality world-wide. Of course there is also the downside of this which is the “internationalization” on wine styles and the supposed uniformity of wine. But perhaps that is a topic for another day…

Instead, let’s jump to the current decade, where I think there are a lot of interesting wine trends to consider. In my opinion, the overall heading for most trends right now is the push to be “Consumer Friendly.” Here in the US, wine has gone from being a special occasion beverage to really more of an everyday drink and wine makers have realized the importance of making wines that fit the different roles that wines can play in our lives. There are a lot of different trends that can fit under this Consumer Friendly heading - one of my favorites is the alternative wine packaging trend and the use of screwcaps and different materials besides glass for bottling wine. Just a few years ago I remember people saying that you might find these types of oddball materials in new and growing wine regions, but you would never find them in places like France. If you take a look through the Wines of France Top Picks lists for the last several years you will not only find wines bottled with screwcaps and synthetic corks, but also wines packaged in tetrapaks and aluminum cans!

Labeling is also a key area in wine these days. While wine drinkers in previous decades might have complained about trying to understand French wine labels, the drinkers of today will find these same wines to be packaged with much more accessible information and more flair. Most of the wines on my Top Picks for Summer list not only tell you the grape or grapes used in the wine, but also have some information on the back label about what the wine will taste like or something about the region where it was made. All of this information is designed to inform and educate wine drinkers and to make wine more accessible – even if you don’t speak the language.

I just realized the length of this post! My trends list could definitely keep going, and we haven’t even touched upon trends that have repeated themselves! I’m curious though, what do you all think? What trends have you noticed over the years in wine? And how have your drinking tastes changed? Please feel free to drop me a line or add in your comments – and if you have some ideas about what wines you would serve at an ‘80’s themed wine dinner, be sure to include them! I’d love to hear them.

When it comes to grape descriptors, my favorite of all time is the one used to describe the more herbaceous and aromatic side of Sauvignon Blanc: cat’s pee on a gooseberry bush. Definitely a creative way to describe the smell of the grape!

But don’t let this descriptor deter you – Sauvignon Blanc is a white grape that produces one of the most refreshing and food-friendly wines around. Appearance-wise, Sauvignon Blanc is known for typically ranging from a pale lemon yellow to a medium intense yellow, and can sometimes have a greenish tinge on rim. It is usually fairly intensely aromatic with primary aromas that range from green beans, asparagus, herbaceous, grassy, “flinty”, gooseberry, lemon, lime, grapefruit, and passion fruit. When aged in young oak barrels, one can find aromas and flavors of spices, vanilla, honey, toast and coconut on the wine. On the palate, Sauvignon Blanc can run the gamut, producing wines that are light, medium and full-bodied with medium to medium plus alcohol. Usually Sauvignon Blancs are know for having a fairly high level of acidity, part of why the wines are so refreshing and food-friendly.

While it can be found in several different appellations around France, the two major regions know for producing spectacular Sauvignon Blancs are the Loire Valley and Bordeaux. Within the Loire Valley, the famous AOCs for Sauvignon Blanc production are Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé. The wines from these two villages are noted for their crisp acidity and intense aromatics, and especially for having a strong mineral character and a stony quality. Bordeaux Sauvignon Blanc is a bit different as it is usually blended with the Semillon grape, which makes the wines broader on the palate and more full-bodied. This blend of grapes is used to produce both dry and sweet wines that are capable of being aged for a long period of time.

There are numerous “classic pairings” for the Sauvignon Blanc grape including fresh, young goat cheese and, when blended with Semillon and produced in a sweet style, foie gras. However, I have found that there are few dishes that don’t go well with this grape. Fresh, lively and citrusy, Sauvignon Blanc is great for sipping on its own, but also for pairing with fish, chicken and turkey dishes and it is also a great choice for vegetable dishes such as a stir fry or a vegetable quiche. There are several Sauvignon Blancs to choose from on my list of wine picks, so grab one to open tonight with your dinner – I’m sure you will enjoy it!

I love this time of year. The farmer’s markets around here are hopping with activity and fresh produce. Every Saturday morning, Peter and I head over to one of the local markets to buy our groceries. While the CSA/farm share program we belong to covers a lot of our veggie needs, there are still a lot of things to buy. This week’s market bounty included several pints of organic blueberries, a quart of organic strawberries (which are on their way out), a dozen eggs, 1 container of Yukon gold potatoes, 6 ears of corn and 6 tomatoes.

As this was one of our few weekends at home, I was hard pressed to ignore the call of the kitchen. I had picked up some chicken breasts at the grocery store a few days back, so it seemed a good idea to build the meal around those. One of my grandfather’s mottos regarding food was “plain, but tasty” and sometimes, when you are dealing with very fresh produce, I find that going the simple route is not only easiest, but best.

First, I marinated the chicken in a little olive oil, white wine vinegar, salt, pepper and a bunch of different herbs from the my garden including lime basil, purple basil, tarragon, and thyme. Next up, the potatoes. When I lived up in NY, I bought potatoes often at the farmer’s market in Union Square, but this is actually the first time I have tried them from the Durham market, so I was pretty excited to use them. I decided to roast the potatoes in the oven with olive oil, salt, pepper and a mixture of parsley, tarragon and thyme – I figured using some of the same herbs from the chicken would help to unify some of the flavors of the meal. Since I still had some peas from last week’s CSA, I figured that we should go ahead and have those tonight, too. So Bill shelled the peas, and I tossed them in some boiling water for just a few minutes. We decided to also cook 2 ears of corn and since Bill was grilling the chicken, we figured we would grill the corn as well.

Once dinner was just about ready, I went into the wine fridge to see what I could find. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was in the mood for and what would go best with dinner. After pulling out a few options and considering whether or not to have a white, a red or a rosé with the meal, I finally chanced upon the Barons de Rothschild Réserve Spéciale Bordeaux Blanc from the 2006 vintage. Bordeaux Blancs, which are typically a blend of Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc, are very food-friendly in my opinion, and sadly, not a frequently considered option.

It was indeed a good match. The BdR Bordeaux Blanc is very balanced with moderate acidity and pleasant citrus fruit aromas and flavors. It complimented the herbed chicken and was a very good match for the buttery, creamy potatoes. The freshness of the peas gave them a tangy, almost herbal flavor, and the roundness from the Semillon coupled with the grapefruit notes from the Sauvignon Blanc made for a pleasing combination in the mouth.

Given the abundance of berries, I opted to make a blueberry and strawberry cobbler for dessert. And while one wouldn’t usually think to pair a Bordeaux Blanc with a fruit dessert, because of the lemon juice and the lemon zest in the recipe, the wine that was left in our glasses after dinner was still very enjoyable through dessert.

Recently we packed up and headed to Gulf Coast of Florida for a weekend getaway/family reunion. The trip was, for summer travel, surprisingly easy, and the beach was fun for everyone – even me with my long-standing bizarre shark phobia. While out touring the area one day, I happened upon a local market with quite an extensive selection of wines. As I have said before, I don’t think I have ever been able to leave a wine store empty handed, especially when I see something I haven’t tried before.

Discovering wine on vacation can sometime be a bit risky, but I’m always up for trying something new. In this case, it was a most interesting wine, the Les Deux Terroirs, from Alexandre Sirech. With its very attractive and modern label, it was a bit of a surprise to see that the wine was actually classified as a vin de table, or table wine, according to the French wine classification system. In the past we haven’t seen a whole lot of French table wines here in the US, but as wine producers have started to get more and more creative, many French winemakers have used the vin de table category to make some interesting and unusual wines. The Les Deux Terroirs is a blend of Merlot from the South-west of France (ie, near Bordeaux) and Syrah from the South-east (ie near the Rhone). The wine doesn’t have a vintage, but the bottle indicates it was bottled in 2006 and would be best enjoyed from 2007-2010.

Soft, round and fairly full-bodied, I was impressed by the Les Deux Terroirs and it was exciting to see yet another French producer thinking outside the box (or bottle). I would have liked to have tried this out with either some grilled steaks or even some hamburgers, but that was the night that we were having shrimp over pasta topped with Bill’s aunt’s home-made pesto (which we paired with a very nice Sauvignon Blanc). So, we settled for enjoying the wine before dinner with some bread topped with an olive tapenade and a selection of hard cheeses. According to what I discovered on the Internet when I looked this wine up, it is only available right now in New York, Florida and Illinois. So if you happen to live in any of those markets, definitely see if you can find the Les Deux Terroirs and let me know what you think!

I came across an article recently about the continuing increase in organic vineyards in Alsace. With close to 6% of the region being farmed organically, Alsace is now considered the “greenest wine region” in France, according to the author of the article, Jane Hall. While Alsace is on the smaller side for French wine regions, I think that this is a fantastic achievement and the producers of the region should be applauded for their commitment to the environment.

Many of these producers have also gone a step further and converted to a type of viticulture called biodynamics. Based on the principles of Rudolph Steiner (who was also the founding force being the Waldorf Schools), this type of viticulture is both revered and ridiculed in the wine world. With biodynamics, grape growers treat their vineyards as part of a larger living organism and employ a number of different practices that take into consideration such things as the lunar calendar. While many find the “cosmic” aspect of biodynamics laughable, producers who practice this form of viticulture are a devoted and well-respected lot. Special compost, cover crops and biodynamic sprays are all a part of the practice. My favorite application in biodynamics is the use of a quartz spray that is applied to vines to stimulate growth and the ability of the plant to absorb sunlight. While it might sound a bit silly, if you have ever spoken to someone who has applied this mixture to the vineyard and accidentally spilled some on his arms, you’ll hear an interesting story from him about suffering a very bad sunburn in the spots on his arms where the mixture landed. Although there is a lot of debate as to whether or not biodynamic wine tastes better, there is definitely a belief that like with organics, these types of practices are better for vineyard health, as well as the health of those who work in the vineyards.

But how is the average consumer supposed to know when they are drinking an organic or biodynamic wine? Unfortunately, this is a bit of a complicated problem, especially here in the US. For a wine to be labeled as ORGANIC in the US, it means that it was made with organically grown grapes and made without the use of any sulfur dioxide, a common additive during the winemaking process. Most wines that you will find in your stores are not going to be labeled this way, but instead as: WINES MADE FROM ORGANICALLY GROWN GRAPES. Sulfur dioxide, when used judiciously, is an important part of the winemaking process and helps contribute to a wine’s stability. It is also used around the world – and not just added to wines sold in the US – but in the US, wines are required to indicate on the label that they contain sulfites as it is something to which many asthmatics are highly sensitive. Additionally, many biodynamic producers don’t indicate their status on the label. In many cases, you’ll need to do a bit of homework to search out a biodynamic producer. One producer you can look for is Marc Kreydenweiss, whose Perrieres is one of my recommended wines.

Luckily, these days with the growing interest in wines made from biodynamic or organically grown grapes, many wine stores will now indicate this information on the shelf in front of the wine. Still, keep in mind that while many wine producers around the world are practicing these methods, a good number of them are not taking the last step and getting their vineyards certified as organic or biodynamic. In order to be “officially” biodynamic or organic, a vineyard must get certified, a process that can be expensive and lengthy. And some wineries are now practicing sustainable viticulture (which in essence means only spraying with chemicals when absolutely necessary) which is another more earth-friendly type of viticulture.

But overall, if the trend in Alsace is any indication, more and more grape growers are seeing the environmental importance of going green. And hopefully, that is not only good for our palates, but good for the earth, too.

Today at the gym, a friend of mine was telling me about going to her first wine tasting.  She had really enjoyed the event and was excited about what she had learned.  The tasting took place at a restaurant that has a garden connected to it and so the first thing that everyone did was to go into the herb garden and smell the different herbs.  They were also encouraged to smell other plants and a few fruits and vegetables.  Then, the participants moved on to smelling and tasting the wines, but the focus wasn’t so much on whether a wine was “good” or “bad” or whether the taster liked the wine, but rather on the different aromas and flavors in the wines and how they related back to the smells from the garden.  Her story reminded me of how important it is for beginning wine enthusiasts, as well as more experienced wine drinkers, to work on developing their nose vocabulary.

One of the most popular questions I get when I conduct classes for wine enthusiasts is “how can I smell or taste more fruits/vegetables/herbs/etc in the wine?”  The first answer is that you really need to give your nose some serious exercise.  Have you ever sat somewhere and closed your eyes and smelled?  I mean, really smelled?  There are scents (both good and bad) all around us.  But how many of us actually stop to smell the proverbial roses?

We have a tendency in this country to buy a good deal of our produce out of season.  Produce that has spent many hours traveling to your local supermarket is not as fresh and aromatic as produce grown closer to your home.  So strawberries grown out of season and shipped half-way around the world are not going to be as “strawberry-ish” as those grown 20 miles down the road.  Smelling those local strawberries however, can give you a much better idea of that aroma and then it becomes easier to pick it out in your wine glass.  And the flavors you can taste in really ripe, in-season fruits are so much more intense.

So if you want to practice at home, do what my friend did at her tasting – take cuttings of different herbs, fruits, and vegetables and give your nose a little workout.  It is a good exercise for your brain too!  And you will be surprised at how quickly you get your tasting notes into better shape.

Recently, I helped some friends out by holding a small wine tasting featuring wines from around the world priced at under $20.  Even with the extreme heat of the day (and boy was it hot!), the wines showed beautifully.  One wine however really impressed us all as a terrific summer find.  It was a wine from Domaine Lafage, the Côté Est Blanc.  Zippy, bright and refreshing, with citrus flavors and a steely, mineral note, this wine was a favorite for almost everyone.  It is a Vin de Pays from the Côtes Catalanes, an area in the Roussillon region of Southern France, and the grapes are grown at high altitude in steeply terraced vineyards.  This region of France, one of the most historic viticulturally speaking, is very close to Spain and the winemaker for this wine, Jean-Marc Lafage, makes wine in both countries.

If you are looking for a fresh white to pair with a seafood dish or just something to enjoy one hot summer evening, I highly recommend searching out this wine.  Click here to go to the importer’s website for more information.

It is always fun to discover a new wine – what can be a bit more challenging is remembering the name of the new wine and then finding it!  There are a few things I recommend that you do when you taste a wine that you want to try to find again.  First of all, figure out a place to keep a list of wines that you want to try again.  Maybe you have a list on your phone or PDA, or perhaps (if you are like me) a small notebook that you keep in your purse or pocket.  If I am without my notebook, one thing I like to do at restaurants is write the information about the wine we’ve had at dinner on the back of the receipt.  This way I can remember not only the name of the wine, but where I had it and when.  When you are writing down the name of the wine, don’t forget to include other details, like the vintage, the place it is from and the name of the importer and/or distributor. (This information can be found on the front and/or back labels, so make sure the waiter leaves the bottle on the table.)

Once you set up your system for your personal wine list, the next step is to track down where to buy your wine.  The Internet is your best friend here – start with searching for the winery or the importer of the wine (again, don’t forget to write that down when you record the name of the wine).  Then, you can take the information to your local wine store.  If they don’t carry the wine but sell others from that importer, they might be able to special order it for you.  But if they can’t, I suggest that you return to searching on the web.  Depending on where you live, you might be able to order the wine from a store on-line.  The website wine-searcher can be a huge help when you are trying to locate a wine.

And when all else fails and you can’t locate the wine you are searching for, start looking for other wines from the same region.  You never know what you might find next.

It’s been a long week here at my house: lots of travel, and since our house is on the market, lots of general craziness. So, I decided last night that I’d make a really nice dinner – something that hasn’t been happening a whole lot lately! And since we are going to be moving in a few months, I thought this might also be a good time to start cleaning out my wine cellar. Now, when I say wine cellar, what I really mean is the giant wine fridge that stands in my garage. And while it is practical and does a good job of keeping my wine cool (especially as the temperature climbs upward down here in NC), I have to admit that I have a love-hate affair with my wine fridge. It holds two bottles in each small compartment and looks like a giant grid, so it is really easy for wines to get “lost.” There have been many sad occasions where I have “found” a wine, only to discover that it has stayed several years too long in the wine fridge. While there are many wines that are very age-worthy, and aging wines is certainly something we will talk about here on the Wines of France blog, there are a lot of wines out there that are best drunk while still young and fresh…like the 6 year old bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau that I discovered tucked away the other day – it would have been terrific several years ago, but holding it for that long did not do it any favors…But I digress…

Clearly, I have a bit of an organization problem and I have decided that in the new house, which will have a wine cellar, I will do a much better job of keeping wines in their proper place. To that end, I have decided that it is high time I start opening wines that are ready to be drunk or even those that might be past their prime; after all, there is no sense in moving over the hill wines.

So, last night, just for fun, I dug around in the wine fridge for some lost bottles that I thought might go with dinner. I had “re-discovered” some great strip steaks in the freezer (yes, clearly I need to work on organizing all refrigerated containers in the house) that I had purchased at the farmer’s market recently. Given that we were having steaks, I pulled out a selection of Cabernet Sauvignon-based wines. I love the combination of beef and a Cabernet-based wine – it is a simple pairing that rarely disappoints. I found two bottles of Bordeaux from 1975 that I had purchased at auction in 2000, two bottles of California Cabernet Sauvignon from 1978 that I had gotten at the same auction and 1 bottle of 1995 Bordeaux that I have no idea where or when I bought it.

Dinner was excellent, and the wines were surprising and very interesting. Having the opportunity to taste older wines is always educational. One of the 75’s was clearly way over the hill (75 wasn’t the best year in Bordeaux unfortunately for me, as that’s my birth year) and well on its way to being vinegar. But the other bottle had a flicker of life left in it and showed a hint of fruit, leather and tobacco. Since I had only used a little bit of olive oil, salt and a touch pepper on the steaks, the beef didn’t over-power the delicate wine too much. One of the California 78’s was also a lost cause, but the other, from the Napa Valley, was actually a surprise hit. It was excellent with the steak and showed mellow notes of cassis, leather and spice. The best match for the meal though was the 95 Bordeaux, which was balanced and supple with a mix of black currants, tea leaves and leather on the nose and the palate.

We finished the meal with a fresh strawberry pie and I considered pulling out a dessert wine or two. But I figured I’d save trying to organize that part of the wine fridge for another night – and another meal.

People always want to know how I got started in the wine business.  I always enjoy telling the story of how I used to sit in the back of the classroom at the International Wine Center, nervous as anything that I would get called upon to read my tasting notes.  A complete novice, I barely knew my Chardonnay from my Cabernet Sauvignon and I probably would not have gotten very far with my tasting notes were it not for the fact that two sommeliers who were sitting next to me decided to take me under their wings.  Luckily for me, one of those guys was Bernie Sun, one of the nicest and most knowledgeable people I know.  When it comes to Burgundy, Bernie is the guy you want to turn to.  A sommelier who has worked at some of the very best restaurants in New York City, Bernie is now the Corporate Beverage Director for Jean-Georges Management and responsible for all of the beverage programs at all of Jean-Georges’ restaurants around the world.  Bernie is also now the spokesperson for Burgundy here in the US and gets to spend some of his (not very spare) time teaching about the complexities of Burgundy.  I was able to corner Bernie for a few minutes recently to ask him the following questions.

How did you get started in the wine business?
“My first full time wine job was at Restaurant Lespinasse at the St Regis in NYC. I was always fascinated with wine (maybe from watching too many James Bond movies when I was a young).  At Lespinasse, I was helping the sommelier at the time with odds and ends voluntarily…when he decided to leave, the Chef, Gray Kunz, offered me the position. I said yes because I thought it would be fun, little did I know where this would take me…”

Describe a day in the life of Bernie Sun, Corporate Beverage Director for Jean Georges Management.
“My days seem to always go by very quickly. I get to my office at around 9:30ish .. I check through my emails (usually around 50 to 75 a day), look through the previous day’s sales and review the group’s purchases and touch base with Jean Georges on anything he wants me to look into. Around noon, I start receiving my appointments with vendors. I taste through maybe about 30 to 50 wines daily this way. By about 3ish, I leave the office to visit our restaurants and touch base with my sommelier/beverage persons, usually one or two per night. I finish up around 8ish.”

What is your favorite French region and why?
“Burgundy - when I drink Burgundies, a tingle goes up and down my spine.”

What has been the most memorable French wine that you have ever tasted?
“During one of my visits to Burgundy, I was fortunate to be able to taste an 1865 La Romanée in Jadot’s wine cellar; the wine was stunning even though it faded in 10 minutes. I was thinking that this wine was made the same year when Abraham Lincoln was President.”

What is your favorite food and French wine pairing that might surprise people?
“An Alsace Pinot Gris with Chopped Chicken Liver. .. a red or white Burgundy would also work well but the Pinot Gris from Alsace would be great with its combination of richness and earthiness.”

What three wines would you have to have with you if you were stranded on a desert island?
“A great bottle of Le Montrachet, a great bottle of La Tache and a bottle of Krug Clos de Mesnil for celebrating when rescued.”

What French wine do you drink most frequently?
“White and Red burgundies. I like Mâcon white wines for everyday drinking and Cote de Beaune reds… these are very satisfying wines for casual drinking…”

Tell me what it’s like being the Spokesperson for Burgundy here in the US.
“I was very honored to be chosen as the first US Spokesperson for the Burgundy Wine Region. I was asked by the BIVB (Burgundy Wine Council) to represent them in promoting the wines of Burgundy. The spokesperson’s responsibilities consist of traveling to different cities in the US and educating both the consumer and the trade through lectures and tastings on the wines of Burgundy. Since Burgundy is my favorite wine region, I am incredibly thrilled to carry forth the message on how delicious and versatile these wines are.”

When people find out what I do for a living, one of their first questions is “Did you grow up in a house that loved wine?” While my parents do appreciate and enjoy wine, neither one of them is a devoted wine lover. In fact, I have several family members who don’t drink at all. My great-grandmother, a stoic New Englander, would most definitely NOT have approved of my career choice. I don’t think she ever tasted wine. And I’m not sure if I should tell you about my grandmother who once added a packet of Sweet n’ Low and some ice cubes to a glass of Champagne!

So wine really wasn’t a part of my family’s dinner table every night. My husband, however, who is of Italian descent, did grow up with wine being served with almost every meal. In fact, his family referred to certain types of wine as their everyday table wine or house wine. When Bill and I moved in together, we actually spent many hours discussing what kind of wine we should have as our house wine and what price point was appropriate for a house wine. Several years later, what we have found works best for us is to try lots of different wines and then when we find one we like, we will buy a case of it, drink it and then move on to a different wine.

We’ve tried to make wine a regular part of our dinner table, even with a toddler running around. I find it pleasurable to sit down to dinner, whether it is something whipped up in 20 minutes, take-out from the local Mexican restaurant or a meal I have spent all afternoon working on, and enjoy it with a glass of wine. After the hectic pace of the day I find it a ritual that adds to our family meal. It also encourages us to sit and savor our meal rather than eating while on the go.

One thing I often wish for though, is a bottle of wine that is designed with the busy young couple in mind. One bottle is too much for 2 people when you only want a glass of wine (unless you are a heavy-handed pourer!) and half bottles can be difficult to find. One solution that many people might not think about is boxed wine – and there is better quality wine being packaged in boxes than ever before. Boxed wine is efficient because you can pour one glass and the bag inside the box that contains the wine collapses to prevent the wine from coming in contact with oxygen. Boxed wine can last for several weeks and can be a great way of having your own house wine. So it is definitely something to look for in your local wine shop. If you haven’t tried boxed wine in a while, you might just be surprised at the quality you will find.