Paul Gregutt: Box wine provides both convenience, taste

Summer is the best time to enjoy wine as a simple, refreshing, social beverage. Leave the ‘82 Mouton for some dreary winter day – it won’t do anything special for those burgers you’ve got going on the grill. Summer wines should be party wines.

What’s a party wine? It’s a wine that looks, feels and tastes like a party. A wine that kick starts the conversation, that easily accommodates the food, and that makes no special demands on purse or persons. A wine that’s a pal, not a problem.

Summer parties are usually set outdoors. You’re on a deck or a patio, a boat or a camper. You’re in the woods, on the lake, in the mountains, on the road. You’re battling bugs. The grill is smoking, the air smells like bug spray and charcoal lighter fluid, the sun is blazing and the radio is blaring. Who has time for snooty wines?

When you’re picking wine for a party, you want quantity and convenience. I have two words for you: box wine. I’m not talking about the five-liter boxes of quote unquote “Chablis” or “Mountain Rhine” or whatever they’re calling it these days. Box or cask wines have gone upscale. They now offer true varietal wines, such as merlot and chardonnay, and they come in snazzy three-liter packages that open easily and have a freshness date stamped on them. There is nothing cheap or cheesy about the functionality of the airtight bag that holds the wine inside, or the dripless spout that works like a bar tap.

Boxes offer other convenience as well. They are easy to pack, quick to chill, and they hold their temperature for a long while. They require no corkscrew, dispense wine a glass at a time, and will keep wine fresh for weeks. No glass to break either. About the only thing I can criticize about box wines is that there aren’t enough of them made here in Washington.

A three-liter box is the equivalent of four regular-sized bottles – roughly 20 generous glasses of wine. They sell for as little as $16 a box, which gets them close to the two buck Chuck side of the aisle. And some are quite good.

From Washington, I particularly enjoy Avery Lane’s three-liter chardonnay – $18. It offers plenty of spicy fruit flavors of pineapple, citrus, peaches and apples. They also make a box wine merlot, a red blend and a sweet Glacier White. From Washington Hills you can find a serviceable chardonnay and merlot ($18) and a pair of blends called Rainier Red and Rainier White ($16).

From California, I like the Black Box line best. These sell for a few bucks a box more – $20 to $25 – and the extra money gets you better wine. The highlight is their terrific cabernet, but they also offer two different chardonnays, two merlots and a shiraz, and they are all quite good. Also recommended from California are Delicato’s popular Bota Box wines – around $17 – that come in five varietals: pinot grigio, chardonnay, merlot, cabernet and shiraz. Sweet, simple and fruity, they are as quaffable as wines can be.

If you’re throwing a shrimp on the barbie, an Aussie box will suit you fine. Try the chardonnay and the shiraz from either Hardys Stamp or Banrock Station – about $17.

I’m pleased to be the wine columnist for The Spokesman-Review. In this space each month I will pack as much useful wine-related information as possible along with specific recommendations, of course. But also insights into the world of wine – the richest, most sensual and fascinating world I have ever known.

I hope you will make it a regular habit to read the column and get to know me through my writing. But at the outset, let me explain a few of my personal preferences and a little bit about how I approach the job.

Let me make it clear; I write for you. I am your wine ombudsman. I do not work for any winery or wine-related retail or wholesale operation. I am an independent journalist, whose career in communications includes a wide variety of lifestyle reporting for print, radio and television. My exclusive focus now, and for the past five years, is wine. My expertise is the wines of the Pacific Northwest, where I have lived for 35 years.

I will do my best to explain flavors, so that you may find recommendations that match your personal preferences. My own preferences are for wines that are balanced and elegant, that show clear flavors of the grape (or grapes) from which they are made. Wines from very specific places (single vineyard wines, or wines from particularly blessed wine regions) should also show what is called terroir – the unique flavors that the land and climate impart.

I will certainly write about wines that are well-made but do not ring my personal bell. But I will (gently) try to steer you in the direction of exploration and refinement, so you may develop your own tastes further. The more you can taste and appreciate the subtleties of fine wine, the more pleasure it will bring you.