French rabbit 2004
French Rabbit, Pinot Noir 2004. $10 – 1 liter box Find this wine
Sacre bleu—French innovation! Many commentators attribute the current state of malaise in the French wine industry to a lack of innovation and bad labels. This one-liter box should silence the critics. Bright orange, English language, and critter label (well, that’s not the original part) all in packaging that will stand out on the shelf and weighs a fraction of glass. But what about what’s inside? Well, you won’t mistake it for Gevrey-Chambertin (it’s actually sourced from the Languedoc), but at least it is 100 percent pinot noir unlike many similarly priced California wines. It’s fruit forward and soft tannins—in other words a great red for the summer picnic basket. And you won’t even have to remember the corkscrew. Importer: Boisset America.
tags: wine | tasting notes | wine reviews
On June 23rd, 2006 at 6:30 pm ,Winesmith wrote:
Boxed wine seems to be making a comeback. I’ve been noticing a lot of new packaging (and smaller sizes) that distance the new breed of box wines from the standard boxes modeled after jug wines. More…
On June 29th, 2006 at 1:58 pm ,g58 wrote:
I think it has been proven that it’s the wine not the box that determines the quality. But these tetra pak people tout themselves as more than that — they make frequent claims to environmental heroism since glass is so heavy and bulky to transport, especially when emptied of wine.
While boxes might be a good idea in theory, this kind of “thinking globally” is often not being followed up by acting locally. The result is that this packaging is more marketing than anything and not all it’s cracked up to be.