Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/504216
may 2015 / the tasting panel / 81 A s box wine continues its annexation of precious shelf space in major retail outlets around the United States, the message is clear: Americans want more of it. According to Nielsen data presented at this year's annual Wine Market Council conference in Yountville, California, high-frequency drinking consumers purchased 58 percent of wine at liquor and wine stores and an astonishing 53 percent at supermarkets over a recent six-month period. Given those statistics, it's no coincidence that high-tier box wine is the fastest growing category in wine, soaring 23 percent over the last four years. Increases in demand of wines in the high-tier or "premium" box wine cat- egory has also driven up quality in these products. Popular heavyweights like Constellation's Black Box, DFV Wines' Bota Box and Trinchero's Bandit box wine are rising in popularity among consumers and also among wine buyers in the off-premise. To prove this, we embarked on what might be one of our boldest tasting experiments yet: We recently invited wine buyers from some of Los Angeles's top off-premise retail shops—including Wally's, K&L Wine Merchants, Total Wine & More and several other stores—to join us at Osteria Mozza for a blind tasting of premium box wines from the three aforementioned brands. Worked into the mix was a brand new $21.99/3L premium cask wine called Vin Vault from E&J Gallo Winery. "Our company was founded in 1933 with a very simple mission: democ- ratize wine in the United States," said Stephanie Gallo, who oversees marketing for the family business, in an interview just before the blind tasting. "And what I love about consumers today is that their wine knowl- edge and comfort with wine is that it's become a casual social beverage. For them, [box wine] is a smarter choice—it's wine on tap at home, or more importantly, if you're having a group of friends over, instead of opening four bottles you have one box. It's about delivering extreme value for our customers at the loyalty package size." Vin Vault launched nationally in April, released only in the U.S., and we were fortunate to be among experienced palates who were entirely unaware of which wines they were about to taste—nor did they know that these were all box wines. Stephanie Gallo and Calvin Dennison, Senior Director of Winemaking at E&J Gallo, were present to witness firsthand the uninhibited reactions and responses evoked in a blind tasting. For Dennison, who had never made a box wine before, this event was to prove particularly revealing. Before we took our seats for the blind tasting, Stephanie admitted she hadn't been a part of blind tasting with buyers quite like this before, adding that it was important to her because "we have to give them [consumers] the confidence that these wines are of outstanding quality." She then asked if I had any advice before we got underway. "Put out your best poker face, no matter what," I told her. Blind Tasting Report At the end of the tasting, we asked the buyers to rate their top five favorite wines out of all 14 wines sampled. For each flight, we tallied up a first and second place winner based on the buyers' overall favorite picks. In the end, the count for Vin Vault revealed it to be the overall best tasting boxed wine in the blind competition. CHARDONNAY FLIGHT The lineup (in order tasted): Bota Box 2012 Chardonnay, California, USA; Black Box 2013 Chardonnay, California, USA; Vin Vault NV Chardonnay, California, USA; Bandit NV Chardonnay, California, USA. Out the gate, the buyers delved into a conversation on trends. Convinced that Chardonnay was the varietal in question, the room was split on the unoaked Chardonnay trend, with Jeff Schroeder remarking that he'd recently sold "more Chablis than I've ever sold in the last ten years." However, Etty Lewensztain said that her older clientele "likes oak" and doesn't see that shifting. The results: Vin Vault received seven votes for the buyers' "top favorite" overall pick. Bota Box came in second with three votes. Buyers' Blind Tasting Notes on Vin Vault: "This wine for me was the best food- pairing wine." —Gillian Jackman "Though the nose is slightly muted, there's good balance on the palate between bright fruit and great structure. Alcohol is well integrated. This is all lemon pie on the finish."—Grant Wheeler "Honeysuckle, bright fruit on the nose, fair amount of oak, most classic California style."—Perry Koon "Subtle citrus and stone fruit on the nose. More richness and ripe apple—golden delicious with citrus peel, not as dry and light more tropical but clean, more traditional style, more Meursault style."—Christie Brunick "Crème brûlée and sweet tropical fruits on the nose. On the palate, there is rich oak and sweet cream with a touch of cinnamon." —Matthew Gonzalez Stephanie Gallo, VP of Marketing, E&J Gallo, and Cal Dennison, Senior Director Winemaking, E&J Gallo.