Italy Says Boxed Wine OK

There was a time when boxed wine was only suitable for poor college students looking to get sufficiently sloshed and redneck weddings, but that time is long gone. To the surprise of wine connoisseurs around the world Italy's Agriculture Ministry has given boxed wines its stamp of approval.

Before you groan and let out a confused "Whaaaa?" give the eco-friendly wine alternative a chance. I mean, honestly, if it's OK with Italy, then wine in a cube must be just as good.

Boxed wine has been around for over 30 years, and although for the most part, the U.S. has carried lower end wine in boxes, Australia and France have come to accept boxed wine as a norm. But now with Italian vintners seeking to reduce their carbon footprint, the U.S. might finally catch on to this trend.

Although Italy isn't quickly moving all of its wine to the box, the Agriculture Ministry announced that some wines that receive the government's quality assurance label will begin to make the switch to cardboard.

According to the New York Times, switching to box wine in the U.S. would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about two million tons, or the equivalent of retiring 400,000 cars, and that's just within a year of making the switch.

Since America has one of the largest wine markets in the world, surpassing Italy, and catching up to France, making the switch to cardboard would make a huge impact.

To all those people that think that boxed wine is still under par, keep in mind that boxes are more than adequate for table wines that don't need to age (which is many of the top wines around the world) and a box preserves opened wine better than a bottle. Once a bottle is open, you pretty much have to finish it, but a box can keep a wine fresh up to four weeks after it is opened.

Oh, and don't forget, it's way easier to store a box than a bottle, you can pretty much put it anywhere. Except for in your wine rack, you'd probably just have to throw that away.

Image Source Winberis.blogs.com