Will it Last?

Working in a large, downtown liquor store is a perfect spot for seeing all types of people.  You really get to see how times are changing.  For instance, it wasn't all that long ago that if someone came in to buy box wine you could bet that they would be likely to finish half the box before they even got back to the trailer park.  Last week a customer came into the store and caught us all off guard by asking how long you could store box wine before drinking it.

Now many box wines come with a “Best when consumed by” date stamped on them.  Of course the box this customer wanted was an exception to this rule.

Of all the things we said about this guy he was patient.  He waited nearly half an hour while we called everyone short of the producer to get an answer.  We finally found out that the wine was stamped with a production date but no expiration date.  He went home with the most recent production date we could find.  I went home and started looking for the answer to his question.

Now it’s a given that less than 10% of all wine produced is meant to be aged for any amount of time.  There is an inside joke that most Americans do have a wine cellar; it’s called the back seat of the car for the drive home.  Somehow I didn’t think the customer would get the joke.

A couple of interesting facts came up when I started my research.  The bag-in-box system was invented in 1955 as a method to transport battery acid.

Franzia bills itself as the world's most popular wine and they have some interesting numbers to back up their claim.  For instance, in 2007 enough 5L boxes were sold that if stacked up they would reach over 1025 time the height of Mt. Everest.  When you do the math it would take a stack of about 33,600,000 boxes to reach 1,025 times the height of Everest.  The top of that pile would reach almost to the edge of the Exosphere, the outermost layer of the atmosphere. If you managed to climb to the top of that stack and wanted to pour yourself a little drink you might have a problem.  There just isn’t much oxygen left up there and most of that is busy escaping into space.

Well, as it turns out oxygen is important for more than just breathing.  When you open a bottle and air gets to the wine it starts a reaction that softens and opens the aroma of the wine.  The problem is that over time this oxidation makes the wine undrinkable.  That is why, generally, once you open a bottle you should consume it within 3 days.

Box wines have an advantage thanks to an airlock tap first developed back in the mid 60’s.  The tap helps to keep air out of the bag.  This allows the wine to stay fresh for 4 to 6 weeks after you open the box.  This is quite an improvement over 3 days for the bottle.

Nothing is perfect; there is a problem with box wine.  That problem both explains why most boxes have an expiration date and answers the customer’s question.  The plastic bag that holds the wine is not completely airtight.  At the microscopic level oxygen can still get into the wine. It is generally accepted that you have 12 months after the bag is sealed before the wine starts to go bad.

So don't let that box of wine gather dust down in the basement.  Call some friends, break out some hot dogs and marshmallows to barbeque and enjoy that wine.  Nothing lasts forever.