A Golden Box of Wine

I have been writing about boxed wines for about five years. I’ve talked about their convenience, their eco-friendliness, their inexpensive cost and their decent, dependable flavors. I’ve never said they were world beaters, but that this new class of non-bottled wines were decent and would likely exceed most expectations.

Well, I’ve have now found my boxed world beater. So impressed am I that I can do nothing but heap my highest honor upon it: The Golden Thumb Award. It has been more than a year and many wines since I’ve made such a distinction. If this does not help those of you hung up on what type of container your wine comes in, I don’t know what will.

I was tasting a small flight of torrontés, the up-and-coming white wine from Argentina. While I did not know the identity of the other four wines, which were bagged and in bottles, the Yellow+Blue Torrontés sorta stood out because it was in a one-liter container that most folks would call a milk carton.

Now, I’m not saying the other wines were bad. The Trivento Select was rather impressive. But when I put the Yellow+Blue to my nose and then to my lips, there was no doubt as to its superiority. It immediately reminded me of a perfect meyer lemon with perfume-like floral qualities. It had brisk acidity and a crystalline-like minerality that took my breath away.

My support of boxed wines notwithstanding, I questioned this phenomenal wine. Boxed wines can be good, but this good? Not wanting to give it any undue credit, I tried the other wines one by one against the Yellow+Blue to see if I was missing something in the bottled Torrontés. I wasn’t.

I believe this wine, which touts itself as an earth-friendly, “green” wine (yellow and blue make green. Get it?), was originally a gimmick to get environmentally-conscious wine drinkers to buy it. Somewhere along their way to saving the planet, they hit a homerun with the wine itself. Yellow+Blue hits the Georgia market on Jan. 1.

2008 Yellow+Blue Torrontes, Cafayate, Argentina

• $12/1 liter

• The Golden Thumb Award

• Amazing aromas of meyer lemon and lime with perfumey, floral quality. Delicious flavors of citrus fruits, pineapple and a subtle creaminess, but at the same time had a contradictory crispness about it.