I grew up drinking beer.  I always took nips from my Dad’s quart bottle when he wasn’t looking.  Taste develops that way.

Wine  entered my life in high school. Boone’s Farm Apple Wine I am sad to report (nice label). I thought I was moving up in the world when I started drinking Mateus from that stone-like bottle a couple years later (the bottle felt “old world” to me). As a young adult I often drank “wine from a box” usually at family gatherings (those boxes never seemed to run out).

As I write this I only imagine the horror my French wife will experience knowing the sour grape juice passing for wine that has passed through my uneducated lips.  Over the years my taste has improved, and thanks to Caroline I have a new appreciation for all things French (new fave is Chateauneuf du Pape).  I still love my California wines however. During a trip to visit the Redwoods I discovered how many interesting little California wines there are I had no idea existed.

Anyway, I’m not the wine dweeb I once was — but I’m far from being a wine expert. However, I think I can recognize a significant innovation when I see it.

I’m looking right now at a hexagonal (oops, Murli points out below it’s octagonal) box of wine from Underdog Wine Merchants. Now, stop, this is different.  Truly different. This box arrived in the mail, well protected by an outer shell. It’s a California wine, from the Monthaven winery, a crisp and unadulterated Chardonay, from the under-rated Central Coast region. This wine is part of the Ocatvin Home Wine Bar.

First of all it’s good wine, and don’t take my word for it, just try it.  That’s the innovation really, very good, fine artisan wines, in a box.  Box wine in the past was, well, humble stuff.  This is really good, interesting, wine. This is not the huge box of old days, but something more akin to the way wine is kept at a good wine bar. Because of the vacuum packaging, the wine will stay fresh for months, just like at a wine bar. Check out the website to get a better sense of what I’m talking about. Imagine a wine bar at home…

A challenge for market acceptance of this innovation is — will fine wine drinkers buy fine wine in a box? Boxes have that bad reputation. I think they will, it’s just too good an overall value to pass up. Innovation sometimes happens when old, failed innovations are simply improved. This is a significant improvement,  I’d call it a quantum leap in boxed wine.

It would be easy just to say this is a Packaging innovation, and it clearly is, but it’s also innovative on a couple of other fronts. First of all, due to the reduction in packaging costs (no glass and cork) you essentially get four bottles for the price of three. That’s a Value innovation. It’s also a Green innovation, because waste has been reduced by 85% and carbon emissions by 55%.

But let’s get back to the wine. Wine lovers can experience great wine from artisan winemakers in a new and better way.  Underdog is being careful about what’s going into this box (Octavin is a series of boxes actually). California wines have taken a bit of a reputation hit in recent years because of the large brand flavor manipulations. It’s too bad because California is chock full of small wineries that craft wines that are true to grape varietal character. Underdog is working with those types of artisan winemakers for the Octavian Home Wine Bar Collection. They are also working with similar small batch vineyards in New Zealand, Spain, and Hungary.

Hats off to Underdog Wine Merchants for developing this fascinating new product. With innovations like this, I suspect they won’t be underdogs in the marketplace for long.