Ben Goldstein/Studio D

feel about wine: It's not something we generally obsess about. Cocktails, sure. Likewise Scotch, cognac, bourbon, and rye. But those are all luxuries, rewards, the carrot dangling at the end of the stick. Half the pleasure to be found in such things is in the contemplation. But wine is a condiment — like salt is a condiment: It's essential, but it's not something to fetishize.

Condiment-grade wines — good and tasty ones, that is — don't need to age for years in dusty cellars. This means that theoretically they can dispense with the traditional and costly glass-bottle-and-cork packaging. While we enjoy the ritual of the corkscrew well enough, offer us something better and we'll get over its loss pretty quickly. Like wine in a box.

There's the European box, which is essentially a one-liter milk carton — no better at keeping air out once opened than a bottle is. Fortunately, there's the Australian-style box, a light cardboard structure stuffed with a big, hermetically sealed plastic bag full of wine and fitted with a plastic tap. Because atmospheric pressure pushes the wine out without allowing air back in, the contents will keep unoxidized for up to a month. And the standard three-liter size equals four bottles of wine: That's two glasses every night for three weeks.

All well and good, but historically — by which we mean since the mid-1960s, when an Australian winery introduced it — this arrangement's minimal, even negative, snob value has ensured that most of the wine thus packaged has been no better than alkie-grade: heavy, sweet, and nasty. Recently, though, things have started to get interesting. There are box wines that have actual character, from French country wines to California and Aussie varietals usually seen only in cork-stopped bottles. Some of them are even good. Take, for instance, the VRAC 2007 Côtes du Rhône ($30), a red real enough to be odd, even funky, a thing heretofore confined to glass. And the 2005 Cuvée de Peña ($30), an unfiltered red from the French Pyrenees that smells faintly and pleasantly of dried apricots. Then there's the "From the Tank" Côtes du Rhône ($35), a dark and earthy red with hints of raspberry jam that comes in an utterly plain brown cardboard container. Put it into a decanter and no one will know the difference. And when the decanter's empty, you can refill it another three or four times.

Large liquor stores should carry at least one of these brands or something much like them. Look for Côtes du Rhône or words like French or country. Boxed merlot, cabernet, chardonnay, or Shiraz will likely be dull. Boxed zinfandel — white or red — will likely be awful. And avoid anything less than $20 a box.

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