WineLife365

From: California

Price: $20.99

It’s time to share with you the results of my first box wine experiment of 2009. The first specimen in the study of today’s Box Wines is the 2006 Killer Juice Cabernet Sauvignon from California.  This wine comes in a very eye-catching “Harley Davidson” looking black box and contains a 3 liter bag of what the producers of this wine claim is “Killer Juice”.  I paid $20.99 for this 3 liter bag-in-box wine.  For those of us that are a little math-impaired, that works out to be 4 (750ml) bottles of wine, which is equivalent to a little more than $5 a bottle.

The outer shell of the box touts the fact that this wine has won a Gold Medal at the International Wine Competition Critics Challenge in 2007.  In addition, the folks at “Killer Juice” say that their bag-in-box “Wine Cask” will keep your “Killer Juice” tasting as fresh as it was on day one (for up to 6 weeks).

So what’s a Wine Cask?  A Wine Cask, in this case, is 3 liters of wine filled in an airtight plastic bag with a nifty pouring spout.  The advantage of using a wine cask over traditional bottling is that when you open a traditional bottle, air gets inside the bottle and starts to oxidize the wine.  Which is just a fancy phrase for any of the “unky’s” – funky, skunky, punky.

So there you have it.  We have a specimen that claims to be “Killer Juice”, a great value, has even won a Gold Medal, and claims to stay fresh for up to 6 weeks on your kitchen counter.

The Results of the study:

1.)    Is this “Killer Juice”?  In our opinion, no, not really.  It tasted like black cherry juice for adults.  They claim that this Killer Juice contains 13.5% alcohol.  I would have never guessed that.  Unfortunately, to my taste buds there was nothing killer about this juice box.

2.)    Is the 2006 Killer Juice Cabernet Sauvignon a killer value?  In my opinion, no. There are some large wineries like Concha y Toro, Lindeman’s, and Columbia Crest, just to name a few, that offer much better “killer juice” in a bottle for about the same price as this box of wine.

3.)    Does this Cab merit winning a Gold Medal?  Sure, if it was the only box wine entry in its class…or the judges were kindergarteners who confused it with their juice box.  I look forward to trying other box wines to see if there are any better tasting ones.  But I personally can’t imagine how this wine supposedly won a Gold Medal in any wine tasting competition.

4.)    Did this Cab stay “fresh” on my kitchen counter for up to 6 weeks?  Yes!  The wine cask system worked flawlessly.  It’s an amazing alternative to glass bottles that I wish more wineries would utilize.

My Verdict: The 2006 Killer Juice Cabernet Sauvignon was more like “So-So Juice” to me.  It really lacked the depth of other bottled value-Cabs that I’ve tried so far this year.  I’m not sure on what basis this wine was awarded a Gold Medal.  It’s really not that good (believe me).  The real test is when you take a drink of an inexpensive Cab from a bottle, then take a sip of this juice.  The difference is huge.  The Killer Juice doesn’t even come close on taste.  I did this little taste comparison for more than 30 days, with the same results just about every time.

But what was fantastic about the Killer Juice Cab was the bag-in-box system.  It works exactly as promised.  It’s a far superior storage system over traditional glass bottles.  I’d like to see more wineries adopt this system so that us wine lovers could enjoy some real “Killer Juice”!

I’ll be trying more boxes throughout the year and give you the skinny on them.  This wine merits a 2 star rating.  It ain’t awful, but it isn’t very good either.

WineLife365 Rating: 2-Star

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