There's something romantic about a bottle of wine — the heavy glass, the embossed foil, the label emblazoned with images of winding river valleys and sun-drenched hillsides. But here's the thing about romance: You pay extra for it.
If you can be cold-eyed enough to do without it, you can save money and take advantage of some of the latest technological advances in the wine industry, which can be summed up in one word: boxed. We're not talking about the cheap, jug-style "Chablis" of days gone by, but vintage-dated, varietal wines (the good stuff) that happen to come in a box. Not only is that box a better value than its bottle counterpart, but it's also easier to transport (think beach picnics and barbecues), and it keeps the wine fresher longer (about 30 days).

Although quality boxed wine is nothing new in Australia and even parts of Europe, there's a profusion of brands, both domestic and Australian imports, now appearing on the American market, and more are arriving every month. (Perhaps the best indicator of boxed wine's mass availability — and mass acceptance — is that Target introduced its own line last year, all selected by wine expert Andrea Immer.) But the when and the where aren't important. Here's why you should care about the trend.

A Square Deal

Sure, it's never going to look exactly right having a box of wine chilling tableside, but boxes do have many practical advantages over bottles.

Better Value
Whether you're having one glass a day for your health or you just want something pleasant to go with dinner, the cost of wine can mount pretty quickly. The new boxes, which usually come in 3-liter packages (the equivalent of 4 bottles), retail in the $15 to $25 range. This works out to $4 to $6 a bottle, instead of $9.80 a bottle, which, according to a 2003 University of California Agricultural Issues Center study, is the average cost of generic California wine. Winemakers can charge less for boxes because shipping and production costs are lower (a cork, for example, can cost a winery as much as $1.50).

Longer Shelf Life
An opened bottle of wine goes stale in a few days — before many people can consume it. But an opened box of wine will stay fresh for about a month. (The label may say over a month, but Real Simple's testers determined that this is optimistic.) If you have one generous 6-ounce glass of wine a day, you'll go through your box in 16 days, well before the wine goes bad.

More Portable
A standard 750-milliliter bottle of wine weighs a little less than 3 pounds; a 3-liter box (four times as much wine) weighs only about 7 pounds — and won't shatter when you drop it. This makes it ideal for picnics, tailgate parties, campouts, and any other situation where you've got a lot of thirsty people and a lengthy buffet line.