Full Press: A box-wine diamond in the rough

As of late, I've been attempting to tighten my purse strings. I downloaded a budgeting app to help me determine just exactly where all my hard earned cash was disappearing to. The results are in: I spend a lot of money on booze. Sure, it's often paired with food, but my app doesn't care. It just wants me to spend less.

Try as I might, I don't seem to actually be able to cut down on the number of days per week that I knock back a few tipples. I tell myself that I won't go out after work more than one night per week (excluding Friday night, naturally). But something inevitably tempts me to bend my own rules and here I am back at square one.

The perfect example of my failure to preserve my poor liver can be traced back to last night. I finished work, went grocery shopping, and returned home with the intent of making dinner and catching up on a few chores. Have I mentioned that I rent the suite below my parents' house?  This makes sneaking into my apartment unnoticed rather difficult.

One thing led to another and rather than cooking a healthy meal, I found myself drinking wine on my mother's sun-soaked back deck and chatting with her about where she'd like to have dinner on Mother's Day/her birthday. Lucky for me, my dad "accidentally" bought a box of Full Press Vineyards' Cabernet Sauvignon when he meant to pick up a box of their Chardonnay for my mum. That's right, we've upped our regular wine consumption to the level that can only be satiated by the box load.

Full Press also produces a 750ml bottle of this varietal at a very reasonable $8.79, but for those of us who want the economy and easy portability of a three-liter box, I suggest this fine Canadian product at $28.99. It's got juicy berry notes and a light amount of sweetness not found in many Cab Sauvs, and would be a fine compliment to any meaty dish, such as lamb, venison, or steak.

Part of the reason these guys are able to keep their prices so low is that their wines are blended. They likely buy grape juice (soon to be wine) from other producers and blend it with some Canadian wines to produce a thrifty libation that will help keep any keen budgeter on track. So if you've been considering taking the next step towards box wine, and you're worried you'll end up with several liters of sludge that can't even be converted into homemade sangria, set your worried mind at ease! This big ol' box is kind to your wallet as well as your taste buds.