Wine of the week: Bota Box rose 2018

bota box roseBig Wine delivers price, value and quality with this vintage of the Bota Box rose

Big Wine’s rose offerings have often been indifferent, with little consistency in style and quality, plus more sweetness than dry rose requires. Because, of course, Big Wine. So how has Delicato done so well with the past three vintages of the Bota Box rose, and especially with the 2018?

Call it our good fortune as we celebrate the blog’s 12th annual rose extravaganza. In fact, this version of the Bota Box rose ($16/3-liter box, sample, 11.5%) is the best of the three – more structure, more interest, and more going on than you get in most box wines. And the price is amazing – three liters is four bottles, so this is the equivalent of $4 a bottle.

The 2018 is fruitier than the previous efforts (berries and a little lemon?), as well as crisp and refreshing, just like a dry rose is supposed to be. In this, it’s not just a one-note wine, like last year’s was, and it’s more rounded than the 2016 version. That wine was enjoyable, but not necessarily something you believed in. The 2018 is not just better made with better quality grapes, but you can taste the difference.

Best yet, the Bota Box rose is actually dry. Delicato has resisted the temptation to tart the wine up after it has established a market, something that’s common practice among Big Wine companies. So more good fortune for those of use who care about value and not Instagram posts.

Highly recommended, and a candidate for the 2020 $10 Hall of Fame and the 2020 Cheap Wine of the Year.

2 thoughts on “Wine of the week: Bota Box rose 2018

  • By Kim -

    Just bought a box for Memorial Day Weekend, and I must say, I was pleasantly surprised. Wonderfully refreshing on a hot, sunny day, paired beautifully with my hot dog. That might sound silly, but it really cut through the fat and salt and enhanced the spicy flavors. I’ve never been a boxed wine person, but Bota may have converted me!

  • By Don -

    Yay! Finally found a box of the 2018 rose. The local distributor is still trying to get rid of the 2017, keeping shelves stocked at several of the chain supermarkets in town. But they slipped up & left a 2018 box in the white wine good-to-go cooler. Delish. Just in time for Labor Day.

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