Boo on Delta International Flights - Box Wine!

I took Delta last week out of Atlanta and nothing was free -- everything alcoholic cost $7.

What's wrong with box wine? We drink it in France all the time up to some of the pretty good AOC ratings, and it is certainly better quality coming out of a box rather than thos little 17cl plastic bottles.

I'm drinking a pretty good Côtes du Rhône box wine tonight. Where do you think the carafes of wine in restaurants and cafés come from?

Ohh no, says my DH....this is the pits! What kind was it Pal? Black Box is not bad. I hope it's not Franzia...or some such swill.

The first time I ever saw boxed wine was at the antiques market in Ile-sur-la-Sorgue, probably 10 years ago. At lunchtime almost every single vendor set a small table with a picnic lunch and set a large box of wine on it or next to it. So if the average French person is happy with it, why not you?

Nothing wrong with boxed wine.

Certainly nothing wrong with free boxed wine .

It may well be better quality than the stuff they give you in those little bottles, which can be seriously nasty.

How silly. Boxed wine isn't "swill" - at least normally. Some is very good. Wine boxes are just a delivery system, doesn't affect the wine in any way.

The definition of hick insularity has to be assuming that bag-in-box wine is "cheap swill"

In Australia and NZ, as in France,for at least the past 20 years it's been a perfectly respectable way of ensuring serious wine stays in decent nick. And it's not just big-name ACs. Some of my favourite boutique French vineyards now sell their own BinB

Come on Delta - those little bottles of wine are so so nice - but a small cup from a box of cheap swill?>

Yes i am very well versed in how good box wines can be - to wit my recent post describing how Carrefour in France is stocking more and more box wines - of good vintage, etc.

But in my OP i said from a box of cheap swill - now you may think that i meant all box wines were swill but not that is not what i meant

what i mean was cheap swill - Franzia, like i do buy at home for $9.99 for a five liter box - now that to me is cheap swill - and yes the wine in the little bottles could be cheap swill too but like on AF at least they were all labeled as to what vineyard, etc they came from - not some generic Franzia Chardonnay like they were serving

plus a half of a small plastic cup was much less than the 17cl bottles.

Kerouac - my flight was labelled Northwest so maybe that's why it was free - even though run by Delta

Those little bottles of wine served by Delta contain (and have always contained, as long as I've been drinking them though I did give up on them entirely a couple of years ago) perfectly disgusting wine, so there's nowhere to go but up in quality.

kerouac, assuming your DL flight out of ATL was TATL you should have had free wine and beer in coach. There is a charge for distilled spirits. Note that I say "should have", as perhaps the FAs on your flight managed to screw things up, but you were entitled to it.

I suggest sticking to the beer whenever possible.

Well i had never flown a Delta operated flight before so maybe the swill box wine is not any worse than before - i was comparing it to the NW and KLM flights i always took before Delta bought out NW

I read on Delta's site, that beer and wine are complimentary on Transatlantic flights.

they told us that two drinks were free - anything else was several bucks - Air France, if you are a pest, will give you more free.

I'd take it and be glad, Pal, but I'm a wine slob.

We flew Delta Atlanta/Rome/Atlanta in December and I didn't notice if the wine was boxed because I didn't have any but I was pleased to see that they were still offering it free!

stoke - i would have ordinarily but i opted for a full can of Henieken, brewed in Holland- more bang for the buck, so to speak

Or, as my lawyer brother always says when I say something's free: "At no addional charge."

I was on Air France for the CDG-ATL sector, and I was pleasantly surprised. AF has become quite stingy lately (like so many airlines) saying things like "cocktails are available on request" and making a point of not rolling the cart down the aisle so that you won't dare ask. And as for the cognac after the meal, it has been hidden away for quite some time. But on this particular flight (because who knows about the other ones?), the generous cocktail cart was brought out before the meal, and the cognac bottles were in full view and pleasantly offered when the coffee came around.
I say bravo. (The meal in economy wasn't all that bad either.)

Supposedly, the 'bladder' in boxed wine collapses as the liquid decreases, preserving the wine from oxygenation. So, it isn't the 'box' just the 'contents' that you should protest (and the 'quantity', if too chinchy). I still enjoy the uncorking routine, so haven't transitioned to boxes...