Did Italian Wine Jump the Shark with its Wine Purse?
September 6, 2012
I have to admit that I didn’t even want to write this post, but it seems to keep getting blasted at me from every angle on the Interweb (I guess the PR company must has really been hammering-out the samples on this one!), so find myself in the position of being forced to share my two cents…
Volere (pictured below) is a boxed-wine like any other box wine, except for the minor detail that the box is shaped like a purse. A genius idea really, and quite unbelievable that no-one else thought of it first!
The Volere comes to us from Cantina di Soave in Italy’s Veneto region, who is (according to their own website): “one of Italy’s most respected and progressive wine producers.” I get the feeling that their level of “respect” in the Italian wine community may have been taken down 
a notch or three with this latest innovation…
So I have to admit, I haven’t tasted the stuff (which is available in Pinot Grigio (Tan/white purse), Merlot/Pinot Noir (Red purse) and Rosé (Pink/white purse)); but from what I’ve seen, the reviews aren’t looking too great, at least, not from the people who know what they’re talking about i.e. the wine media.
On the flip-side of that, plenty of lifestyle columnists (and even KLG and Hoda) seem to have fallen handbag-over-heels in love with the Volere, which is quite concerning, since they’re the ones reaching the “masses.”
Now, I have no doubt that people who are reading this article already set themselves for me to rip this wine apart, probably even thinking: “…well, he’s a wine snob, so OF COURSE he’s not going to like it!”
As I said previously, I haven’t tasted it and so it’s extremely unfair to criticize a wine I’ve never tasted, but my main point is that I can already tell you it won’t be anything to write home about. Sure the “lifestyle columnists” love it. The Volere probably tastes like every other generic Italian wine available in most grocery stores! The same type of wine that you throw into your shopping cart because the price is right, the label is appealing, you maybe recognize the name of the grape, but you don’t want to think about so much harder about selecting a bottle than that….
The overwhelming saving grace for the Volere is undoubtedly the price. Each purse-shaped package holds two wine bottles and is expected to retail for $15, making it $7.50 a bottle…….and that’s where any attempt to disparage the Volere falls apart!
For that reason, there’s absolutely nothing which can be said negatively about the Volere that can’t be answered with “…but it only costs $7.50 a bottle!” For the most part, it undercuts almost every other Italian wine on the market; and for that kind of price, a wine coming out of ANY country is only going to give you (at best) a very generic representation of the grape it’s made from and the place where it comes from.
To conclude (because I’m already tired of talking about this bloody thing), I can’t say that I can give the Volere two thumbs up (except for the innovative packaging) but I have no-doubt they’ll sell a TON of it! Put this in every Target up and down the country by tomorrow, and I guarantee it will be their biggest selling wine of the year!
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