Let the experts send you wines

Some might say that starting a business in the midst of a pandemic is rather foolish but Conor Duggan, Neil O’Reilly and Conor Mulligan would disagree as they opened their business in October last year.

Box of Wine is a subscription service for wine “providing a bespoke wine offering, tailored to individual tastes and conveniently and safely delivered straight to your door in a beautifully presented box”.

Since the current lockdown has been extended, the box of wine is a great alternative if you don’t want to make the trip to the off license. Currently the introductory offer of €49 per month will get you a box with three wines and tasting cards.

Before you join, the website boxofwine.ie asks you to take a quiz to understand your preferences and based on the result, the wines are chosen for you. The subscription can be stopped or paused at any time but if that is still too much commitment, individual boxes can be purchased including a gift box with champagne and chocolates (keep Valentine in mind my fellow romantics).

Taking the quiz is easy and questions like ‘do you like mushrooms?’ are to see if you like more earthy flavours, ‘do you like berries?’ to see your tolerance to sweet wines and so on.

The result for the quiz I took was a box of red, white and rosé wine. No names of wines were given although the image of the box included two taste cards with names but no reference if these were the actual wines sent.

With a price of €49, a bottle will cost you €16.33 with an additional €4.95 for shipping. The website doesn’t say much about the three founders other than they have 30+ years experience in the hospitality industry which I can’t verify. But as one wine expert once told me – you don’t have to study wine to know wine.

Box of Wine is a great gift idea as you can order from the comfort of your home and pay by credit card and it will be shipped to the recipient directly. Now, I for one would like to receive a gift like that.

And when restrictions are lifted again, it’s a great way to start a mini wine club with a friend or two.

That reminds me of the time when I started the Dine & Wine Club Cork. I started a blog for my friends as they always asked me for the recipes of the food I cooked for them and the names of the wines we drank.

I matched the courses with the different wines and following up on that I hosted wine tastings for friends which were great fun. I had even my Italian and Portuguese friends doing talks on their country’s wines.

I might start the wine tastings again after lockdown – what do you think? Anyway, I think the trio is in for some success as all of them have a marketing background which is very visible in their branding.

Box of Wine delivers nationwide and can also deliver abroad on request. For more details go to boxofwine.ie.