First, forget your preconceived notions about boxed wine. BOXT isn’t your cardboard box cheap wine. Next, let go of your attachment (or adversity) to a certain kind of wine, you’ll only find varieties by numbers at BOXT, and it’s by design.
BOXT is a direct-to-consumer wine subscription service that offers six profiles, three white and three red. A rose is on the way. Customers take a quiz that matches them with a specific profile named 1 through 6 and given the option to buy a box/month, which is the equivalent of four bottles of wine, for $75, or two boxes for $140. The grapes are sourced from all over the world, the wine is made in Napa and the company is headquartered in Austin.
After a successful corporate career, founder Sarah Puil formulated the idea for BOXT during an entrepreneur-in-residence with Mike Smerklo of Next Coast Ventures. She started shipping October 2020. Of the unique recyclable wood box she says, “The packaging is my personality. I like things, clean, simple and not intrusive” She also said she wanted to do a wood box to signal that it’s a premium product. “There’s no reason premium wine has to be in a bottle,” she says, “This is a wine you should drink when you get it, not keep in your cabinet for 10 years, but it is a premium wine. We want to be your house wine.” Once you open the box it can last for 30+ days! A lot more than a bottle’s typical 5+.
For every box sold they plant a tree. They’re currently planting trees in Northern California at the site of the 2017 fires. She says, “It’s fun to know trees we’re planting are replenishing some that were lost in the place where we make our wine.”
And, don’t get hung up having to order by number. Puil says, “It gives you permission to like what you like without stigmas associated with how things are supposed to taste. Sometimes people surprise themselves.”
To other female founders she says, “Just be a founder. We all have things that can be perceived as hurdles and I think if you focus on the problem that you’re solving and how you can solve it more efficiently than somebody else, focus on progress and movement, people see that, reward that and will cheer you on. Support your fellow female founders and embrace who you are.”
Learn more about BOXT at: https://www.drinkboxt.com
