Chris - we usually keep a box in the big fridge for guests that drink the stuff (some of it is OK for a routine meal, though - it's quite drinkable and is a good choice for that evening medicinal glass-of-wine). The concept is actually quite clever and works very well. I generally agree with you re: personal consumption. OTOH, I can get a box of wine for little more than the cost of a glass of our preferred common wine <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Troy is right on the money about everything regarding use, and they work pretty well. I had not thought about using them for ice to water - great idea. (We use milk jugs, which are a one-time shot after freezing and thawing). The bags are mylar, so unless the car is on fire, I wouldn't worry about it getting stuck together.

People started doing this as soon as the box wines came out. I hadn't even heard of the box wine and my boss at the time showed up on a winter caribou hunt with one converted to water bladder use. The two biggest drawbacks are the difficulty with re-filling (prying the cap off and putting it back on) and the eventual leak in the bag. I sewed up a scrap of coated ripstop nylon into a pouch sealed at the top with hook-and-pile fastener and put small grommets in the corners so I could put a paracord sling on it. Still have that pouch in one of the footlockers... but have not used it for so long that none of the kids know what it is used for.

I would not be surprise to find out that these things inspired the market for the water bladders many of us carry nowadays... OTOH, there were military bladders and soft canteens decades before the bag wine came out...

As for wine storage... seems to me that bladders were the earliest portable container for wine... something about new VS old skins...

Regards,

Tom