
Reader Robert Winia aboard Tuturuga sent me this idea for chilling box wine in a small refrigerator. Many boxes hold the equivalent of 4 or more bottles of wine and take up just too much space in the typical small refrigerator on a boat.
Here’s how Robert described the way they store box wine in their small refrigerator:
Our boat is in France and we sail the Med. So wine management on a boat is a basic skill over here. What a lot of boaters here do is pour the box of wine in empty plastic water bottles. Storing the re-filled water bottles in the fridge is much easier than a big box.

In summer it is mostly rosé wine that needs a nice chill and then drinks like water. A plastic water bottle is not opaque, but in the fridge it is dark and the contents rarely last more then 24 hours anyway.
Decanting into water bottles also makes it easier to slip a “bottle” of wine into a cooler for happy hour on the beach, on someone else’s boat or even in the water. And if you don’t have a refrigerator, plastic bottles are much easier to keep on ice in a cooler than the original bag, even.
Just make sure to mark the bottles so you don’t mistake the wine for juice in the morning before your first cup of coffee — and if you have kids aboard, so that they don’t mistake it for pop or juice!
Note from Carolyn: I’ve been doing a variation on this with my white wine for several years. If your wine box has a pour spout with a shut-off valve, you can just put enough into a bottle for a single day at a time. That way, it’s only one bottle in the refrigerator at any one time. This also works well if you have a partial bottle of wine so that it doesn’t take up so much space.
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Carolyn Shearlock has lived aboard full-time for 17 years, splitting her time between a Tayana 37 monohull and a Gemini 105 catamaran. She’s cruised over 14,000 miles, from Pacific Mexico and Central America to Florida and the Bahamas, gaining firsthand experience with the joys and challenges of life on the water.
Through The Boat Galley, Carolyn has helped thousands of people explore, prepare for, and enjoy life afloat. She shares her expertise as an instructor at Cruisers University, in leading boating publications, and through her bestselling book, The Boat Galley Cookbook. She is passionate about helping others embark on their liveaboard journey—making life on the water simpler, safer, and more enjoyable.
Jan Alexander says
And when you have white wine in the fridge, don’t grab that instead of the cold water when making your iced coffee in the morning… Ask me how I know 🙂
tami says
Why not just take the bag from the box, leave the wine in the bag, which the bag conforms to about any shape left open in your fridge?
Carolyn Shearlock says
That will work, too, but some people don’t like trying to “pour” while holding the bag in the air with one hand and using the spigot with the other. This is also a little easier if you’re taking the wine somewhere and want to be able to pour it easily. But both ways work! 🙂
Stefanie says
I would leave it in the bag, too. There are some nifty textile wine bags that you can hang from the ceiling to dispense and then move it into the fridge to chill.
I would hate to lose the longevity advantage of the original bag – a three liter box is usually good for weeks.
Dave Skolnick (S/V Auspicious) says
I agree with Stefanie and Tami. In addition you’ll find some very talented cruisers who weave some of the grasses into everything from pencil cups to facial tissue boxes to … wine bladder holders. Put the bladder in the fridge and the drop it in the woven holder!
Anyone can learn to do this. If I can, you can.
Anne Ellingsen says
I’ve used the water bottle wine chill method for day trips & it works great!
Phil St Pierre says
In the US NAVY for four years but we somehow never had this on board ???
Louise says
Brilliant! I’ll definitely try this when the fridge gets full.
What we do to chill box wine when the fridge isn’t packed tight (we have a fridge where the door opens out, like a small household one): The bags inside will fit in a smaller box than they are shipped in. We cut the top off one of the boxes, reducing its height by about 25%. It then slips onto a fridge shelf more easily. It might be a tight squeeze to get the bag into the box at first, but as you drink, the volume reduces. When the bag is empty, put in another bag, reusing the same box over and over. Because the box stays in the fridge and stays cold, it helps chill the next bag. There is also space on top of the diminishing bag to put items like a bunch of carrots, since the box top is now cut open.
Sometimes just reducing the packaging by a little bit like this can make all the difference between having something fit or not!
Annual Salvador Rally says
We find the best way to chill wine is an ice cube in your mouth and chug.
Nikki Marie says
We love the box wine…its so boatable