Wine snobs say that boxed wine is actually a better storage method than bottles. There are apparently even some expensive wines that are experimenting with boxes for this reason. It just remains to be seen if people will accept expensive wine that comes in a box.
Is there a good reason that churches couldn't use boxed wine? It is inexpensive, keeps very well, and it would be easy to fill the little communion cups with the spigot.
That would work well, though one should probably not use the cheapest ones because US standards let them basically be artificial things mixed with wine. Names such as Almaden, Franzia, Carlo Rossi, and Peter Vella contain, water, fruit juices, sugar and distilled grape alcohol in addition to wine. Now I'm not sure that people would find that fact objectionable. But it should be noted so there is not misunderstanding.
Some boxed wines like the Black Box brand are true wines and would work just fine.
One thing is you never get a corked box.
Anything with a screw top tends to avoid that as well.
Though I don't know anyone who requires it, it has been somewhat traditional to use a sweet wine for Communion. Symbolizing the Lord's sweetness. I really wouldn't suggest a heavily oaked red that needs to be set down for 10 more years as a Communion wine.
I really think the widest used is likely Mogen David or at least it was. I believe the general rationalization was it was acceptable, and it was cheap. Maybe that didn't mean anything in some circles but the Scandinavians tended to be a bit tight concerning spending more money than necessary on the wine.
The other style that is often used was specifically made for Communion and bears a strong resemblance to Port. The wine during fermentation has brandy added to stop the fermentation producing a sweet wine. And the brandy serves to preseve it. Catholics aren't supposed to use anything over 20 percent alcohol so traditional Catholic Communion wine was just a bit under that. Most Ports would be over the 20 percent. But if someone was to use a nice Reserve Ruby Port, I could find it in my heart to forgive any transgression. Especially if they let me help properly dispose of any leftovers. There'd probably be a waiting list to get on the altar guild after awhile.
Some people get really strict about what they want to consider wine. I'm not too dogmatic about it. I can give my brother a heart attack simply by suggesting that a wine would be improved with a bit of 7-up, or if it needs more oak a simple shot of whiskey (Canadian of course) serves well. But then while fine for personal use, I wouldn't want to introduce the practice into Communion. The ideal Communion wine is sweet and trasparent, that is not noticed. The wine isn't our focus. Really I wouldn't want a bunch of people trying to guess what the origen or labeling of the Communion wine is.
