Outside the Bottle: 7 Tailgating-Approved Boxed and Canned Wines

Like a desperate high schooler straining to fit in with the cool crowd, this Moscato tastes like it's trying too hard. Moscato is usually all sweet, honeysuckle deliciousness. This version tastes flawed, burnt, and too complex for our tailgating tastebuds.

☆☆☆☆

This is the box of wine you bust out when everyone is drunk and doesn't know better. This is the type of wine you take out of the box and slap the bag before chugging directly from the nozzle.

☆☆☆☆

This Chardonnay tastes like a picnic wine, mostly because it's straight up grassy. The acidic punch may be enough to sober you up.

★☆☆☆☆

This wine smells like campfire hair. You know, like residual bonfire. The harsh finish doesn't make it all that more pleasant to sip. The wine itself is a one star, but the box, with its easy-to-rip-into design and fast-pouring spout, earns it another star.

★★☆☆☆

The most fun part about this wine is the cups, which are reminiscent of juice boxes with foil peel-off tops. The Pinot Grigio tastes like wine-flavored water . . . one that we could absentmindedly drink too much of while watching the game.

★★☆☆

This tastes like generic red wine, but we dig it. Not very acidic, just jammy enough, it's a hang-out wine, no food needed.

★★★☆☆

This is like the Bud Light of red wine. It's light and smoky, making it easy to drink all day and even easier to pair with whatever's on the grill.

★★★☆

Not a wine drinker? Or know someone who is inching their way toward the fermented grapes? This Chardonnay is the perfect gateway for the person who isn't that into wine. There's nothing offensive about it, just smooth sipping.

★★★☆

Wine in a can is the most exhilarating drinking experience. It feels as rebellious as speeding through a stop sign. Flavor wise, this wine tastes like canned fruit: peaches and pears, oh my.

★★★★☆

What is a white blend, you may ask? The makers include all the grapes and percentages used on the label, but flavor-wise, it's as if Riesling and Chardonnay (minus the oak) had a baby. The box contains four bottles worth, which you're going to need. It's so clean and crisp, you might as well have picked a perfectly ripe green apple and chowed down. It's near impossible not to drink lots and lots of this.

★★★★☆

Hell, who needs to open a wine bottle when you can crack open this beauty of a Pinot Noir? The makers claim it contains flavor notes of "cherry, blackberry, and cola." Perhaps. We detected smoky beef jerky. But the grander idea at play is this is a friggin' delicious red. Tailgates are made for this stuff.

★★★★