CINCINNATI — It’s no secret that boxed wine doesn’t have the best reputation, but one Cincinnati entrepreneur wondered why there couldn’t be good-tasting wine in a box. So, he decided to create it himself.

What You Need To Know

  • Jake Whitman said he was always disappointed by the taste of boxed wine

  • But, he loved the benefits of it — the long shelf life and sustainability

  • So, he took the problem into his own hands and created Really Good Boxed Wine

  • The first order sold out in five days and he's looking forward to creating more wine soon

​​​There’s nothing like a good glass of wine. For Jake Whitman, it’s become a full-time job after he wondered why he couldn’t find a good-tasting boxed wine.

“I was always really disappointed by it," Whitman said. "I love the benefits — it stays fresh for six weeks after opening (and it's) a lot cheaper to produce which means it’s cheaper to buy as a consumer. But there was like this gigantic glaring problem which was the wine wasn’t very good.”

And that’s when Really Good Boxed Wine was born. The brightly colored box is shaking up the wine industry.

“A lot of wine looks exactly the same and it’s a little overwhelming," Whitman said. "And so part of the vision for this design was to break through the sea of wine labels.”

Whitman said one of the biggest advantages of boxed wine, besides the environmental impact, is how long it stays fresh — up to six weeks after opening. Which he said was one of his main motivators to start the business.

“I went down a rabbit hole and started learning everything I could about the technology and how it works and how it keeps the wine fresh," he said.

While Whitman spends his days running the company, he also makes time to hand deliver some of his wine.

“I’m not hand delivering all of them," he said. "I’m more hand delivering to talk to people, get to know why they purchased, or if it’s a second order, what did they love about the wine the first time?”

He said learning information from his consumers first-hand is so important.

“It’s so much fun meeting the people who buy the wine," Whitman said. "In an early stage start-up like this, information is gold.”

Making sure he spends time with each customer he delivers to and asking their thoughts. Whitman said he takes the comments to heart.

“Anytime I have a good conversation with someone, I’ll come back home and kind of jot them down in my notes app in my phone," he said.

And with it, he hopes to change the attitude toward boxed wine.

“The biggest perception that we have is convincing people that boxed wine doesn’t have to be mediocre," he said.