The Wine Hustle Series | Sarah Puil of BOXT Wine
These days I’m all about the ease and convenience of being at home and finding as many unique experiences to bring in as possible. We’ve all heard of or have distant memories of ‘boxed wine’ but what if I told you there is a new player in town and there is no comparison. Enter in BOXT, “exceptionally good house wine on tap” in a gorgeous boxed vessel.
Born in Austin, made in Napa, Sarah Puil from BOXT is disrupting the fine wine game with quality wine in a BOXT to be enjoyed in the comforts of your own home, at your pace, on your time. Each BOXT holds either a red or a white based on your preferred profile, holds the equivalent of 4 bottles of wine and gives back one planted tree per BOXT. With a love for wine, a unique vision and commitment to breakdown one micro task at a time, Sarah proves that the universe works in your favor when you put in the hard work.
You heard it here first…
Website: BOXT | Instagram: @drinkboxt
1. How did you get your start in wine and what was your initial inspiration?
I grew up traveling and in my early 20s I took a trip with my Dad to Chile and we visited Vina Santa Rita. I fell in love with the vineyard and listened to the winemaker. Let me tell you, he just opened up a whole new world to me, that I just had to know more about. I’ve been learning about wine ever since, everywhere I travel, I visit wineries, vineyards, talk to winemakers. I got my inspiration for BOXT while sitting in a cafe in Paris with my husband. I loved how easy it was to get a delicious house wine all over Europe, but whenever I tried to find one in the states, the experience just underwhelmed and frustrated me.
Around that time, I had been invited to be an entrepreneur in residence at Next Coast Ventures in Austin, Texas. During my time with NCV, I was ideating across a bunch of EDTech and new media ideas, and I was asked to think about where my interests, experience and aptitude all intersected AND if I have ever had an idea, however small, that I wish I had done something with. I remembered the idea I’d had in Paris and my mentors at NCV really encouraged me to dig in on it - and that was BOXT.
2. I love how you are changing the game of boxed wine by making it super high end! What is your favorite part of your job?
Drinking the wine, of course! But seriously, I love winemaking, the science and art of it and getting the profiles just right so we exceed peoples' expectations of what BOXT wine can be. I also love our tastings and opportunities to meet people and talk with them about wine in a simple way - just enjoying what we like and not making it about what wine is popular or who knows the most wine speak. I can’t stand using fancy words when just plain English works.
3. What is the best advice anyone has ever given you? Do you have a “mantra” you stick to?
Best advice: Focus on where your interests, experience and aptitude intersect, that is where you will find success.
Mantra: Keep it simple.
4. At WINEFARER, we love hearing about the unexpected journeys that stem from wine. Can you share your favorite wine journey with us?
During my wedding weekend, I visited Judd’s Hill Winery with a few of my girlfriends to create my own custom blend. I laid down the wine then, and just started enjoying it now - six years later. I’m even saving a few bottles to see how it tastes at the 10-year mark!
5. It seems like you love wine as much as I do, in three words, describe your love affair with wine?
Creating discovery experiences.
6. Finally, what advice would you give women entrepreneurial spirits who want to start their “wine hustle” but are hesitant to take the leap?
Just start. Have a vision for where you will go and want to go. Most important is once you have the vision, just get going and take it one little micro task at a time, each day the work you have done adds up, a week later you are somewhere, a month later you are further, a year later…etc. But it's the micro movements and continuous forward motion, even when you have been knocked down, that will get you where you want to go. And don’t get me wrong, I didn’t have some master roadmap, the plan was simple. Make good wine. Put it in a BOXT. Deliver it to your door. Then it was, break that down, ALL THE WAY DOWN, and go, one tiny little step at a time.