Hello there - I don't have a lot of experience with opening wooden wine boxes. This one has very small staples that are deep into the wood. It doesn't look like I can stick a tool under the staples and pry them up.

Does anyone have tips and tricks? I can take a hammer and pry the top off but frankly it's a nice box that I would like to reuse.

Many thanks in advance.

Edited because people thought I was drinking box wine.

when I read the title to this thread, I thought you meant how do I open this wine (in a) box. And I was going to say, "Doesn't it have a tap in it?"

doh!

Take a crowbar or prybar and slowly pry it open working your way around the top prying the top off a bit at a time. Eventually you will get it off. I've noticed that most CA wineries who use wood boxes slide the top in grooves and then have a single screw to set it in place.

Ditto what they said. I thought box wine so I was going to tell you to use the "Throw it against a brick wall" method but after reading your post I use the method skwid uses.

Thanks for the suggestions. It was the strangest box - the top was 2 panels and the staples only 1/4 of an inch wide so no tool slipped under them. I used a very small screwdriver to pry the top up an inch or so then out came the prying instrument. The box survived my hack job.

I can usually save everything except the top that ends up coming out in a dozen riped pieces. Maybe I'm not patient enough. So it is an open box. Somebody should invent a tool. Maybe they have? It is called a crow bar.

sounds like a typical bordeaux box. I have been annoyed at how I have been getting my bordeaux boxes from my futures buys. They absolutely beat that crap out of them and have been breaking the inserts, leaving big chunks of wood with the (inch long) staples...

The problem is that they have to open to boxes to ship the wine in styro and then ship the box separate.

tee hee hee! Sorry smaug but that's quite funny. Sending the box separately when the box is there so that it can be shipped in the first place - it is a bit of a giggle.

My last wooden box was a bit worse for wear - I had to hammer a couple of nails into the bottom to keep it together before storing. Then the staples wouldn't come out properly from the top so that I could have a look at the wine before putting it away.

Does anybody else have that problem? You just have to view it don't you? Can't just trust them and shove it in a dark corner. Nope, open up and look at the pretty bottle housing its fragrant fruit juice - it's an addiction

Ironic huh? Thats the peril of buying futures from out of state stores, I guess.

They were quite pretty bottles. I had to look before I put them in storage today because I won't be looking again for 10 years or so.