The first wine I ever saw in a can was a Beaujolais from France that I saw here about 50 years ago. It had no vintage date and sold for roughly $1.
Then about 40 years went by without a can in sight that contained wine. Between about 1980 and 2020, wine was seen as an upscale beverage that wouldn’t be very interesting if it were considered so mundane as to be sold in aluminum cans.
However, wine marketing people are nothing if not creative, and over the last four years or more, wine has become so interesting that it has found its way into fascinating locations where it previously never existed.
That is why Allan Green, a former winery owner in Mendocino County, decided six years ago to stage a wine competition with professional wine judges evaluating only wines in cans. And I can vouch for the fact that many of them far exceed what many people believe canned wine to be—simple.
There are nearly a dozen reasons why putting wine into cans makes a lot more sense than putting it in a bottle.
For one thing, it is environmentally sound. Aluminum cans weigh much less than bottles do, so the cost of shipping them is much less. A lot of the shipping cost is based on weight. Moreover, because shipping costs are also calculated on case sizes and since canned wine takes up much less space, costs are reduced.
Also, because no cork or capsule is involved, the producer saves money on those items as well.
Then there is the issue of light protection. White wines bottled in clear glass bottles can be negatively affected by exposure to any form of light. Since a can is completely sealed, no light can get in, protecting the wine from photochemical reactions. This is also one benefit of buying wines in boxes, which traditionally has an inert bladder that cannot see any light at all. But in almost all cases, boxed wines are marketed in three-liter sizes, making canned wines that much more convenient.
Then there is the zero risk of glass shards if you were to drop a can of wine on a concrete patio deck.
As for convenience, a can of wine (6 to 12 ounces each) can be chilled much more quickly than 750 milliliter bottles. And the entire package can be recycled without having to worry about what to do with a cork.
Mr. Green said in an interview that canned wines now go into venues that previously never had wine but where beer in cans was almost always seen. That includes major league baseball games, pro football games, golf courses, and convenience stores located near beach settings.
“It’s really easy to pop a couple of canned wines into your backpack when you’re camping or hiking,” said Mr. Green, pointing out that bottles are not only heavier but usually require a corkscrew.
His canned wine competition will be staged in a few weeks in Mendocino County. In last year’s competition, there were 230 entries from countries around the world, including South Africa and Japan.
One thing I learned while judging that competition in 2023 was that you can’t take just any wine and put it in a can. The three producers of Maker Wines, Sarah Hoffman, Kendra Kawala, and Zoe Victor, said they work with several wineries from which they purchase quality wine.
They added that preparing wine for a canned project calls for specialized winemaking techniques that do not apply to wines intended to go into bottles.
