Cans are beautiful

Cans are an increasingly powerful marketing opportunity. Once you pour a glass of wine out of the bottle, it’s practically indistinguishable from any other wine. If you snap a photo of your friends with cans of wine and post it to Instagram though, it’s easy to spot who’s drinking what.

At Nomadica, Toshack is making her wine distinctive while also providing an outlet for artists. She said that she wanted each wine’s can to look different to get at a more holistic way of describing the contents. “The idea is let’s curate things with artists, put them on the can, and match it with the wine,” she says. “What does this wine look like? What does it taste like? What does this wine sound like?  It’s this cool kind of synesthesia thing of flavor, of color, and attitude for each wine.”

How to choose wine in a can

Canned wines are starting to pop up across a wide spectrum of price points and levels of quality. So how do you decide, especially if you’re in the grocery store and not a wine store, where you’re more likely to get a great recommendation? Salcito suggests choosing organic wines if that’s possibile. ”Someone growing those grapes cares about growing them well,” she says. “You know the person making that wine is conscientious about quality on that level.”

Look for grape varietals you know you like or canned wines from a winemaker or estate that has been making wine for some time already and is just extending their offerings. “If there’s a varietal like Cabernet Sauvignon or Sauvignon Blanc or Riesling, then you are more like to be getting a true wine in a can, versus something that might say a spritzer or a radler or some sort of term that would be indicating you’re going to be getting some kind of cocktail or blended situation in a can,” Pastuszak says.

Keep in mind too, that while some canned wines can only be purchased as a four-pack, plenty also come as singles, and that format lowers your risk.

Don’t love it? Make a spritzer with extra lemon and don’t buy it again. Be fearless.

From the can or in a glass?

How do you drink a canned wine? You’re probably more likely to pour a sprizter over ice, just like you would with one of the new crop of canned cocktails that are also popping up. What if you’re pulling a can out of a cooler full of ice at a barbecue or by the pool though? Fully aware that wine drinkers are going to do whatever makes them happy, Pastuszak developed his canned wine with a very particular vision in mind.

“The can is cold, ” he says. “You snap the top and you just drink straight from it.”

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