Will canned wine eventually replace bottles?
WineSociety company co-founder and CEO Angela Allison thinks it’s a definite possibility – so much that she founded a cans-only wine company. “I think it could definitely grow to be 30 percent of the category within five years,” Allison says.
Allison’s company, WineSociety, made its debut in January of this year and first began selling cans of her red (Tempt), white (Fate), rosé (Chance), and Gamay (Pleasure) wine online, and this October, Kroger Stores began carrying the 500 ml cans. “Thirty percent of craft beer is now sold in cans, and we anticipate wine to follow in the footsteps of craft beer,” Allison says. “We anticipate the sales growth to be as fast or at a faster clip than the growth of craft beer in cans.”
Allison’s prediction could be in-line with data collected by BW 166 LLC, an alcohol market research firm, which found that sales of canned wine from June 2017 to June 2018 rose 43 percent. That’s within the overall category of wine reporting rather flat sales.
But BW 166 LLC also noted that canned wine remains only 2 percent of the wine category, with 90 percent of the entire category dedicated to bottles and the remaining 8 percent going to boxes and bags of wine. That 2 percent, though, represents a lot of sales. David Weitzenhoffer, general manager of Stupendous Cellars, which debuted Right Now canned wines earlier this year, points out that by the end of this year, canned wine will be a nearly $50 million business. “It’s been doubling every year, and next year, it will more than double,” Weitzenhoffer says.
Weitzenhoffer says there are signs that canned wine is going mainstream. “The early indications from grocery store chains is that they are moving cans from the bottom shelf in the back corner up to eye level, and they’re expanding the real estate for canned wines from four feet to eight feet,” Weitzenhoffer says. “That’s the kind of an indicator that it’s really going to take off next year. Canned wine has been growing so fast already, and they haven’t been prominently placed.”
The 12-ounce cans of red, white, dry rose, and sweet rose blends of Right Now are crafted by Olga Crawford, a master of wine, and Weitzenhoffer expects the category to expand so much that eventually there will be some high-end wines in cans, selling for $20 or more per can.
Besides retail, canned wines are showing up in independent restaurants, and Weitzenhoffer says he expects to see it in more fast, casual places like taquerias and pizza huts, that want to serve wine, but don’t have room for big bottles. “I believe you will also start to see it in bars quite a bit because they’re already stocking cans,” he says. But they probably won't end up in many fine dining establishments, he admits.
One of the driving forces in canned wine, both Allison and Weitzenhoffer point out, are the Millennial drinkers. What Millennial drinkers want, Allison says, is to be able to drink wine in “more casual situations.” And drinking out of a can is way more casual than having to use a corkscrew to open a bottle and then pour into a glass. “The new, modern generation is wanting to purchase wine and perceive wine with practicality, simplicity, and convenience and great quality,” she says.
But it’s not just Millennials who are drinking wine out of cans, Weitzenhoffer says. “It spans different generations,” he says. “My mom says she loves the can because when she opens one up, a cup goes in for the food (she’s cooking) and a cup goes to the chef. That’s another way cans are useful.”
Allison also points out that canned wine allows people to take wine into venues that don’t allow glass, including theaters, pools, boats and other sporting events. “The whole wine industry is such an old, old industry, and there’s this perception of how things should be versus conforming to what people actually want and how their lives are changing and how their purchasing habits are changing,” Allison says.
“We’re witnessing is the greatest democratization of wine in our lifetime,” Weitzenhoffer says. “When we buy a bottle, we fuss over the vintages, what we’re having for dinner or the type of glasses we’re using. When we drink wine from a can, the portability is part of it, but the more important underlying sentiment is that we can enjoy wine without having to overthink it.”
Cans are also, of course, completely recyclable, where as wine bottles can end up in landfills. According to a 2011 industry report, glass bottles represent up to 73 percent of a winery’s carbon footprint, with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reporting that 80 percent of wine bottles end up in landfills.
“Cans have a higher recycling rate than bottles do so that’s a positive,” Weitzenhoffer says. “But the biggest impact is their carbon footprint. Cans are so much lighter than glass so shipping takes a lot less energy. You can take a case of 24 cans and walk down the block, but you can’t grab a case of wine and walk down the block.”
