When’s the last time you heard someone say, “Let’s go buy wine in a can”?

Cans didn’t save the wine business from itself – for just that reason

Cans were supposed to save the wine business from itself, offering younger consumers a less expensive and less stuffy alternative to bottles and corks.

So what happened? Why have cans become mostly a niche product?

Yes, pandemic supply chain woes made a difference, and so did canned wine quality, which has been inconsistent at best. But the main reason – and one that really smart analysts predicted – is that cans don’t match how we drink wine.

This was made clear to me recently during a tasting of several canned wine samples. Lynne Kleinpeter and I were laboring through some dreadful wines when she looked at me and said: “When’s the last time you heard someone say, ‘Let’s go buy wine in a can.’ “?

And the light bulb went off.

Wine is what the analysts call occasion driven. We buy wine for specific occasions, which is almost always dinner (and sometimes celebrations). So what’s the occasion for canned wine?

There really isn’t any. Canned wine was marketed for picnics, camping, the beach, and boats. But how many younger consumers buy wine specifically for camping, boating, and the like? And how many of wine’s increasingly aging demographic still go camping? (And no, Airbnbs don’t count.)

In other words, canned wine was aimed at a market segment that really didn’t exist. Yes, some producers are doing well, and some retailers have had great success with cans. My pal Roberta Backlund ran the wine and beer departments for a regional Florida chain several years ago and sold lots of canned wine. But talk to someone in the Midwest, which doesn’t have an ocean, and the experience will be quite different.

In other words, no one says, “Let’s go buy wine in a can.” They say: “What should we buy for our picnic?” And then they buy beer or hard seltzer or canned cocktails. But not wine, as this year’s Silicon Valley Bank report noted. And noted. And noted.

This doesn’t mean there isn’t a demand for canned wine. But, like box wine, it’s limited and will never be more than a certain proportion of the market.

Which also means the wine business is going to have to find another way to save itself.

Photo: brandy turner on Unsplash