It’s probably a bad habit, but when I drink out of an aluminum can, it tends to be with a meal or out of a sense of thirst. I am not a same can all day person, I want to get it done and move on.

Over the course of the last ten years or so, wine has started coming in a can. While my wife and I were visiting the coast over the weekend, we picked up a couple of cans of wine along with some snacks to enjoy the day.

I did some quick calculations. A bottle of wine is 750 ml or roughly 24 ounces. That means that one can equals about half a bottle. So, at $8 a can I suspect that cost is about par with a bottle. The truth is, I don’t really know who made the wine in the picture, however most of the cans I see are labelled Underwood or 14 Hands which would be on the mass market (cheaper) end of the wine industry. I am pretty sure that it cost more per bottle when all the variables are compared apples to apples.

There is no doubt that this is a convenient format. The can is more compact, it is light and looks a lot better than drinking out of the bottle (meaning, a glass is not required). Aluminum blocks the light, so there would be no photo degradation like glass and chills quickly. However, there are some drawbacks, especially if you are a gulper.

What I learned from reading ‘Cork Dork’ a couple of years ago is that with sommelier training, the glass is important. I won’t rehash the book but how the residual liquid slides down the glass is an indication of the wine’s composition. And of course, the glass is designed to trap the nose and the aroma as you drink. Red wine glasses are bigger to expose more surface area to oxygen and provide more aroma, which is at least half of taste.

It was very difficult to drink directly out of a can and get the same experience. Add to that my propensity to take a slug rather than a proper sip and it was half gone in no time before I realized that I was doing it.

The wine itself was OK. In my opinion it was clean but unremarkable. That tends to be a characteristic of industrial wines. They tend to be more homogenous vintage over vintage due to blending and post fermentation alterations. So, here is the verdict.

End Your Programming Routine: I like the format, but I would still bring glasses if possible significantly reducing the convenience. I would also recommend red over white as they are not intended to stay as cold to drink. Maybe a Yeti or equivalent can coozi would be appropriate to drink directly out of a can so as not to feel the rush of beating the can warming up. I am not turned off enough to not try it again but I think that this is a situational use container.