The 6 Best Canned Wines

Do you recall the summer of 2021? It was, in some ways, a simpler time, and yet the moment carried with it a lingering whiff of pandemic curses, plus much lingering angst and uncertainty over where we might go next as a society. Would everyone continue buying stuff online instead of going out? (Sort of, yes.) Would restaurants remain insistent on forcing me to order food by QR code? (Sort of, yes.) And most prescient of all for our purposes today: Would single-serve wine cans continue their heroic march to the top of the Consumer Drinks Trend hierarchy?

The answer is also sort of, yes — the market continues growing at around 12 percent year-over-year. But today’s market for canned wines looks markedly different than it did in 2021, when I first wrote this canned wine survey. Back then picking five options that didn’t suck took some doing; today we canned-wine-curious Americans are positively spoiled for choice, our chic market shelves full-to-bursting with brightly colored baubles containing zesty spritzes and clean, creamy white sippers. There’s so, so much to choose from, and not all of it is great, and in fact, the whole thing badly needs an editor, which feels like a metaphor for the year 2024 in general (as well as the new Taylor Swift album).

It’s time to take a closer look at the canned wines that might make your picnic basket complete over this coming summer, which is forecasted to be the hottest ever. Some of the #trending wine ideas from 2021, such as piquette, have jumped the shark; others, like an abiding entry-level consumer interest in natural wine, appear here to stay. Whatever your wine inclination and knowledge, these tasty aluminum wonders are here for your enjoyment and discovery.

Nomadica Red Wine Blend

Nomadica hails from the great vinous state of California, home to much wine and many grapes. The brand was founded by sommelier Kristin Olszewski, who has worked previously for some pretty famous restaurants, including Saison, Husk, and Osteria Mozza. Nomadica’s approach is smart: The wines are approachable but not middling, and you can drink them out of a can or 3-liter box, which is roughly equivalent to four bottles of wine.

I especially like Nomadica’s red blend, which employs zinfandel and petite syrah, two grapes that are synonymous with California wine production. (It’s not all cabernet, you know.) You could chill these down and drink them at a barbecue, or pour them into a proper wine glass and enjoy alongside some grilled veggies and salmon. The cans are beautiful, too, featuring memorable art by designer Jonathan Todryk.

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Las Jaras “Waves” White

Las Jaras — cheekily billed as “the first good celebrity wine” — is a collaboration between winemaker Joel Burt and comedian, actor, and author Eric Wareheim. “Waves” is their line of attractively designed canned wines, available in white and rosé options, with a distinctive label by noted optical artist Jen Stark, also a co-owner and partner in Waves.

These happen to be the canned wines I’m most likely to stock in my home fridge, or share with friends and family. The “Waves” white blend is a melange of three really interesting grapes: barbera, chenin blanc, and colombard, the last being a grape traditionally used for making cognac, all sourced from sleeper vineyards across Mendocino Valley. Las Jaras makes this wine with six months on the lees — meaning it’s allowed to age slightly among the yeast sediment left over from fermentation — resulting in a can of wine that’s surprisingly complex, with nuanced flavors of honeydew melon, beach rocks, and Jet-Puffed marshmallow.

Here’s a canned wine you’d be happy to crush by the campfire, but could also cruise happily alongside a fresh garden salad or chirashi bowl.

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Freetime Wine — White Pinot Noir

Hailing from the great state of Oregon, this is a new canned wine brand that’s drawing rave reviews from bottle shop owners and wine buyers. Freetime’s design speaks to a sort of breezy minimalism, which echoes the subtle excellence of the easily enjoyed product inside. All their wines are made using grapes grown in Oregon’s Gorge wine region, an hour or so east of the city of Portland on the Columbia River.

Freetime’s “White Pinot Noir” is made with the popular grape, but done up in a summer blanc — the wine is made carefully so that no red fruit pigment colors the finished product, and in the can that results in flavors of white peach and citrus. I’m also really digging their newest offering, which they call “Lively” — it’s a mildly effervescent sparkling rosé that’s meant to be served chilled. I would happily tuck either one of these into my cooler for a long afternoon at the beach or on the river, but they would also be pretty perfect to sneak into your favorite ballpark, for enjoyment alongside a classic summer hot dog.

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Hoxie Spritzer

Everything we’ve talked about so far is, fundamentally, wine in a can, as opposed to, say, a wine cooler, or other derivation of the ready-to-drink doctored-up wine form. That’s because, with all due respect to wine coolers (and the catastrophic hangover those Seagrams Calypso Escapes gave me in 2002), most wine coolers are on the wrong side of the irony-to-enjoyment ratio. I won’t yuck your yum if that’s your thing, but this is my list, and I’ll pass on the sugar booze.

And then there is Hoxie Spritzer, which isn’t really a wine cooler but rather, a sort of brilliantly modern update on the form. Hoxie bills itself as a “natural wine spritzer,” and comes in flavors like Peach Blossom Blush, Watermelon Chile, and Cola Rouge. The key distinction is that there’s very minimal added sugar in a can of Hoxie Spritzer — just around 3 grams per can (a standard wine cooler has more like 30) — and the flavors are built in a really sophisticated, compelling way.

My personal favorite is the flagship Grapefruit Elderflower, a subtle little symphony of botanical extracts and taut carbonation, like a perfect boozy LaCroix gone lost in the garden. If all this sounds mildly cheffy, that makes sense: Hoxie was developed by chef Josh Rosenstein, who hit on a North American grape called Catawba as ideal for low-ABV canned wine. Hoxies are sleek and chic, and can be found with increasing regularity at wine shops, grocery stores, and retailers around the country. For my money Hoxie is in a kind of perfect sweet spot: readily available, very easy to drink, none too fussy, and completely delicious.

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Jackalope Cellars “Fizzy Franc”

I love the idea of a fully functioning winery branching out into the world of cans — a rare gambit given the difficulty of maintaining both bottling and canning production lines. Jackalope is a tiny, crowdfunded independent winery making wine in an obscure corner of Portland, Oregon, selling their affordable wines direct to consumers online and at indie wine shops and grocery stores around the country.

Their canned wines are so, so good. These are thoughtfully made and fully realized wines that happen to be sold in cans. “Fizzy Franc” is your entry point: It’s cabernet franc, which is traditionally a red wine grape, but they’re canning it here as a white wine, and it’s been force-carbonated for a pleasing rush of energy and fizz. The end result sort of splits the difference between a lot of different ideas: It’s not a pét-nat, but it’s not like other sparkling wines, and it’s dangerously easy to finish a four-pack with friends over the course of a pleasant summer hour. Sometimes the little guys just get it right, you know?

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Sofia Coppola Mini Blanc de Blanc

Millennial sleaze is back, baby. Give me just-a-bar. Serve me a pickle back. Meet me in the bathroom, because we’ve run out of cans of Sofia (a fate worse than ennui).

Sofia is a canned wine from the Francis Ford Coppola Winery of Geyserville, California, has been available in the U.S. since 2004, packaged in a little red can that’s now become something of a 21st-century design icon. Nearly 20 years later, drinking Sofia feels winkingly millennial-retro, fostering happy, hazy memories of Brooklyn brunches gone by, or whatever. The wine is a blend of pinot blanc, riesling, and muscat, and uses the “Blanc de Blanc” typically reserved for Champagne (whereas Sofia is a California girl).

Not much has changed for the beloved Sofia can since the days of George W. Bush, although now it is available in a rosé variation, as well as in a handsome four-pack gift set with straws on the side, housed in a slim rectangular box that feels like something you’d buy at the dispensary. It’s refreshing and easy and great, dominated by linear mid-tone notes of raspberry leaf, yellow plum, wheat, lilikoʻi, and like a half a whiff of copper penny. It doesn’t taste like you snuck it into a screening of Marie Antoinette (2006), but it sort of feels like you snuck it into a screening of Marie Antoinette (2006), if that makes sense. Serve it at my wake.

Jordan Michelman is a journalist, editor, and author.
Dina Ávila is a photographer in Portland, Oregon.