Beyond the Bottle: A Look at the Canned Wine Trend
Say goodbye to finicky corkscrews and clunky bottles, canned wine is here and part of a growing $45 million industry.
As we see it, wine is a little behind the times. As a traditionally more prestigious industry, innovations like boxed wine or twist-off caps were slow to adopt. Now, they’ve become mainstays.
Initial canned trends began way back in 2002, when craft breweries started selling their beer in cans. Hard sodas followed suit, and years later in 2016, the hard seltzer boom began, with leaders like White Claw and Truly rising to the top. Today, you can find just about any of your favorite cocktails available in a can: gin and tonic, Moscow mules, mojitos and more.
Canned convenience
As consumers continue to demand convenience and portability, it makes sense that wine is finding a comfortable home in cans. Can you take a bottle of wine out on a boat with your friends? Sneak it into the movies? Sure, you can. But, it isn’t quite as convenient as grabbing your go-to beer or spiked seltzer. Wine in cans provides a solution to the minor inconvenience of bottles.
In addition to the benefit of convenience, canned wine is more sustainable to produce, which is a) better for the environment and b) can mean a lower price for consumers.
Leading the change
Younger consumers—we’ll go ahead and give a shout out to marketers’ favorite audience, the Millennials—are keener to purchase canned wine. We’re not surprised; this group is not particularly brand loyal to the rich history of wineries, rather they are drawn to fun packaging, convenience, and anything they can do to reduce their carbon footprint. However, because of the convenience of canned wine, many other consumers are purchasing too.
Due to its booming popularity, many companies and entrepreneurs are eager to be part of the canned wine market. Some major players in the game include, but are not limited to: Underwood, Barefoot, Sofia Blanc de Blancs, Nomadica, and Dark Horse.
Minnesota’s Canned Wine
This past year, we had the opportunity to brand Vamos! Vino, a canned Malbec from Famiglia Meschini based in Minneapolis. Inspired by the portability of canned wine and Argentinean heritage of Famiglia Meschini, we crafted the name “Vamos! Vino”— translated from “Let’s go!” in Spanish. Paired with a design that uses bright, vibrant colors and a simple, modern text, it’s made to stand out on the shelf. Learn more about the design process (it won a Communicator Award of Excellence!) if that piques your interest.
For the Love of Wine
All in all, we love wine in any form but are excited to see how consumer behaviors drive design and packaging. Being part of the design process for Vamos! Vino allowed our team to fully understand the market and how the canned wine trend began.
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