Weekend Wine

Wine lovers, I have a question. Do you suffer from can-envy? Do you covet the joy your friends get as they slurp with supreme satisfaction from their ice-cold PBRs? Do you actually care when each year you can find Corona in cans?

When offered a choice between cans or bottles, do you gravitate to the cans? Well, you have probably noticed that a few solitary winemakers are releasing their wines in a can. Why not? Cans protect the wine from light and oxygen, two of the great killers of quality wine.

But aren’t most canned wines crap? Well, the answer, it turns out, is no. A qualified no. I have to admit that a large number of them are low-grade rocket fuel, but a few winemakers are trying to put decent wine into cans, including Coppola Winery’s four-pack of good quality varietal wines. Three cans equals a regular bottle of wine and four cans equals a liter. Alcohol wise, that means the 4-pack of wine is roughly the same as a 6-pack of beer.

None of which would matter if the wines weren’t decent quality. But they are. Filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather I, II, and III, The Conversation, Apocalypse Now) has always had a soft spot for good wine. He purchased one of California’s most famous wineries, changed the name to his own, and has since made good-quality wine that you can afford to drink daily. We tried the Chardonnay and the Pinot Grigio (each is $19.99 per 4-pack), both of which cooled off quickly, thanks to the aluminum enclosures and once poured, tasted just like bottled wines. The Coppola winery makes easy-to-drink wines with just enough acidity to keep them interesting. We marginally preferred the Pinot Grigio, but would be happy with either. They would be ideal as sipping wines for the party you're throwing this weekend. For you can addicts, these wines certainly make a nice break from the endless cans of PBR, Shiner, and Corona.