Canned wine - Here to stay, but for its own use case

I enjoyed having Sarah and Kendra visit class and it piqued my curiosity around the broader trends in canned wine. I’ve enjoyed Maker wine a few times already, and I’ve also taken note of the expanded real estate that canned wine occupies on supermarket shelves.

Canned wine as a category experienced ~70% YoY growth in 2018, a stark contrast relative to the stagnant growth in the overall wine industry. At the same time, this growth is relative a small base: canned wine remains only ~2% of the overall wine category. Demand is growing for all the reasons cited in class - the convenience, portability, and ease of access and use, paired with a new form factor that enables new ways for engaging with wine. 

But what are the tradeoffs, if any? First of all, the can doesn’t allow for any long-term aging. In addition, the shelf life of a can averages about 18 months. 

This short-termism might have several implications. First of all, canned wine drinkers will tend to be those looking for a near-term drink, as opposed to collecting wine in the cellar for years to come. Second of all, winemakers are more likely to can mid-range or low-end wines; drinkers of very premium wines might desire the optionality to save the wine for a special occasion and to continue to age the wine, and would not want the wine to spoil beforehand. 

I predict we’ll see many winemakers shift to producing canned version of their value varietals and mid-range wines, and that we’ll see potentially see cans meaningfully displace bottles. Nonetheless, for the extra nice stuff, bottles will always remain in the mix.