Canned Wine or Canned Seltzer

Maker wine has keyed in on an important trend in Millennial drinking culture: the can. Cans don't break easily like glass, they don't have the environmental impact of plastic, and they are more aesthetic than boxes. Canned wine is certainly an intriguing twist on a centuries old product. However, they are not the only game in town to package their product in a sleek and skinny can. Canned seltzers are coming in hot, already accounting for 2.6% of US alcohol sales by volume compared to 11% for wine [1]. When you consider that the latter had a more than 100 year head start, this is a troubling statistic. The seltzer brand "White Claw" grew 300% while the overall wine industry declined by 0.9%. And here is an absolutely staggering statistic:

Over half of the people in America who drink any kind of alcohol—be it beer or wine or cocktails—say they are now drinking hard seltzer on a weekly basis. [2]

Whether or not wine drinkers are going to convert to seltzer is besides the point as the greater battle will be what Millenials with no strong existing alcohol preference choose to bring to dinner parties and social events. Realizing this, some winemakers are diversifying their portfolio to capitalize on this trend, with Barefoot Wines announcing recently that Barefoot Seltzer will be out as soon as this coming summer. [3] Heuristically, I remember a time when a cabin getaway with a dozen friends would consist of a few six cases of beer and a few bottles of wine. This past Presidents' Weekend, I showed up to the cabin to find one case of beer and six cases of White Claw. I'll let you guess what we ran out of first.

Sources:
[1] https://vinepair.com/booze-news/hard-seltzer-surge-wine-decline/
[2] https://www.foodandwine.com/news/hard-seltzer-popularity-sales-drinking-statistics
[3] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/hard-seltzer-awareness-is-quickly-rising-182022295.html