ANALYSIS
It’s in the can It’s a format that has usually promised more than it delivers. But with two independent wine merchants now involved in their own separate projects, perhaps it’s time for canned wine to take its next step towards critical acceptance. Report by Claire Harries
K
ate Goodman of Reserve Wines
in Manchester and Ben Franks at
Novel Wines in Bath are both avid
supporters of canned wine. So much so
that they have recently launched their own projects, each setting out to prove this
small-format option is capable of evolving far beyond just a convenient packaging solution.
Goodman has collaborated with Richard
Kelley MW at Dreyfus Ashby to create
First Crush, a range of four wines in a can including a rosé, an Albariño, a Chenin Blanc and a Syrah. They are working
with Francois Haasbroek and Jaap Pijl at Renegade Wines in South Africa.
“It all goes back to the fear factor when
people are choosing a wine,” explains Goodman.
“They don’t want to buy a full bottle if
they are not familiar with it and they’re
not confident they are going to like it. It’s the same reasoning behind Enomatics
and my keg wines and
all those things. If we have smaller-format
Ben Franks
options and get people
to taste things before
they commit to bottles, it just
broadens people’s horizons because they feel more confident to buy things and
experiment a bit – otherwise they just stick to New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.
“These innovations just make it more
accessible. For me that is a massive part of our job as independent wine merchants. We are there to show people and put in front of them the vastness of the many
options and choices that are out there.”
B
Stellenbosch and Fran
en Franks, who started the Canned
Wine Company with Simon Rollings, says: “The biggest change in the
canned wine market is the renewed focus on the quality. When Simon and I got
together to put the idea into practice, we
family in Niederösterreich. Franks is also
“We got all these interesting grapes
Laurent, Nerello Mascalese and maybe an
thought there was nobody at the time doing it on a high quality level.
and really good winemakers and thought, why not put those in a can and make it an
exciting way to drink better wine without having to buy the bottle? And we can
use it as an upsell into the quality wine
world rather than purely as a convenience product.”
To date the Canned Wine Company range
consists of four wines including a new
oaked Viognier from Laurent Miquel in the Languedoc and a Grüner from the Huber
THE WINE MERCHANT june 2021 46
keen to introduce, subject to successful
testing, varieties such as Verdejo, Gamay, St English Bacchus.
“At Novel Wines we like the weird and
wonderful and I had been talking about canning Furmint and all those lovely lesser-known grapes,” he says.
“It’s been a massive learning curve
because you can get away with quite a lot
in a bottle that you can’t get away with in a can. A can is oxygen-free and it’s nitrogen
capped and the wine isn’t going to change once it’s in the can – you have to be really
