Canned Wine Taste Test
In all honesty drinking wine out of a can freaks me out a little bit. I don’t know if it’s because it’s a totally different experience or what but it’s just not my jam. That being said canned wine has its time and place, like when you’re going to the pool, lake or a BYOB event where glass is not allowed. These guys are perfect for such occasions and some are pretty freaking good, if I do say so myself. This wine list is from a podcast I (Madi) used to host called Millennials Wining. My co-hosts and I tasted six different canned wines: two pinot grigios, a chardonnay, a rosé, a red blend, and a pinot noir.
With each of these we discussed/judged them on their appearance, smell, taste, drinkability, and price point. Then we scored each from one to five. At the end of the list you’ll see the overall ranking of these six canned wines. Also, two quick notes, we sampled each wine in a wine glass, we didn’t drink it directly from the can, also a can of wine is equal to two and a half glasses.
My mom and I intend to do our own canned wine taste test, but during quarantine unfortunately we cannot. So, once we can be social again make sure to be on the look out for that article.
Ava Grace Pinot Grigio
Appearance: Nothing crazy. Looks like any white wine you would order at a restaurant.
Smell: Not abrasive, pretty nice.
Taste: This wine was actually really good. I wasn’t mad at it. The can mentions notes of citrus, peach, and honeysuckle, I definitely tasted the citrus.
Drinkability: Pretty good. I ended up liking this one more than I had expected to. I prefer red over white, but would 100% drink this while my husband and I are grilling out.
Price point: $4.50 per can
Score: 4- Like I said, this was good, I enjoyed it. It was the first one I tried so I didn’t have anything to compare it to, but we started at a tasty place right out of the gate. This was also the lowest priced wine.
Crafters Union Pinot Grigio
Appearance: Again, this wine looks like a regular white wine 👍🏼
Smell: Okay, this one was super yeasty smelling, which I didn’t love so that took some points off right away.
Taste: In my opinion Crafters Union’s pinot grigio is not as good as the Ava Grace one. It’s not bad by any means but in this specific line up it just wasn’t as good.
Drinkability: Haha okay, so I went back and listened to this episode and I said the mouthfeel was “thick,” which I find kind of funny for some reason. There was also a sort of effervescent to this one, but over all I didn’t find it to be super drinkable.
Price point: $6.99 per can
Score: 2.5- Just couldn’t hold a candle to the Ava Grace pinot grigio, but I still drank my glass, so there’s that.
Buttercup Chardonnay
Appearance: This wine was very yellow!
Smell: Smells like a chard- nothing crazy here, but also smelled very “winey.”
Taste: The description on the can claims the wine to be buttery and toasty. To me it was pretty sweet and kind of pineappl-y. But over all it was a nice smooth wine.
Drinkability: I think this is easy for chard drinkers, it is pretty sweet and rich though. As a red drinker I wouldn’t be dying to drink a can of this, but again I drank my whole glass of it.
Price point: $6.00 per can
Score: 3.5- This is a great summer wine in my opinion. I would happily crack open a can of this at an outdoor concert and share it with my bestie. But then I would move onto red of course.
Underwood Rosé
Appearance: Thankfully this looks like rosé. The week prior to this tasting I had tried a canned rosé from another company and that stuff looked like Aperol. So I was happy to see a beautiful light pink pour out of this can.
Smell: The nose was nice, definitely fruity.
Taste: This wine is described as having notes of strawberry, watermelon, and peach. It wasn’t too sweet or acidic, it was exactly what I like in my rosés. I am here for this wine.
Drinkability: Really good! If someone handed me a glass of this and told me they poured it from a can, I would have been shocked.
Price point: $5.50 per can
Score: 5- This was our first five! I was so pleased with this wine and really need to go buy some more now that I am thinking about it.
Crafters Union Red Blend
Appearance: This wine was a pretty ruby color. Nothing crazy- looks like good ole red wine, just how we like it.
Smell: Pretty good, there wasn’t any particular scent coming forward, but didn’t smell yeasty or unpleasant.
Taste: I also really liked this wine. I don’t typically gravitate towards a blend, I love cab savs, but I really enjoyed this one.
Drinkability: It has just the right amount of lightness, something I want in a canned wine. To me, this is a summerfide version of wine. Something you drink outside, and in Georgia it gets incredibly hot in the summer, so light and refreshing is key. This wine has the CWW seal of approval for drinking at a cookouts, picnics or on a boat.
Price point: $6.99 per can
Score: 5- This was our second and final fiver. Simply, this was an enjoyable glass of red wine, so much so that I drank the entire can.
Underwood Pinot Noir
Appearance: Dark red
Smell: The nose on this guy was the most intense out of the bunch, but okay overall.
Taste: The wine description on the can includes notes of raspberry, cherry, and chocolate. I found this to be very tart and not very flavorful. It felt sort of acidic, like it made my tongue feel weird.
Drinkability: This can of wine was not great, and I did not finish my glass, it was actually the only one I did not want to keep drinking. To be completely transparent though, I feel like the can may be to blame here. I’ve had the bottled version of this and it is so much better! From the bottle it’s actually v drinkable and v good.
Price point: $5.50 per can
Score: 2- So so bad. Again, I don’t think it’s the wines fault, however the canned version is no bueno 👎🏼.
Okay, so here it is, the definitive ranking of these six canned wines! What are your thoughts? Do you like canned wine? If so, what’s your favorite? Was it mentioned above? Let us know in the comments.
Overall ranking:
Underwood Rosé
Crafters Union Red Blend
Ava Grace Pinot Grigio
Buttercup Chardonnay Crafters
Crafters Union Pinot Grigio
Underwood Pinot Noir
