Tins ain’t what they used to be: canned wine is no longer the preserve of Gen Z

Aluminium is practical, recyclable and, for wines drunk young, the ideal container. Better still – high-quality options are increasingly available

Cans are the answer to many of the problems posed by wine. On picnics, at festivals and generally on the trot, what are more practical than bottles? Cans! For the carbon-conscious, what have a significantly lower environmental impact than glass? Aluminium cans! And what if, for whatever reason, you don’t want to commit to a full 750ml bottle of wine? Try a can! This small, light and sustainable format is a secret weapon to keep, quite literally, in your back pocket; with cans – wherever you are and whatever you’re doing – drinking wine is always possible. Not to get too Barack Obama about it, but “yes, we can”.

Gen Z are largely behind the recent boom in canned wines, which stands to reason: fewer of them are drinkers and those who are do so only moderately, so a smaller format suits. According to a 2025 survey by Ocado, 53% of them “have been directly influenced by social media to try boxed or canned wine”. This shows in the way those formats are marketed: the peachy-pink can of Nice’s Pale Rosé, for instance, reads, “Won’t shatter on the dancefloor”, while Vinca’s catarratto “pairs well with great company”. A and almost all of them make a point of their recyclable packaging, appealing to the most environmentally-conscious generation to date. (Glass bottles are, after all, consistently found to be one of the largest contributors to wine’s carbon footprint.)

The wines, too, are mostly young, like Mirabeau’s undeniably gluggable Provence rosé, When In Rome’s pinot grigio or Most Wanted’s malbec. All three are straightforwardly tasty expressions of commercially popular wines and, importantly, not inferior to their bottled equivalents. In fact, cans better approximate the conditions of the stainless-steel tanks in which these wines are made, protected from light and oxygen, and ideal for preserving freshness. They may not be suitable for ageing a wine, but, given that most of us consume our wine within a year or so of purchase, they’re arguably the ideal container.

All that said, canned wines aren’t exclusively the preserve of Gen Z, nor are they necessarily basic. Many leading brands have been created specifically for cans, and have pursued quality. The Canned Wine Co’s 2022 garnacha from south of the Pyrenees, for example, has real structure and crunchy tannins – I’d recommend drinking it chilled – while Mad Med produces low-intervention wine in cans from the south of France, including a nutty amber number made with rolle (or vermentino) and a coral-hued rosé from 80% grenache. Seek out The Uncommon, too, an English winemaking project that started out with cans and branched out into bottles only this year. Its canned white, Clarence, is a genuinely brilliant blend of pinot blanc and bacchus from Kent, all fresh with a pretty, ripe edge. Yes, we can indeed.

Five wine cans to wet your whistle

Mad Med L’Orange £5.50 (250ml) Gnarly Vines, 12.5%. A dry, wild-fermented, skin-contact vermentino from Provence. Picnic wines don’t come better.

The Uncommon English White Wine £6.15 (250ml) Ocado, 11%. The ideal format for giving English wine a chance, and this one will blow you away.

The Canned Wine Co Oak-Aged Garnacha 2022 £5.75 (250ml) Waitrose, 14%. Impressive canned red with cherry, pepper and a toothsome grip.

Mirabeau Pret A Porter Rosé £4 (250ml) Sainsbury’s, 12.5%. Strawberries and (sun) cream: a classic (and portable) summer drop.

Vinca White Wine £3 (187ml) Ocado, 12.5%. Organic Sicilian catarratto – pineapple, grapefruit and tropical house music.