Wine & Spirits - Summer 2022 - 8

Fined
& Filtered
The Case
for Cans
Will a new law give
Vinho Verde a fi ghting
chance in the canned
wine export market?
By INDIA MANDELKERN
O
N THE TONGUE, VINHO
Verde conjures a carefree
spontaneity: We know it
as a bright, spritzy, and youthful
wine designed for casual drinking.
These are ideal qualities,
believes Oscar Meireles, of Quinta
da Lixa, to sell it in a can. In July
2021, Quinta da Lixa and Ponte
da Barca, two of the larger producers
in the Vinho Verde region,
petitioned the CVRVV (Comissão
de Viticultura da Região dos Vinhos
Verdes), a regional commission
of over 16,000 members,
to tweak one of its longstanding
rules. In April 2022, the rule was
approved by the Portuguese government,
and entered into law.
Vinho Verde could now be packaged
and sold in 250-ml cans as
well as traditional glass bottles.
" The idea is to make it possible
to drink wine in places where glass
is not allowed, " Meireles writes, citing
popular summer destinations
such as pools, beaches and music
festivals. José Oliveira, of Ponte
da Barca, cites the can's appeal
to younger people- " without the
need for a corkscrew or glasses. "
This isn't to say that wine
from this northwestern corner
of Portugal hadn't been canned
before. Last year, Quinta da Lixa
released its eff ervescent, low alcohol,
Anjos de Portugal label in single-serving
250-ml cans. Distribution
was limited to the United
States, and priced at $4.50 to $5
a pop. Gazela and Gatão, popular
brands in Portuguese supermarkets,
also debuted 250-ml alu8
WINE
& SPIR IT S
minum versions of their Vinho
Verdes. " Easy to open; even
easier to enjoy, " chirped a 2021
post from the @GAZELAWINEUSA
Instagram account. In addition
to the United States, Gazela
cans also appeared in Portugal,
Angola, Norway and Russia.
These
containers
couldn't
bear the Designation of Origin's
(DO's) offi cial seal of guarantee,
even though the liquid inside
checked all the boxes. Once
sheathed in aluminum, Vinho
Verde had to be declassifi ed to
the Minho Geographical Indication.
" The [Minho label] is very
unknown abroad, so the product
loses value, " Oliveira writes.
The CVRVV doesn't expect
cans to dominate Vinho Verde
production. " We are very traditional, "
says Mafalda Coelho,
international market manager at
Quinta da Raza, an estate winery
in Vinho Verde's easterly Basto
subregion. She doesn't believe
that most of her customer base,
whether in Portugal or abroad,
would spring for wine in cans.
The tradition of cork-fi nished
" The idea is to make it
possible to drink wine in
places like pools, beaches
and music festivals. "
OSCAR MEIRELES, QUINTA DA LIXA
SUMMER 202 2
bottles remains strong in the
northern subregion of Monção
and Melgaço. At Adega Coop
Regional de Monção, the same
wine sold with a screw cap in the
United States is sold with a cork
in Portugal. According to Ricardo
Bastos, the winery's international
sales manager, his Portuguese
customers often associate screw
caps with lower quality wines. At
Melgaço's Soalheiro, winemaker
Luis Cerdeira prefers cork's natural
tannins, and the " beautiful
growth in the bottle " that this
type of packaging will allow. " The
advantage of the can, " Cerdeira
explains, " is to show the market
that Vinho Verde is not singular,
it's plural. " But Soalheiro doesn't
produce enough wine in volume
to make cans feasible, anyway.
Despite the ongoing glass shortage
that has driven up the prices
of bottles, packaging wine in a can
is actually more expensive than
bottling it. Perhaps that is why
as of April, 2022, only Quinta
da Lixa and Ponte da Barca have
defi nitive plans to release canned
Vinho Verde.
In export markets, which comprise
55 percent of Vinho Verde
sales, expectations are high. " I
have been thinking about putting
Vinho Verde in the can for
years, " says Corey Lahm, president
of Green Bus Provisions, a
Minneapolis-based import company
with a portfolio of Portuguese
wines. " I think cans are vessels
where Vinho Verde can really
shine. " While still a small market
compared to bottles (according to
Grand View Research, the global
market for canned wine was valued
at $211.4 million in 2020),
those sales are expected to grow
13.2 percent from 2021 to 2028.
This summer, Ponte da Barca is
releasing four canned Vinho Verde
labels to the United States, as well
as Portugal, Denmark, and Brazil.
In fi ve years, Oliveira hopes
to sell cans in half of the winery's
32 markets. Similarly, Meireles of
Quinta da Lixa believes that cans
could potentially make up 10 percent
of Vinho Verde's total volume
of export sales. In 2021, Meireles
sold 36,000 cans of Anjos de Portugal.
This year, simply by using
Vinho Verde's seal of guarantee,
he expects sales to double. He also
hopes to expand to Canada, Japan,
and Brazil, " markets where consumers
are already used to drinking
wines in cans. " The goal? Sales
of 300,000 cans per year.
Ryan Woodhouse, a buyer for
California-based retailer K&L
Wine Merchants, believes that if
canned wine is here to stay, Vinho
Verde has an excellent shot. " People
have a weird conception in
their heads that when they open
a can, the beverage is going to be
cold and sparkling, " he says, noting
that sauvignon blancs and grenache-based
roses have performed
particularly well in the past. Vinho
Verde's fruity and aromatic profi
le, with a touch of eff ervescence,
aligns with those expectations. Yet
despite its populist appeal, canned
wine isn't necessarily a bargain. If
three 250-ml cans make up a 750ml
bottle; those three cans might
be 50 percent more expensive than
a bottle priced at $9.99. Perhaps
pricing, Woodhouse wonders, is
the biggest hurdle canned Vinho
Verde will face. ●
PHOTOS OF WINE COURTESY OF QUINTA DA LIXA
Wine & Spirits - Summer 2022

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