I’ve always liked my red wine on the cool side, and I’ve especially liked red wines that seem to encourage it, like Beaujolais. Now I’ve found one that downright begs to be cold—right on the bottle, in fact. Although it’s not in a bottle; it’s in a can. Or, rather, a bottle-shaped can. And, frankly, a ridiculous-looking one. If you inspect it closely, you can see that the can has a “chill spot,” a cute little dot that changes color when the wine’s cold enough, like certain macrobeers have. It also is decorated with silly, whimsical dots containing the words “very fresh” and “very fruity,” along with a picture of a young woman like you might see on the cover of a chick-lit novel. But the truth is that, despite myself, I like this absurd can/bottle. I like it in part because of the “get over yourself” silliness of it; and I like it because I’ve tasted so many good box wines recently that my prejudice toward the classic old 750-milliliter is breaking down. I’ve also read a lot about the vastly smaller carbon footprint of these new containers: They’re lighter and make shipping less expensive and less fuel-intensive. Most of all, though, I like this wine because I honestly think it doesn’t suck a bit. It’s a fun, cold quaffer that would go great with simple foods, or with a hot night and a chair on the porch.
2006 Mommessin Beaujolais Grand Reserve Red
Grapes: 100 percent Gamay
Aging: Get real
Alcohol: 12 percent (old school!)
Price: $14.99
My Tasting Notes: See above
Don’t like the can idea! I want to see the wine. Even in the bottle you can see tell things about the wine, like the time I noticed that the Pinot Noir a friend brought over was way too pale. When we opened it, it was terrible. I just tried a Syrah from Idaho (of all places) and the neck of the bottle was crusted with sediment. You can’t see that in a can.
I often picked up quite decent varietal/regional wines in Italy in Tetrapaks – I wouldn’t want a wine one would age in such packages, but they are fine for “vins de consommation courante” and wonderfully anti wine-snobbery. It is fermented fruit juice, after all.
Yeah, although I still can’t bring myself to condone anything with, as DD put it, chick-lit-type illustrations on it. It’d be so much better if it were a pic of a guy who needs a shave and a belt.