Lately, we’ve been getting the same request:

“Can you recommend a canned wine?”

  Well, yes we can.

For Wine Thursday!

our weekly

good-wine-at-a-good-price-that-you-can-find

recommendation,

we’re catching the aluminum wave.

If you’ve shopped for canned wine,

you know it’s a ball of confusion… 

a multicolored hodgepodge of spritzers, radlers, coolers and bubbles

with almost as many different fruit flavors as Capri Sun. 

To create a level playing field,

we taste-tested four canned versions

of the same type of wine: 

Pinot Gris. 

Two are from California…Crafters Union and AVA Grace 

( they call their version “Pinot Grigio”

which is just another name for the same grape/type of wine)…

and two are from Oregon,

Underwood and Joe to Go,

which is produced by the Wine By Joe folks

To make sure we stayed impartial

and focused on the wine,

not the fancy artwork on the cans,

we followed our normal routine of blind tasting. 

The consensus:  we were pleasantly surprised.

Everyone agreed that none of the four was disappointing,

just that some were better than others.   

And the canned Pinot Gris that did receive

the most first place votes was…

Joe to Go

We frequently make references to “balance” in a wine. 

The Joe to Go was the most balanced of the group,

meaning the combination of sweetness/fruit flavor

and tartness/acidity was, in our group’s opinion,

the best of the four. 

Finishing a close second was Crafters Union

which we found to be just a bit sweeter

than the Joe to Go. 

FYI, when we did reveal each can,

the conversation immediately jumped to the

“cute” or “cool” label designs. 

Conclusion:  we will continue to blind taste all wine. 

You can find Joe to Go at

Fred Meyer for $5.99

and at QFC for $5.99. 

You can also order from Wine by Joe for $7 

https://shop.winebyjoe.com/product/Joe-To-Go—Pinot-Gris

Coming next week,

our evaluation of four different canned Rosés.

Until then,

Cheers!