Why the Sommelier at One of the World’s Best Bars Launched His Own Canned Wine
Canned drinks really had a moment in 2019, revealing a significant shift in the way consumers want to buy, consume, and travel with alcoholic beverages. But we’re not talking about traditional soda pop or even sparkling water cult favorites like LaCroix anymore.
For alcoholic drinks, cans are not just for beer, as hard spritzer (hello, White Claw!) and, yes, cans of wine are flying off shelves unlike ever before.
“I think the canned wine category is really only taking off now,” says Thomas Pastuszak, sommelier and executive wine director of Manhattan’s The NoMad Bar (repeatedly acclaimed to be one of the World’s 50 Best Bars) and founder of canned wine brand VINNY. “There is not a whole lot of history of canned wine—the way boxed wine has had a longer spotlight, for instance—which means there are less preconceived notions about the quality of what’s in the can.”
Since 2014, the canned wine business has grown to a valuation of $70 million and counting, with sales increasing by 70% in 2018. Wine-based “ready to drink cocktails” (i.e. canned wine-based cocktails) are also finding a sweet spot with consumers looking for convenience, generating $83 million in annual sales and posting sales growth close to 40% higher over the last year, according to market research firm Nielsen. While the canned wine and canned cocktail markets are still both slim in the overall drinks world, wines packed in 187ml, 375ml, and 500ml sizes are all growing faster than table wine overall (from 2017 to 2018, up 11.4%, 10.4%, and 27.5%, respectively), according to IWSR Drinks Market Analysis, inspiring a recent Beverage Media Group report to describe “the explosion of canned wines and brand extensions into smaller formats” as “a force to be reckoned with.”
VINNY is a dry, sparkling wine, similar in style to Prosecco, an Italian sparkling wine. The company currently produces two varieties: VINNY Blanc is a crisp white mix of Grüner Veltliner and dry Riesling with elements of green apple, lemon, and lime. VINNY Rosé—made from a blend of Cabernet Franc, Pinot Gris, and dry Riesling—has notes of strawberry, lemon, and peach.
Although it is a wine first and foremost, the brand has recently started pitching VINNY to both professional bartenders and casual consumers as an optimal mixer for classic sparkling wine cocktails, such as the mimosa, Aperol spritz, or French 75. A single can of VINNY can make one to two cocktails, so a buyer wouldn’t need to open an entire bottle of bubbles just to make a drink or two, and then have the bottle go flat in the fridge—at home, behind the bar, or in a restaurant.
Jeff Bell, an award-winning mixologist at Please Don’t Tell, a popular speakeasy in Manhattan’s East Village neighborhood, says that as a spirits operator it’s his job to curate the backbar and essentially “sift through the BS” before his customers go to the liquor store. “Cocktails are fun, but they can also be about learning,” Bell said during a recent event highlighting the use of VINNY’s sparkling wines in cocktails featuring gin, tequila, and mezcal. Acknowledging the obvious seasonal appeal for cold canned wines in summer, Bell reiterated that canned wines can be infused in fall and winter cocktails.
Pastuszak grew up in Jamaica, Queens, N.Y., and lived in New York City through high school, but the Finger Lakes in upstate New York became his home during his college years at Cornell University and remained so for several years after when he was cutting his teeth in the restaurant industry.
“I knew very little about wine at the time, so while working in restaurants and studying the great traditional wine regions of Europe, I was living in one as well. I was so excited to learn as much as I could about the Finger Lakes, their vineyards, the producers, and their families and stories,” Pastuszak says. He would work at the local wineries on his days off when not working at the restaurants—everything from working harvest to scrubbing the press pad at a friend’s winery so he could get a taste of what it meant to work and live on a vineyard.
Pastuszak says he loved how it brought together art and science, reflecting on the fact that he had a background in classical piano performance as well as biology. (Believe it or not, medical school was actually his backup plan. “My MCAT exam scores for med schools were good for 10 years,” Pastuszak recalls, “so if the restaurant thing didn’t pan out, at least the scores would still be good for a little while!”)
When Pastuszak moved back to New York City and continued in restaurants, he made it a personal mission to promote his favorite producers from the Finger Lakes—the ones whom he thought were making the most compelling wines—to the people of New York City, many of whom did not even know about this amazing wine region just a few hours north. His first professional stints in New York included serving as wine director of chef Tom Colicchio’s restaurant Colicchio & Sons in 2011, followed by joining the The NoMad in the same role in 2012. (Since then, he has been part of the launches of NoMad Los Angeles in early 2018 as well as NoMad Las Vegas in the fall of 2018.)
But during his early period back in New York, it wasn’t just about supporting wines being made in the Finger Lakes; Pastuszak wanted to start his own production. He first launched a boutique wine brand called Terrassen in 2013, focusing on Cabernet Franc, Gamay, and rosé, all sold in traditional bottles. In 2014 he launched Empire Estate—also only sold in bottles—with a specific focus on Riesling that is dry and mineral in style, with the motive to dispel the notion that Riesling is always sweet.
Pastuszak saw an opportunity early on in wine that might have been scoffed at then but has since snowballed into becoming all the rage in 2019: cans. “I wanted to get into the canned wine game because I saw huge potential for the category,” Pastuszak explains. “As a sommelier, I want to get more people drinking wine first and foremost, and the can format is really easy and accessible—especially for folks who are used to drinking beer and cocktails and might be intimidated by wine, especially when using a corkscrew to open a bottle.”
Pastuszak points out that cans can also be toted and even sold just about anywhere alcoholic beverages are allowed while glass bottles cannot—to parks, to the beach, to sporting events, and even while hiking or skiing. (Just drink responsibly.) “Wine in a can allows people to enjoy wine in many more physical locations than wine in a bottle, and I wanted to be part of a movement that would allow people to enjoy quality wine wherever they might go—and indeed wine of a quality that I would be just as proud to put in a bottle, not an afterthought or ‘lesser wine’ relegated to the can.”
Pastuszak knew he wanted his canned wines to be served chilled for peak enjoyment as well as be both dry and sparkling in style because, in his opinion, that’s what most consumers want and expect from a canned beverage. Wanting an alternative to Prosecco, Pastuszak launched VINNY as a sparkling white wine in summer 2018, followed by a rosé version in the spring of 2019. The cans themselves were also designed to be fun, friendly, and aesthetically pleasing with the hope of giving customers confidence of what’s in the can when they first see it on shelves from afar.
“There are more and more open-minded consumers out there today, especially with the transparency that the Internet and social media provides, so it’s hard to hide behind poor quality,” Pastuszak says, “meaning what goes into your package has to be delicious, otherwise you’re going to be called out.”
The name VINNY might be a head-scratcher at first —but it’s one that will make you “of course” once you dissect it and put the puzzle pieces back together. During a drive back from the Finger Lakes to New York City in early 2015, when Pastuszak started to think about canning wine, he knew it had to have a fun name (versus a traditional winery moniker like a family name) to set the brand apart. He thought about the word for “wine” in a few languages, landing on “vin” (in French). Then he drove by an “I LOVE NY” billboard—and it clicked. Picture the lightbulb going off, and string VIN and NY together, and you have VINNY. (Pastuszak quips he also liked this finished name, as Vinny is a common name in Queens, and he’s a boy from Queens, so there you have it.)
“VINNY is really made for everyone, and the can format gives it a ton of versatility,” Pastuszak says. “Someone who wants a single serving of sparkling wine on its own, whether at home or on the go; someone who wants to make a single sparkling wine cocktail in their home, or for bars wanting to offer unique sparkling wine by the glass opportunities and easy sparkling wines for mixing purposes.”
VINNY is now available in over 25 states, with a few retailers shipping nationwide. Pastuszak says the brand has seen the most interest so far with consumers in their twenties through forties—usually people who want an alternative to canned beer for gatherings (both outdoor and indoor) along with boutique hotel minibars. Looking down the road, Pastuszak hinted at interest in releasing a sparkling red (similar to Lambrusco, an Italian sparkling red wine) but there are no concrete plans to do so yet. For now, the company is focusing on VINNY Blanc and VINNY Rosé with the plan to get them even more widely available across the country, while building even more momentum with them through cocktails.
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