Packaging of Wine in Aluminum Cans – A Review

Abstract

Background and goalsAluminum cans represent an alternative wine packaging, offering a wide range of styles. Despite the fast-growing nature of the product category and the great market forecast, there is valid concern about the quality of wines in a can. Unfortunately, this leads to the consumer perception that these wines are low-quality products, which m us t b e a d d resse d by th e wine industry. Methods and key findingsCanned wines have a limited shelf life, as they often display unpleasant reductive characteristics (e.g., rotten egg and cooked vegetable off-flavors). Aluminum corrodes in the acidic pH of wine and reacts with sulfur dioxide to yield hydrogen sulfide. Conclusions and significancePreparing wine for canned packaging requires extra effort to understand the implications of wine redox chemistry. The wine's chemical parameters at bottling (in particular, the levels of sulfur and metals) must be managed, and the degradation of the can lining must be limited.