Happy National Drink Wine Day—because even fake holidays deserve a real celebration

According to Wine Spectator, the canned wine industry expanded by 69% in 2018. That’s fueled by consumers’ interest in taking wine outdoors, in millennials feeling less fussy about stemware than older generations, etc. But that analysis leaves out one of the best uses for canned wine: cooking.

The restaurant is looking to make roughly a 70% profit margin on wine, so whether you order by the bottle or the glass, you’re paying more than you’d pay for that same bottle, even with a retail markup at a liquor store. But the same is true of the food—chicken costs less at the Costco than it does at the nice restaurant. That’s how restaurants work.

Go for inexpensive, full-bodied rosé with a nice, deep, ruby grapefruit hue. Pinot Noir, Syrah, and Malbec rosés are all good choices. Adding some fresh red fruit like strawberries and/or raspberries will definitely kick your concoction up a few notches, to the delight of your frosé-all-day summer guests.

You attend a wine tasting. You nod your head while the winemaker says things like “notes of cherry bark” and “long, silky finish.” You fall in love with a certain bottle and purchase it for a special occasion, only to open it and discover the wine smells… off. Musty, maybe. Some describe it as wet cardboard, wet newspaper, even wet dog. It could mean your wine is “corked.”

Although wine sales were illegal during Prohibition under the Volstead Act, a legal loophole enabled some churches to still use wine during the sacrament of Communion (really, wouldn’t grape juice have worked just as well as a substitute?). As someone who was raised Catholic and a near-lifelong wine drinker, this surprised me. How could the measly amount of wine doled out during mass virtually save the then-burgeoning U.S. wine industry?