Ontario wines now come in all kinds of cute portable containers. Here are our picks for the best of the summer-friendly bunch
This white wine spritzer from Good Vines is a huge leap forward from the drink’s drab country club roots. Made with aromatic white wine and topped up with apricot and fizzy water, it’s sessionable, sugar free and ideal for on-the-go summertime sipping. $2.95, goodvines.ca
The colour of a summer sunset, Rosehall Run’s canned pink bubbly is an appropriately seasonal pairing based on looks alone. The vidal–pinot noir blend is fresh and snappy, with quenching flavours of lemon-lime and wild strawberry and the pizzazz of prosecco. It’s crushable, unpretentious and great to have in a cooler. $3.95, rosehallrun.com
West-end bottle shop Paradise Grapevine started making its own booze during the pandemic. Its lineup now includes single-varietal wines, a hard seltzer and a peppy piquette, which is fermented with blueberries and packaged in these teeny-tiny, easy-to-carry cans—consider them a bit like boozed-up LaCroix. $5, paradisegrapevine.com
These cans of sparkling wine from Niagara-on-the-Lake’s Between the Lines Winery come in handy when a celebration calls for a toast but perhaps not for an entire bottle of bubbly. Made with aromatic sparkling wine and a hint of Niagara ice wine to add sweetness, it’s bright, effervescent and a teensy bit acidic. $4.95, betweenthelineswinery.com
Prince Edward County’s Traynor Family Vineyards offers nearly its full range of wines in plastic pouches—they’re more sustainable to produce and ship than bottles, and they’re really fun to drink from too. The Breakfast in the Vineyard blend is a bouncy Beaujolais-ish light red made with vidal, cabernet franc, and gamay noir—juicy and just right for hot summer days. $30 for six, traynorvineyard.com
With notes of peach and tropical fruit, this riesling from St. Catharines’ 13th Street Winery is bright with balanced acidity and an easygoing freshness that makes it incredibly food-friendly, whether you’re pairing it with something fancy or just munching on chips. It drinks like a cool, approachable sauvignon blanc. $5.95, 13thstreetwinery.com
Tawse Winery infuses the dregs of its cabernet franc and cabernet sauvignon with gin botanicals to make a punch-like piquette. It’s shimmery and coral-hued with notes of pomegranate, ruby grapefruit and crushed red berries. It’s a little bit seltzer, a little bit wine and a lot of fun. $5.95, tawsewinery.ca
Riesling savant Charles Baker’s foray into canned wine has all the aromas and minerality of the winemaker’s signature bottles, packed in a picnic-ready format. The acidity and complexity of this Niagara-on-the-Lake varietal makes it approachable for all sorts of picnic pairing: charcuterie, jerk patties, momos and more. $6.90, stratuswines.ca
This bottle-size bag from Niagara’s Rosewood Estates delivers the full sangria experience without the hassle of actually making sangria. It starts with the winery’s dry red wine, flavoured with Norfolk County blueberry juice and Niagara peach juice, plus a smidge of Rosewood’s honey wine and a hit of pink gin from Willibald Farm Distillery, in Ayr. $19, rosewoodwine.com
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Kate Dingwall is a writer, author and photographer covering spirits, business, culture, fashion and travel. By night, she’s a working sommelier. She has worked with Flare, Food & Wine, Wine Enthusiast, Maxim, People, Southern Living, Rolling Stone, Eater, Elle, Toronto Life and the Toronto Star, among other publications. She frequently appears on both CTV and NPR, has co-authored a book on gin, judges Food & Wine’s Tastemakers and has strong opinions on the city’s best martini.