Yeah, from the look on the wine guy's face at Andronico's, he clearly thought we were yanking his chain when we asked him that. Once we explained that yes, wine in a can actually existed, and no, we weren't two of the horseman of the Apocalypse, he shrugged and pointed to Sophia in a bottle. He didn't have the canned stuff but BevMo did.

Sofia is a sparkling Blanc de Blanc (100% white Chardonnay grapes; no ruddy Pinot Noir grapes were harmed when making this wine) wine in a slim pink can from Coppola Vineyards. Is it a gimmick? That's pretty much what my husband announced when he unwrapped the bendy, extendable fuchsia straw and poked it into the mouth of the aluminum can. I decided it would only be a gimmick if the wine in the can tasted like it was wine in a can.

Well, it wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. Maybe I'm only a seasonal sparkling wine drinker, but the two cans I sucked down certainly didn't make me want to go out and stock my wine cellar (it's really only a box under the table) with hexagonal metallic pink boxes. There is nothing special or transcendent about the taste -- it's even slightly astringent on my throat, which means it's too dry for my palate -- and I think a price tag of $18.00 for what amounts to four glasses of wine is a bit steep just for the packaging. I am a sucker for packaging, though, which is why I wanted to try the wine in the first place. But overall: meh.

The straw actually needs to go back to the wine in a can engineers. It order for it to be extendable, it's made up of two separate pieces of tube -- one within another -- and at the joint, there's no airtight seal. Ever tried to sip a Coke with a straw that's been punctured? Same effect. Lots of sucking, not much drinking.

I guess club kids and socialites can go on sipping from these little cans and feel sophisticated and trendy but as I got up the last bit of wine with my straw, the loud slurping noise certainly wasn't sophisticated. Maybe smashing the can on my forehead was trendy?