Well, here's the thing I was going to say about it. It's an old-fashioned. It is an old-fashioned. A really sweet one. Well, yes, correct. But that's what rock and rye is. It's strong rye. Save it, save it, save it. This is really good. You sound good. Stop. Save it for the cast. Hey, you're listening to Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. I'm Greg. In the room with me today is Roger. How are you doing? And Kristin. Hey. And today we're talking about? Cans. Cans. Well, a little bit more than just cans. Alternative packaging has really taken off over the last couple years, decade. Yeah. Beer-wise, it's unbelievable. I was just telling someone that we did an event, and every single beer I was pouring was in a can. And some of them are breweries that have stopped sending their bottled expressions of things. I am way more likely to pick up a beer if it's in cans. It's lighter, it's less of a pain. It's the better packaging for beer. The two biggest enemies for beer are light and oxygen. And with a can, you're avoiding both of those. Yes, perfectly. Yeah, completely sealed. Plus, I think people's beer IQ is going up, and lots of people want to fully experience drinking a beer, just like with a bottle of wine, you wouldn't just necessarily drink and get straight out of the bottle. Well, have you met me? Look at all of her chipped teeth. Yeah. So if you're going to drink the beer out of a glass anyway, which is what you should do, you should pour it into proper glassware so you can fully appreciate it. It shouldn't matter to you if you're getting it out of a can. Right. Right. I agree. And it used to be a stigma, but it's not anymore. Everybody's educated. They know it's a better package. Right. Just a way to go. So wine's picking up on it too. Yes. The deal with wine is people are looking for wines that are high quality, but we don't want anything that's meant to age, right? So just know that if you don't have a cork closure with the can, that it's meant to be drunk that day. And luckily for us, we talked about this in another podcast episode with Chris Benziger, that over 90 percent of all wine purchased is consumed within 24 hours. So cans are perfect for that. Here I'm holding the Paloma cocktail from Cut Water. This is a 375 in these cans. We sell the Underwood, the wine, it's a half a bottle in a can. 375, huh? At least the cans are. Yeah. Oh, this is 355 for the cocktail. So for that guy with the conversion table, 355 rounds out to be just about a 12-ounce can of All-American Cola. Okay. Right? Yes. Which is, who's thirsty? Let's get into these cocktails. Cool. We're talking about wines, we're talking about beers. We've heard a couple of rumors from the spirit world that like scotch in a can is coming. But the one thing that- Wait, I didn't hear this rumor. Yeah, a couple of years ago. It's like in England. It's like in Europe, they have scotch in a can. From whom? How many ounces? 12 ounces. McCallan, rare cast? That's one of the problems. They're serving, they're selling you a consumable problem. But no, it's like lotters or whatever. It's like a horrible idea. Why is it a terrible idea? People are going to see that and think of it as, it's so ingrained that a can of something is a serving. Like one consumable unit? Yeah. I can drink this whole can of scotch. I just think- At some point though, man, we got to put the onus on the person to have common sense, because I can give them 12 ounces in a small glass bottle. What's the difference? I just feel like if that person is going to- Not resealable. Yeah, that's true. There's a difference. That's true, you're right. That's the difference, Chris, Dan. You just come with a sandwich baggie and a rubber band. You think that they're going to share it or whatever. You just think that they wouldn't be like, oh, because I can't reseal it or because I have to drink it all. I just think like that's just, you're dumb. Only crack it if you're hanging out with some friends. Yeah, or you have a good tolerance, like Roger, just neck it down. All right, can we taste these now? So here in America, our spirit producers are coming up with innovative cocktails in the can, which is where we're turning into right now. I've got this Cutwater Spirits Grapefruit Paloma Cocktail. Ready to enjoy cocktail, it tells me. The can also says it's 7% ABV and it's gluten free. If you are unfamiliar with the folks at Cutwater, this is the Ballast Point crew. Once they sold their company and made quite a bit of money, they reinvested in spirits. They distilled for a while under Ballast Point, the name. Incorrect. So one of the things that sets their pre-mixed cocktails aside, traditionally, a lot of pre-mixed cocktails like a margarita in a bottle, it wouldn't actually be made from tequila and lime juice. The base would be malt liquor. So basically, flavor-stripped out beer. This stuff is made with the real deal. This is Paloma made with tequila or whatever. San Diego, California. Not far, not far. That's fine. I like it. I think it's pretty flavorful. You can taste the grapefruit. It's refreshing. You can taste the tequila. It's very heavily carbonated. These bubbles are big. Oh, yeah. That's force carbonated. The agave comes through, which is nice. I mean, it's not just like grapefruit soda. Yeah. I mean, it doesn't knock my socks off, but what I like about it is it tastes good, it's refreshing, and it's just pop it open. You're not juggling all the different mixers and tequila and squeezing limes. Yeah. Nobody can be like, you didn't make this right. These would probably benefit from some ice. Oh, absolutely. Okay. Here's the lime margarita. It's exciting. I'm going to tell you right now, I make a mean margarita. So this is going to have to perform pretty well. You can't judge it against the best margarita on the planet. Margaritas are tough to get agreement upon because people make them so many different ways. Margarita mixes often fall very short of fresh squeezed lime juice and high quality orange liqueur. So it can be a contentious issue is my point when you discuss margaritas and premixed margaritas. It's a matter of taste. Contention, huh? I think they need to have a margarita before they start talking about it. It doesn't always smell like much. It's definitely not even as close to as carbonated as that paloma. Yeah, that's a good point. It isn't. This is pretty nice. I'm kind of surprised. I'm usually not a fan of me. This is weird. This is weird. It tastes like honey. Maybe it's supposed to be agave nectar. Give me the can. Give me the can. It's herbaceous kind of. It has the wildflower qualities of a cup of honey. I much prefer the paloma. I'm just going to go on a limb and say taffy. Agave nectar gives a floral aroma with a smooth finish that complements our house-made mix of tart lime, pure cane sugar, and a subtle hint of orange. It's softer. It's sweeter. There's a floral quality. The tequila isn't as pronounced as in the paloma. And it's weightier. It's flat, so it seems like weightier on the palate. That'd be pretty good on some ice though, right? Yeah, I like this. I'm shocked. It's not for me. Yeah, it's a little... I'm usually super critical of pre-mixed margaritas because I love making the simple three-part margarita, fresh lime juice, orange liqueur, tequila. And I'm pretty impressed with this for being straight out of a can, especially if you're using this in a situation where you want to be out with friends and you don't want to be squeezing fresh limes and juggling bottles of tequila. Well, I think you've got me on experience here because I just, I don't drink a lot of margaritas, you know? I don't like them sweet. So this is, it is on the drier side. So that for sure is hitting with me. And it is, it's not too heavy handed, you know, in the sugar. You mentioned the weight, the viscosity. It has it, but it's not crazy. It's pretty light in its feet. It'd be good for a hot summer day. It's 12.5%. So like if it were amped up in the alcohol, it would also be a little more sweet. And then it would, it's, I think to maintain the balance of the lower alcohol, they rolled back the other stuff too. You feel a touch of heat on the finish, but again, we're not drinking over ice. So I think that would be calm if it was colder. Yeah, we'll have to try these over some ice in a little bit. All right, for the main event, Buzz Balls. You want to do Buzz Balls before the wine? Yep. Ah, right. Mix drinks and a ball. Their slogan is, have a ball. Go figure. Another fun fact about these, they bounce like a ball. Do they really? Yeah. And they don't break. We've seen people drop them accidentally from chest height, and they just bounce like a bouncy ball. Cool. I dig that. So we're starting us off with the, what's that one? Why did you bring these? Because they're, they f***ing sell, man. He can't control himself. I can't believe we're featuring buzz balls on a podcast. Sorry, Kristen. I know you were really looking forward to it. I just- I've never even had one. So I mean, I'm curious. It smells like ginger ale. We have to relate to the common man. The buzz ball drinking. So this was a good choice. Ginger mule, this has potential. This might not be that bad. It smells like mint and eucalyptus. Give me a break. It smells like aftershave. It does kind of smell like aftershave. What's happening? What's happening? The tip of my tongue is crazy. Taste it like the tip of my tongue is stinging. It's like they used for net in this. What's up with the tip of your tongue? Do you feel that? Mine's like, it's like right there. It's weird. No one else is having that reaction. Yeah, I'm getting it a little. I mean, there's definitely hotter, like straight up ginger beer is spicier, but there's a kick to this for sure, as advertised. What's the percentage here? I feel like I'm tasting alcohol, but it could just be the spiciness of the ginger. It's really spicy. It's really spicy. Yeah. That's okay. So apart from the bizarre minty tobacco smell, it's high in alcohol. I'm surprised at how flavorful this actually is. 200 mLs. That's yeah. It's just over a split. So it's like a glass of champagne, but way worse. I believe these also besides bouncing, I think they float. Can we do that experiment? That's really important to me. Well, if you have a bathtub full of them and ice, you know. We're gonna taste this other buzz ball. I chose the ones today with the cleanest names. So the Ginger Mule and the Tequila Rita. I think our listeners, if you have not encountered buzz balls, some of them get a little bit dirty and a little bit sexual. It's not our fault. So we didn't want to... I didn't want to read it. I just didn't want to read it and look at Greg in the face and be like... You're pouring them very Demure like with the two fingers. Margarita ball. What is the flavor? This tastes like a green popsicle with alcohol. I mean, if you like green popsicles, friends... Slurpees. Yeah. Then this is for you. Yep. Again, this is not terrible. No, it's not. This is not. The ginger mule was a bit too spicy. I think if they pulled back on that spice a little bit, I probably would like it. Remember those things as a kid that were those frozen? The Freezy Pops. Freezy Pops. That's what I'm thinking. It tastes like that. Yeah. A bomb pop? No, the Freezy Pops. The long... No stick. They were just the whole frozen thing. Oh, yeah. The tube of Kool-Aid that gets frozen. Many a beloved childhood memory enjoy those. Yep. Well, now you can drink those. What's the flavor? Lemon limey... Tequila Rita, baby. Yep. Tequila Rita. I'm worried this is going to give me heartburn. This flavor. So it is a Tequila Rita because it has both tequila and vodka, along with triple sec and some natural flavors. So, I mean, for 200 mLs, is this guy 15 proof as well or 15 percent, I mean? Yes. That's kind of some bang for your buck. So I think in the end of the day, these seemingly silly looking novelty drinks are actually pretty drinkable. Me too. So anyway, let's move on from the cocktails onto the wine side. So, as far as these wines go, are most of them whites or? Most are whites, yeah, because I think the idea is you're putting it in the cooler with the rest of the beer, and it's just kind of in there, so white sort of gets into the fold with the rest of your summer, summer beverages as you're on the go. For the people that are concerned about opening a bottle of wine, they don't want to finish it, and they don't want to mess around with vacuum sealing it. Like, I could see red working as well. We've seen some reds, they just tend to be on the lighter side, like softer, sweeter reds, or else Pinot Noir is a pretty popular varietal coming out of the cans. Yeah. Nothing that's going to be too tannic or too acidic or whatnot, but things that actually can deal with the chill, like you can throw that can of Pinot Noir into the cooler. If you take it out, a nice chill on those wines is good. So they're just thinking, hey man, let's get them all together and keep it in the family kind of thing, I think. Bottle of Beaujolais with the cool on it? Exactly. That's what I do. And these are 375 mils. So these are half bottles. So they're pretty small size and it's kind of funny to hold a can in your hand and realize you're holding onto a half bottle of wine. It's kind of fun. It's only like a half an inch taller than a normal 12 ounce can of pop. Exactly. Yeah. It's great. I love it. Okay. So here are the bubbles from Underwood, comes from Oregon. It just says Oregon source, so this isn't like a Willamette or Dundee proper. So they source from all over and I'm really excited to taste this one. I want to try the bubbles in the can. Have you noticed more sparkling ones than still or what's that like? I think that the sparkling ones are more popular, but as far as what we stock, we stock far more still varieties. Sophia Coppola, the Sophia. That was like the OG of Fizz in a can. And Palmer used to have the. They still do. Yeah. And now, I mean, it's just cool to see so many domestic and international lineries coming out with this. I mean, we've said it before. I'm all about alternative packaging. I don't think it's anything to turn your nose down. I mean, we're not drinking $60, $70 bottles of wine out of cans. So just like let it go. It is what it is. It's meant to be drunk at the concert or at the beach or at your picnic or in the backyard or just like chilling. And I mean, I'll drink wines, $10, $20 wines all week long. And so I don't really care what it comes in. If that's what I'm after, is a clean, correct, simple wine that's $5, $10, $15. I'm into it. Fun, easy going. Yeah. So these are sold individually then? Yes, and in four packs as well. What kind of price point are we looking at here? Oh, I didn't write it down. Regularly $5.99. This can be yours for $4.99 with the Binny's card right now. Five buck can of wine. Yep. It's a half bottle. Half bottle. That's an incredible value. I think so. Sometimes we put them on sale every now and then for like $0.50 off. It's pretty great. And again, the classic example with people not wanting to, if people only want to open up a whole bottle, it's still a line for not wanting to finish it. I think champagne, obviously, even more of an issue, or sparkling line, sorry. It's okay. You don't want it to go flat, obviously. So a can is a fantastic format for that, I would think. How do you feel about the way this tastes? It's just a simple, straightforward, refreshing, very citrus forward, good acidity. It's a tiny bit of toast on the nose, like a little bit of toast. It's not hugely complex, but I don't think that's the point. There's a nice kind of tropical component to it that I enjoy. It's supposed to be great with the mosa's. Beautiful. Melon fruit. It kind of tastes like Prosecco. But it's a little bit drier, a little bit more sour. I think an application this would be great for are for you mixologists out there that are interested in champagne, sparkling cocktails. This would be great for if you like to make French 75s, Cru Royales, Death in the Afternoon. It's nice to be able to have a half bottle. That's inexpensive, but decent quality, and it's not sweet. It's not going to add too much to the, you know, when you add fizz to a cocktail, I think it's to elevate the texture more than really to add to the flavors. I find the other spirits involved tend to do that a bit more. So this is going to fill that void, and you don't have to waste so much bubbles are wasted, right? That they, you know, night after night using for cocktails and whatnot. So you're going to save money in the long run at a bar with this. I bet this takes off at bars. It should. It's not bad juice. It's not at all. We got it nice and cold. All right, let's try this Rosé Alde from France. Ooh, it's from France. Is that a 187? It's 250. 250. I love it. We're like, we're not doing 187s. It's 200, 250 or bust. About the size of a small energy drink can. Yeah, very reminiscent in shape and design as well. Rosé Alde, bro. It's the summer of Rosé. Summer of Rosé. Great name. How do you feel? It's nice. What are we looking at as far as price point on this guy? I think four bucks. I think it's fine. Kind of watermelon-y, a little candy. I can see these being placed in quite a few purses. I'm not getting a lot of complexity with that. Again, that's not the point. Yeah. It's a fun, easy to- Yeah. Listen, you just got to kind of let it go, I think, with these wines and just sort of take them for what they are at face value, which are simple, fruity, easygoing. I'm just happy that none of these we've had yet are too sweet, because sugar hides faults, and these winemakers aren't hiding behind a bunch of sugar. They're kind of just giving you the simple, fruity wine. This would be a great crossover purchase for somebody that's getting into the rosé ciders. This is super fruit forward. Yes. Reminds me of some of the better rosé ciders. Right. I'm really excited to try the Coppola Chardonnay. Same size can, same sort of smaller profile of a can. And this guy is... Oh, this is also 250 ml. But I feel like it's a little bit thinner of a profile than that one we have there. Well, no cork taint, that's for sure. God bless alternative packaging. We've been selling this wine for decades. Yeah, Coppola has been around for a long time. And then so Francis Ford's daughter Sophia, like we mentioned before, the original Sparkling Wine in a can and the brand that kind of begat the Sophia in a can is now getting into cans themselves. I think it's pretty great. That's cool. This is a Chardonnay, California style. So, you know, you might smell a little bit of that butter, that kind of typical oak that's, you know, sort of reminiscent of typical California chard. I'm gonna go so far as to say that there's a lot of butter on the nose of this. Oh, really? Yeah. That would mean it's over delivering at the price. I suppose so. If you like a lot of butter, a lot of malolactic fermentation. Fine. It's good. Easygoing, typical, you know, California flavors of a chardonnay of this price range, this quality, it's got the apple, got the citrus, little stone fruit, but definitely right on that butter. Got the oak, the baking spice. There's some layers of flavor here, which is pretty cool. Peaches and pineapples and caramel. Yeah. I mean, it's basically, it's whatever's in the Coppola bottles, you guys. You know what I mean? And that stuff sells well. So if you like the Coppola chardonnay, then you should be fine with the cans. It's the same juice. From a beer standpoint, you're always looking for diacetyl as a flaw for the most part. Yeah. So it's hard for me to enjoy that flavor. And in wine, dankness is a pretty serious flaw too. Right. So, I mean, it tastes exactly like it's supposed to taste. They really cut down on the diacetyl. There's not a ton, a ton, a ton. It's not like too much. In terms of butteriness. So I think we're going to taste the Pinot Noir next. We talked about how the reds fare in the can. I'm more interested to see how the reds turn out. I don't know why, because technically speaking, they'd be more stable against oxygen and anything else because of the tannin and the color and whatnot. But seems like it's just the time capsule. Like it's just going to stay the way it is and it's going to change, but way slower and way to a lesser degree. But like Roger said early in the cast, only if you leave it in your trunk and get it super hot. For the most part, it's going to stay true to form, right? Yep. Folks, do not keep anything in your garage. In the summer, you're cooking your beer, your wine, bring it inside. So here is a Pinot Noir from Oregon. They're obviously their flagship grape from the state. Really put them on the map, really perfect climate for that particular grape. Underwood. Underwood. This is interesting seeing, like pouring a wine this dark out of a can just seems... Yeah, so it's not totally insipid. It's pale. What's the word I'm looking for? But it's not too dark in the sense that you can still see through it. And that's something that I look for with Pinot to be vitally correct. You don't want it to be too deep. If it came out looking like a Merlot or a Surrath, then, you know, I'd start to complain. But I'm not. So I'll go smell and taste it and see what happens. Not a lot on the nose, but it has a chill. Fine. Good. Yeah, I like it. Typical berry flavors. There's a little bit of that soubois kind of thing going on. A little bit. There's a tiny little bit of earthy component to it. Not too much, but pretty fruit forward. What's a soubois? Soubois means underwood, which is kind of funny that it's called underwood. It's sort of, you know, punny, but... You mean forest floor. That's just like a term that the French use to describe kind of what pino can have in terms of complexity. It gets the soubois. It's got a funky little layer of something else going on there that's not just jammy fruit that, you know, the naysayers might expect from a can of red wine. Yeah, it reads it as a layer of authenticity in wine that you would expect. Yeah. It's a little warm. It's at 13%. And I feel the heat a little bit, especially since it's chilled. I dig it. I could drink this at Ravenia, you know. Oh, this is good Pinot Noir. This is actually surprisingly good Pinot Noir. Yes. That's great. Yep. I actually have another rattler too, if you want to do two rattlers. Side by side. We have the Underwood Rattler. Did you want to guess this, Greg, as to what grape variety is mixed in with your grape? Yeah. I have no idea that this even existed until right now. It's a certain grape from Oregon, then it's hops and malt, grapefruit, and then it says you're welcome because it's pretty cute. Hops, malt, grapefruit, and a grape from Oregon, which has got to be Pinot Gris. I love the can. I love it. They got me hook, line, and sinker with this stupid can. It looks like an indie album cover. Yeah. I just love it. I love that color, that peachy orange color. I don't know. Crazy jungle. It's got a toucan on it. Everybody loves toucans. Yeah. Who doesn't? Is it Riesling? Yes. Riesling Radler. Yay. Good job. I like this. This is so weird. Yes, it is. This would have been a total non-starter in the world of wine like 10 years ago. It's flavored, but the hoppy quality. I just remembered Roger called this in a podcast, two or three months ago. The question was what flavors are going to come out? And Roger was like, hoppy wine. And we were both like, no. Here it is. But it's okay. Yeah. It's very floral. It has like a bright, botanical component to it from the hops. I get lots of grapefruit pith, a little bit of like a white pepper thing. But I dig this. Again, I'm in kind of a disadvantage here because when I've smelled both the hops and the wine component, it's reminding me of old beer because of that whininess. Yeah, that's not good for you. Yeah. But I can see how people find this interesting. Yeah, it gives like a otherwise soft, round wine, like real cut and edge with the grapefruit and the hops. Let's pour that other Radler side by side while I still have some. So this is just random. Roger also has a Radler. He wants us to try. I'll pour it for you guys and you can taste it and try to describe some of the things you think you're tasting. It's dark. Tropical fruit juice. I mean, it's like a fruit salad, like that mango cherry flavor, very candy. Tastes like prunes. Prunes. Cherry for sure. I just get peachy passion fruit. Yeah, that's what I get. So this is from a company that I really dig what they're doing. I notice a lot of people entering the beer game are doing too much of the same. I think this company is really kind of changing it up here. And part of the reason is because they come from a tea background. So their approach was that they wanted to make radlers that were tea-based. This is peach. So there's all sorts of stuff in this. This is called That's My Jam from Owl's Brew. It's an amber ale blended with Darjeeling tea, hibiscus, lemon peel, agave nectar, and fruit juices. Come on. This is like kind of a... They screwed me on the fruit juice. Kind of leave it wide open with the fruit juices, but I think you got to keep a little secret close to the chest. What gives this particular style of beer that very creamy, opulent mouthfeel? That's probably from the juice in this, would be my guess, because an amber ale wouldn't necessarily have anything that would... Yeah, it gives it like a real viscous weight. But if I were to... Because sometimes, maybe not to this intensity, but you can get this creaminess from beers. Is that come from what? Byproduct in the fermentation? So wheat beers, it's proteins. And so beer is brewed with wheat, beer is brewed with oats. That typically is going to impart like a lot of creaminess to it. Leaving things unfiltered, obviously that helps. I like the creamy texture. I'm not a big fan of wheat beers, 100 percent, especially if it's like a wit or whatever. Kind of too sweet, but I do like the texture. I just don't like the flavor. So here I'm kind of getting that without having to slurp down a wit. I mean, that's totally valid, but I think that the reaction is to the over-core-andered, overly sweet, overly citrus-peeled wheat beer. And the use of wheat as a grain can mean so much more, but that's so easy to, you know, think of Franz Xtanner or Blue Moon or Boulevard Wheat, or, you know, whichever one. A little something, something is a great example of the wheat giving it breadth, but it's still balanced with hops. So it's like creamy and sweet, but it's still bitter at the same time. And it's like really, you know, cool, balanced experience. I would think that there's probably some pineapple in here, because like your initial reaction was that it was very tropical. I agree. I also think it's neat that this has some sweetness, but there's also some tartness there, too. So I could see there being maybe some cranberry in there, something to kind of, and that would work with the hibiscus to give it this kind of darker, deeper amber. When you said hibiscus, I was like, ah-ha, you know, the light bulb went on. That gives it that fruity quality, too. Something different. It's cool. You know, what's muted is the effect of the tea, because it probably is giving it some of the color, but you, especially Darjeeling, you think of like a tannic-structured beverage, and this is a lot more soft. Weird. Cool. Hochstatter's Rock n Rye, the 86 proof. They have been bottling it for a while. They put it in these little adorable cans. So cute, it is. It's short and squat, and it looks like a little paint bucket. And, Eric, correct me. The cool thing about Rock n Rye, it doesn't get a lot of credit for it, but it's basically an old fashioned. It has rye, it has sugar, this one has a couple of kinds of sugar, and it has fruit in the form of orange peel, and it has a deadly little shrapnel tab that gets pulled out. I love the pull tab, that's awesome. And it has bitters. So anyway, it has rye, it has sweetener, it has fruit, it has bitters. It is an old fashioned. So, I mean, this isn't complex. It tastes like orange juice with bitters and rye. Most Rock n Rye uses rock candy. That's where the rock comes from. They use rock candy and they use honey. Where does the rock candy come in the process when they're finishing? Traditionally, there's a big hunk of rock candy and an orange wedge in a bottle. These guys do it somewhere in the aging process or somewhere in the post distillation, mixing it down. But you can still buy, an incredible bottom shelf value is a bottle of Rock n Rye with a hunk of sugar and an orange wedge in it. Yeah. Yeah. Do you listen to Montrose when you enjoy this? This is really strong. It's like drinking orange liqueur. But dude, this is like, this pack's a punch, man. You feel the 84 proof. And if you want to live in the danger zone, they make a 100 proof version too, with really old rye. And the rye that is the basis for this stuff is really good rye. It's a vatting of whatever, but it's like some of the most hardcore, spicy, foundational cocktail rye you're gonna get. And every once in a while, we get a bunch of cases in of it, and I always try to buy a bottle and then let it go over some time. But it's really good stuff. It's a liqueur, you know? It's an unsung hero that nobody, that I guess you can, what's it, three bucks for one of these, and you can give it a shot. Crazy. I think it's good. Do you drink this neat or on the rocks? On the rocks. I would have to put this on ice. That's what it's about. For me, yeah. I mean, just like an old-fashioned or a Manhattan. Right. Well, some people drink Manhattan's neat, so that's kind of why I asked. Animals. And if you've had, you've had the Hochstatter's rye, right? Correct. It's like just the firmest, spiciest rye. Let me ask you quickly then, Roger, how do you feel about the canned wines? The Underwood and the Roselle Day? Like we were saying, I think the applications are perfect for them. I think I've been in so many situations with friends and family where people are hesitating to open a bottle. They're not sure, are you sure it's okay if I open it? I'm just might have a glass or two. And this alleviates that. I love making champagne cocktails, French 75s, both the gin version and the Cognac are two of my favorite mixed drinks to make. And again, people, I was just having a conversation with this with my brother about how I recommended he try that cocktail. He's like, I don't have any sparkling wine. Well, it's a lot easier to carry around like a four pack of this and just have it in your cabinet. Yes, exactly. Or fridge. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Cause I'm not pouring Krug in a French 75, you know. Right. And you don't need to. I mean, it just needs to be a sparkler. You don't have to use true champagne. Exactly. I'm surprised at how good that Pinot Noir was. Me too. Me too. I really am. I could hand out the Underwood with confidence to people to drink, and I'm sure that they would enjoy them. And then when it comes to the pre-mixed cocktails, the cut water stuff that we tried today is imminently drinkable. You could just crack a couple of those and enjoy them almost like they were beers, pour them over some ice and enjoy the concert you're at or mowing the lawn or whatever. Also worth noting that there's some up and coming Chicago producers who are coming out with some good stuff. We've seen Craft House for a while. It's not in cans. It's in smaller four-pack bottles, but that's really good. Yes, it's very good. Fresh ingredients, really, really premium ingredients for a good experience. And what they put into it, the price for Craft House, I think, is the steal. Right. Especially when those same drinks at one of the bars. Will cost what a bottle will cost. Yeah, exactly. And you have to know the secret knock to get in the place in the first place, or at least you have to have enough courage to ask the doorman at the bar around the corner, how you get into the bar next door. Yeah. Behind the ferns, you idiot. Yeah. And our friends at Chicago Distilling are also pumping out some new canned cocktails, which are really good. We didn't have a chance to grab them on the way in here, but those are terrific. Yeah, the gin and tonic is... For us to say a gin and tonic is fantastic might sound a bit weird to listeners, because I can see six people right now in their car going, ah, gin and tonic. But actually, for what they do, it's fantastic. So that brings us to the Q&A portion of today's podcast. Kristen, who's our question from today? It comes from Mary Bears. That's the Instagram call sign. No clue, but I'm guessing her, if her name is Mary Bears, I like that. At Mary Bears. How can you tell if the bottle of rosé is on the dry or sweet side? Is there a certain region? Because I like dry. Good call. All right. Yeah, for sure. I mean, Provence, right? They've been making rosé for 2,600 years, and it's dry. That's it. That's my answer. All right. We sell an incredible and increasing selection of rosé. It used to be just a spring thing, and it's like more and more entrance year round. The last 5 years, the set is just blown up. That's right. Yeah. And the cool thing about it is from around the world, you also get rosé of many different red wines and different methods. So we have some South American rosé of Pinot Noir, we have some Pacific Northwest rosé of Pinot Noir, like we have some Cabernet rosé from California, rosé of Grenache from Spain. So at Mary Bear's, what he's trying to say is you'll never get bored with rosé. You will never get bored. And so many are dry. The majority is dry. That's right. The majority is dry. So it leans me to get into the argument a bit of sweet versus fruity, which is a big deal. It's kind of hard to discern on the palette, especially with wine, because it could be very fruit forward, but not sugar sweet. Yeah. And so sometimes people will confuse that. So you want to stick, like I said, Provence, it's a sure thing. But look for reputable producers that you know that make red wines. When they're making quality red, oftentimes in a version or a production method called Sainte, which means to bleed, they will bleed off some of that juice that has only been in contact with the skins for a few hours and make a dry rosé out of it to So you end up with a more powerful red wine and then the excess juice before it pulls out the concentration from the skin, makes a great rosé too. And while their red wine goes to Barrel, they're selling their rosé to keep the lights on and it works very, very well for everybody. Yeah. Yeah. You said reputable producers, there's also regions like a lot of European. Come on. Any Oregon dry rosé of Pinot Noir is delicious. I just, I haven't met one that I don't like so much. And anytime you're in question, look for Binny's Wine Consultant because they'll be happy to show you their favorites. Yes. You just steer clear of the white zins and you're going to be okay, I think. Roger? I'll chime in from the cider side of things. Yes, please do. Rosé ciders are flying off the shelves lately. Angry Orchard kind of has the command right now and they like to say that theirs is not as sweet. It's not as sweet probably compared to the normal Angry Orchard ciders, but it's definitely on the sweeter side. All their stuff is sweet. Am I wrong to think? It's all pretty sweet. Yeah, okay. But that's what a lot of people like about it. So thankfully, there are tons of different ciders out there and Angry Orchard does make some drier stuff as well. But if you'd like a great dry rosé, I highly recommend trying Virtue Cider's Rosé out of Michigan. There's this nice and dry with some really good complexity that makes it, I think if you blinded some people with that, they would guess it was wine. That's a good company. I like them. The other cider that's similar to what you were saying before about, sometimes people confuse sweetness with fruitiness, Crispin's Rosé is excellent. I love it. And it's very fruit forward. So it's not dry. It's probably off dry, but it's not sugary sweet. The fruitiness is what's making it perceive sweetness. It's also made with pears in addition to apples, which I think adds a whole different layer of complexity. I love pear cider. Love. So good. Thank you for that. I'm going to try that. I haven't tried it yet. So Mary Bear, thank you for your question. We've got a $20 gift card waiting for you at the Binny's of your choice. For your chance to win a $20 Binny's gift card, write to us at Binny'sBev on Twitter, email us, comments at binnys.com or any other social media you feel like. And if we answer your question on the podcast, we have a $20 gift card to Binny's for you. I think that's a pretty good podcast, guys. I hope that Mary buys this Underwood wine in a can. Yeah, like four of them. Yeah. She can try all the flavors that we tried today. For sure. I'm digging them. I'm into it. I'm going to spread the word. For all of us here at Binny's Beverage Depot, we really appreciate your patronage. And thank you for listening to another episode of Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. I'm Kristin. I'm Greg. I'm Roger. Keep tasting.