Published December 30, 2005
Pop the top: This bubbly's in a can

KRT News Service

WASHINGTON - Filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, a California vintner by avocation, is making Americans an offer he hopes they won't refuse: He's asking them to drink his champagne out of cans.

The new bubbly - named Sofia, after Coppola's moviemaking daughter - comes in individual servings of about 6 ounces. It retails for $5 a pop or $20 for a four-pack.

If taste is the point, Sofia may be a decent bargain. Craig Baker, a Washington, D.C., buyer of imported wines for Robert Kacher Selections, rated canned Sofia second against four comparably priced bottled sparkling wines in a blind tasting organized this week by Knight Ridder.

But taste is almost beside the point, according to some. "It's a very cool presentation of a decent wine," said Maria Elena Gutierrez, 28, sipping Sofia at Mie N Yu, a swanky Georgetown club.

"You're drinking champagne out of a can with a straw. It's different. So you're different," said Saeed Bennani, Mie N Yu's worldly beverage manager. "What's in the can almost doesn't matter."

Although drinkers call it champagne, technically it's not: Only sparkling wines produced in the French province of Champagne can call themselves that.

Champagne traditionalists may be dismayed by the sound that Sofia makes when it's opened, which is as calm as a can of peanuts.