A Few Things You Should Absolutely Know About This Week
On the topic of “pouring out the old and empowering the new”
My Dear Enjoyers,
Before I get into it, I’m excited to share that I have joined the team on-air at Business of Drinks, a podcast hosted by Erica Duecy and Scott Rosenbaum, dedicated to helping drinks brands grow and thrive, for a segment called Last Call. At the end of every episode, I will be curating a community forward conversation where we will take listener questions, dissect viral drink content, share our multi-generational industry insights, and get a little irreverent and opinionated.
I am so grateful to Erica for trusting me to bring the voice of (elder) gen Z to her audience. Admittedly, the redistribution of my time over a series of professional shifts combined with the heavier-every-day awareness of how quickly my babies are growing up has meant The Enjoyer has been placed on the back burner. But have no fear, my drafts are percolating with ideas and experiences to share from the last few months.
Let’s get on with it then…
(◕︿◕✿) Wine for Whiny Babies
Since you’re reading my page, you probably know that the complicated relationship between the wine industry at large and Gen Z is a HOT topic this year. More specifically, a large portion of the wine industry’s inability (read unwillingness) to communicate effectively with Gen Z or meet them where they are in their “wine journey”.
Enter Whiny Baby: A Gen Z created wine brand characterized by bold & playful branding that leaps off the shelf, occasion based blends, and connection creating tools on every bottle. Spoiler alert: there is not a single varietal name in sight.
From what I know Jess Druey, Founder of Whiny Baby, didn’t have wine experience before launching her wine company in 2020. Instead she experienced the real life frustration of a twenty something trying to buy wine for a first date. Unlike most of us, she channeled that confusion into a solution for herself and others in our cohort.
What I love: Jess’s partnership with expert wine brand builders the McBride Sisters, achieved CarbonHero Carbon Neutral Certification, enlisted an experienced consultant winemaker to craft her dream cuvees, and innovated a peel-off back label that serves as a keepsake (because collecting empty bottle or corks can be quite cumbersome and a little cheugy. Most of all, I love how the whole brand is seemingly trolling pretentious wine culture due to its well earned reputation of being stuffy, boring, and overly serious.*
*Don’t get it twisted, the mystical and complicated nature of wine is what I love BUT I don’t think we need to force that on the unwilling. And even if we wanted to, I don’t think it would work.
“Pouring out the old and empowering the new” - Whiny Baby
˗ˏˋHow Long Can You Store Wine in a Can?´ˎ˗
plz skip this section if you don’t want to geek out about canning innovations
I’m on LinkedIn now… and I’m not sure how I feel about it. The way that every move I make is recorded and broadcasted feels a bit much, but I digress. Recently, I engaged in a very interested conversation with a CANNING EXPERT that I would like to share with you all. Since I wrote you last, I have become a little obsessed with alternative wine packaging. Cans are no more than a tempting mystery to me right now but I am determined to learn more.
Gerard asked the Linked In ether if you could ~hypothetically~ age a wine pleasantly in aluminum can for 10 years. Thankfully, Domingo, a metal packaging specialist at SME Aluminum DWI Cans, chimed in to save the day with an in depth answer to our questions that I didn’t see coming.
FURTHERMORE
TLDR- canning innovations are being tested as we speak that will likely enable us to age wine in aluminum with controlled permeability for extended time periods, but we’re not exactly there yet. Let me know what you think about that below…
ೃ⁀➷ Maker & Just Enough Land on United Airlines
Speaking of cans, two female founded canned wine companies just partnered with United Airlines to bring their wines to the sky. This makes sense for so many reasons: zero product waste, lighter package, etc. After finding out that female founders in the US & Europe still only receive less than 2% of VC funding according to the World Economic Forum, I am enormously impressed by these two female founded start ups.
SuperVinoBros do riesling ٩(●ö●)۶
The most beloved internet wine twins have started a new series on their social media channels highlighting one of the most widely misunderstood wine grapes: Riesling. If anyone can help bring more mainstream attention to the quality side of Riesling, it’s these guys. Their various video styles straddle educational and entertaining in a refreshing way that doesn’t seem too serious. Hence their rise to internet notoriety with wine people and regular people alike. They started the series strong with two cult producers: Lauer & Stein.
Quickly, before I go…
⁑ german chardonnay
Find one and drink it. Unlike anything I’ve ever tasted. Wow!
˗ˏˋ꒰ 🍒 ꒱ for my podcast people
I’m calling Cork Taint the South Park of wine podcasts. These guys are goofy and talk a bunch of shit that probably rubs the more buttoned up winos the wrong way… but I love it! I’m a big fan of Kogod Wine Merchant so peaking behind the curtain of his online persona in this episode was an absolute delight for me. Pop it on today… I can promise you’ll either love it or hate it!
That’s all I have for now… have a beautiful weekend & let’s talk soon.
xox Caroline
This is amazing! I can’t think of anyone better to represent this segment. You are wise beyond your years Caroline! Can’t wait to read what you have to write and hear what you have to say on this podcast!