Weekday Wine Please
As we look cheerfully forward to warmer days, these inevitably (at least for me) include happy hours on my deck gazing at the sunset. A few too many of them last summer (after that first Covid winter when we were finally released from solitary confinement) caused an unfortunate weight gain right around my middle.
I’ll have a dirty martini here or there, but my preferred libation on summer evenings is rose. Wine, as I’ve learned rather late in the game and very sadly, is mainly sugar. Lucky for me, I’ve found one with HALF the calories, no added sugar (in fact, no additives at all!), and the brand was born right here on the Shoreline! Aptly labeled Weekday Wine, a Branford couple came up with this genius idea.
Wine lovers Ryan Whalen (a Ph.D. and Director for Center of Customer Insights at Yale School of Management) and his wife Justine (a lawyer and public defender) knew plenty of people just like them. With two busy careers and a couple of young kids, a glass of wine was an essential treat at the end of the day, but they had no time for the extra calories or headache.
Ryan’s background in consumer behavior research and trends proved opportune and based on the blossoming low-alcohol, ready-to-drink canned beverage market, they saw room in the wine space. But could it taste good? The couple blind-tested a slew of sustainable California wines before settling on the current offerings of a Monterey Rose and Sonoma Pinot Noir. Next, they reduced the alcohol (news to me, but there are companies that specialize in that!), which in turn shrunk the calories to just 80 per glass.
I found the Rose dry and light and eminently drinkable. A Pinot Noir is available, too, also on the dry side with a fuller body. I’m hoping a sparkling rose will be next in the lineup!
Justine manages branding (love the labels!), partnerships, and social media, and you can find current distribution on their website or purchase directly online and use code ELIST for 10% off. (Can be combined with current offer of free shipping with an order of 6 bottles.Valid through 3/15/22).
