Business of Drinks

Gratsi’s boxed-wine business began as a pandemic pivot. It became the foundation for one of the category’s most notable growth stories.

After selling more than 375K 9L case equivalents last year, the company expects to grow 30%+ this year to exceed 500K cases — driven by subscriptions, repeat purchases, and a carefully sequenced expansion into wholesale.

Founder and CEO Stephen Vlahos originally launched Gratsi in a...

What makes a beverage brand truly investable — and should founders be raising venture capital at all?

In this episode of Business of Drinks, we sit down with Nate Cooper, founder and managing partner of Barrel Ventures, to unpack what investors are actually looking for in emerging food and beverage companies — and why building a great business and building a venture-backable business are not necessarily the same thing.

Na...

How do you build a 100,000-case tequila brand without a big marketing budget — or, until recently, even a U.S. sales team?

Arette Tequila did it largely from the bar out.

The family-owned brand shipped more than 100,000 nine-liter cases in 2025, growing about 20% last year, with another 20% growth projected this year. More than 80% of its U.S. sales are still in bars and restaurants — the result of a strategy built around...

How do you know if your drinks brand is actually growing?

It sounds like a simple question. But in beverage alcohol, the answer can get complicated fast.

Shipments may be up because inventory moved into distribution. Revenue can rise because of a price increase even as volume declines. And a brand can add dozens of new accounts without generating enough velocity or reorders to make those placements sustainable.

In this episode of Busi...

Yes Way Rosé is growing while wine is shrinking.

The brand closed 2025 at roughly 167,000 cases and, in the first half of 2026, grew depletions 16% over the prior year — notable performance in a market where both rosé and wine overall have been declining.

So how is Yes Way Rosé taking share?

In this episode, we talk with co-founder Erica Small about the playbook behind the brand’s growth — and why there isn’t o...

How do you scale a THC beverage brand to 100K cases while preparing for the possibility that the category could be disrupted by federal regulation?

Jason Dayton and his co-founders launched Trail Magic just 19 days after Minnesota opened the door to hemp-derived THC beverages. The brand quickly grew from one wholesaler to more than 60, reached roughly 5,000 retail doors, and closed last year at about 100,000 cases, with approximatel...

Beverage alcohol is not simply in a downturn. It is undergoing a structural reset, according to Jon and Matt Moramarco of bw166.

In this episode of Business of Drinks, we talk with Jon, Managing Partner of bw166, and Matt, Chief Data Scientist, about what the total market data says is really happening across wine, beer, and spirits, and what founders and operators need to do differently as a result.

Their argument is that the industr...

How do you become a top RTD spritz brand without raising outside capital?

That’s the story behind Saint Spritz, the wine-based canned spritz brand inspired by Italian aperitivo culture. In this episode of Business of Drinks, we talk with Ben Patton, CEO and co-founder of Saint Spritz, about how the brand reached 55,000 nine-liter cases in 2025, grew triple digits, expanded into 43 states, and became the number-one RTD spritz &...

What does it take to challenge the giants of domestic light beer?

In this episode of Business of Drinks, we talk with Ari Opsahl, CEO of Tivoli Brewing and Outlaw Light, about building a new light beer brand in one of the most entrenched categories in beverage alcohol.

Outlaw Light is taking aim at the biggest names in beer — Bud Light, Coors Light, Busch Light, Natty Light — with a strategy that runs counter to much of t...

For many drinks brands, distribution can feel like the big unlock. Get the right distributor. Win the right placements. Add more doors.

But inside the distributor tier, the math is more complicated.

In this episode of Business of Drinks, Mark Chaplin, President, Commercial Sales at Southern Glazer’s Wines & Spirits, takes us inside how one of the most important companies in U.S. beverage alcohol thinks about growth, velocit...

Cocktails are one of the biggest opportunities in the on-premise — but also one of the hardest drinks to scale.

In this sponsored episode of Business of Drinks, we talk with Chase Brooks, founder of SpeedKeg, a draft cocktail system built to help high-volume bars, restaurants, venues, clubs and stadiums serve more cocktails, faster.

SpeedKeg’s model is simple: the kegs come filled with the non-alcoholic ingredients for co...

In this episode, we talk with Ben Salisbury, Founder and President of Salisbury Creative Group, about why beverage sales needs a reset.

Ben has been selling wine and spirits since 1984, with leadership roles at Fetzer, Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, Constellation Brands, and Glazer’s. Today, he advises beverage companies on how to sell more effectively in a market that looks nothing like it did 10 or 15 years ago.

His core argumen...

How does a winery help change the way the world sees an entire country?

In this episode of Business of Drinks, we talk with Christian Wylie, Managing Director of Bodega Garzón, one of the most ambitious winery projects in the world — and a case study in building belief in an unfamiliar category.

Garzón is not just selling wine. It is helping create the modern market for premium Uruguayan wine.

That means overcoming several layer...

What makes a drinks brand truly desirable — and how do you know when it’s ready to scale?

In this episode of Business of Drinks, we talk with Carlos Zepeda, SVP of Strategy & Marketing - Wine & Spirits at Moët Hennessy USA. Carlos helps shape growth strategy across a portfolio that includes Belvedere, Glenmorangie, Ardbeg, Whispering Angel, Hennessy, Veuve Clicquot, Dom Pérignon, Krug, and Moët & Chandon.

Carl...

The beverage alcohol business is in a curve.

That’s the phrase Matt Rice, founder and principal of Thirsty Insights, uses to describe the first half of 2026: a volatile, high-stakes moment where consolidation, consumer shifts, distributor disruption, and M&A are changing the race order in real time.

In this episode, Matt joins Erica and Scott for a mid-year M&A update on the deals, category shifts, and distributor moves...

The first mistake many drinks brands make when entering the U.S. market? Thinking that distributor procurement is the first big step.

In reality, the importer layer is more significant than many realize. It’s where compliance, taxes, customs, cash flow, and route-to-market decisions collide, and where expensive missteps often trip brands up.

In this episode of Business of Drinks, Scott Rosenbaum talks with Chelsea Andreozzi, fo...

Control states can feel like one of the most confusing parts of the drinks business — even for experienced operators.

They represent 17 states and roughly a quarter of U.S. spirits sales, but they don’t all work the same way. Some states own the retail stores. Some operate through agency stores. Some act more like wholesalers. Each model changes how brands need to think about listings, pricing, store count, broker relati...

Chinola Fresh Fruit Liqueurs has grown by doing something that sounds simple, but is much harder to execute: Building a brand around one very specific trade problem, then proving that solution account by account. 

The brand has racked up double-digit growth every year since its founding, ending 2025 at 40K cases, and projecting +37% growth in 2026 to 55K cases. But the more interesting part is how Chinola has built that momentu...

In this week’s episode, we’re joined by Ryan Looper, Chief Growth Officer at De Maison Selections, for a tactical conversation about how to sell better in today’s drinks market.

Ryan has seen the business from multiple angles: restaurant service, top-performing New York sales rep, distributor leader, and now national growth strategist for a leading importer. His central thesis is this: sales are not the goal; sales...