|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
When Myisha Moore finally managed to get out for brunch as a new mother, she expected laughter, clinking glasses and a sense of celebration. Instead, she witnessed her companions voicing frustration about the stagnation of brunch beverages.
Mimosas had become a cliché. Champagne was leaving drinkers with headaches and Bloody Marys were being abandoned for coffee. This realization sparked the journey that would become Saint Enzo, a Lambrusco wine brand the marketing executive co-founded with her husband, Armon.
“It struck me how important drinks are to the brunch experience,” she recalls. “Food was evolving, but beverages were stuck in the past.”
Moore realized she uncovered something significant when multiple friends mentioned similar experiences at their own social gatherings. The pattern suggested a market opportunity that existing beverage companies were missing. She and Armon decided to investigate whether they could develop an alternative.
Before they began developing a product, the husband-and-wife duo needed to understand the beverage landscape they were entering. Moore’s San Francisco upbringing and her husband’s Atlanta roots hadn’t prepared them for decoding the technical language of the wine industry.
“My first winery experience felt closed off instead of welcoming,” she says. “Everyone was talking about notes and aromas and I didn’t know what any of it meant at the time.”
Bringing Lambrusco Wine Back to the Table
Despite their initial intimidation, research into drink alternatives introduced the couple to Lambrusco, a sparkling red wine that predated Champagne and had been made in Italy for hundreds of years.
Eager to learn even more, they traveled to Italy where they toured vineyards and tasted various Lambrusco wines. Their Italian experiences convinced them that Lambrusco represented a viable business opportunity.
Moving into wine entrepreneurship demanded starting over professionally for both. Myisha’s career leading major campaigns at Edelman combined with Armon’s technology expertise at Meta provided foundational business skills, but still left them as wine industry novices.
“It wasn’t easy to step into a space where we had little experience, but we embraced it as part of the process,” she says.
The fledgling entrepreneurs learned to leverage their outsider perspective as an asset, using fresh thinking to identify market opportunities that experienced wine professionals might miss due to ingrained industry beliefs about consumer behavior.
The Rise of Saint Enzo
Saint Enzo required nearly six years of careful development. During this time, the co-founders learned about wine production from grape to bottle — mastering seasonal harvest cycles and storage requirements while establishing Italian supplier relationships and creating quality control processes.
Every detail mattered throughout their extensive development process, including brand identity. The thoughtfully chosen name has personal and historical significance, with “Saint” acknowledging lambrusco’s Italian history while “Enzo” honors the namesake of the couple’s son. The bottle design emerged from a collaboration with Domo Wells, a DC-based designer whose previous work with women’s soccer leagues caught Moore’s attention.
“The bottle itself tells a story,” she says. “It’s clean, modern and bold. We wanted something that would stand out on a table and make people curious about what’s inside.”
Debuting in August of this year, Saint Enzo launched on the heels of a successful soft launch earlier in the summer. Positive consumer feedback during the rollout period led to unexpected partnerships in equestrian sports, demonstrating lambrusco’s versatility across different lifestyle segments.
Compared to Champagne, Lambrusco wine delivers bubbles, dryness and fruit without the heavy hangover. Traditional Italian methods shape the production process, emphasizing single grape varietals without any additives or processing aids. Production occurs entirely in Italy, with bottles subsequently shipped to Saint Enzo’s Napa facility.
“This isn’t a wine you need to age,” the wine enthusiast explains. “It’s made to be enjoyed now, in the moment.”
RELATED: 6 Tips for Serving and Storing Wine
Leaving a New Legacy for Lambrusco Wines
Myisha intentionally keeps Saint Enzo focused on a select group of customers rather than striving for mass-market appeal. This strategy reflects her belief that the industry has become too focused on universal reach, losing the art of speaking directly to specific communities.
Her selective marketing approach allows Saint Enzo to maintain its artisanal character while avoiding rapid expansion that could compromise quality. This strategy supports the long-term vision of educating consumers about Lambrusco while building a community around celebration and meaningful social experiences.
Saint Enzo currently ships nationwide with plans for premium retail expansion. Myisha sees the wine being poured at fashion shows, private events and weekend brunches and the duo plans to grow the business beyond bottles.
She also envisions opening a “Lambrusco House,” blending elements of a Soho House with the jazz bars that once thrived in San Francisco’s Fillmore neighborhood. Guests would be able to sip Lambrusco while listening to live music, learning about the wine’s history and enjoying food in a welcoming space.
“We deserve places that bring back celebration and connection,” she says. “Lambrusco has everything people want right now – it’s stylish, light, full of history and creates moments worth remembering.”
For more information on Saint Enzo, visit the brand’s website and stay connected through their Instagram.
