WONDRY was born surprisingly when I was a little girl & far too young to drink. Around the age of 10 I began visiting my late Uncle LC who was paralyzed from the waist-down but stood tall as the beacon of his Nashville community.
He was a master of all trades – barbequing, baking, conversating…but most of all homemade winemaking. I would watch in awe as he rolled his way through his garage using the oddest of tools to turn the most interesting foods into wine.
With just a nylon glove & gallon jug, he would transform fruits like peaches, grapes, & pears - & even corn on the cob – into this refreshing looking “happy juice”.
Although I was forbidden from indulging at the time, my family & our community drank this wine like it was water. It was a conversation starter but most importantly, a unifier, that brought people together for carefree moments of enjoyment & escape.
8 years ago, as an adult of Legal drinking age, I craved to recreate those moments.
So, just like my Uncle LC, I began toiling around my kitchen. I combined a range of fruits with yeast & after a few failed attempts stumbled upon something shockingly delicious – a semi-sweet, fruit-forward wine with a noticeable alcohol kick.
Nothing like this & no one who looked like me existed in the mainstream wine industry. A stifling reality that kept me from further pursuing winemaking until 2017.
One evening in 2017 I had a couple of drinks & an aha moment. Memories of my Uncle LC floated in my mind & collided with newfound observation: the wine industry is so pretentious & exclusive.
For ages, wine drinkers with non-traditional tastes have largely gone unnoticed. Many people like myself have felt intimidated, overlooked, & excluded from the premium wine experience…yet no one seems to care.
It was when I recognized this tension, WONDRY Wine Co. was re-born.
With WONDRY we intend to disrupt traditional wine thinking. From our uniquely designed bottles to our organic fruit infusions to our heightened alcohol content, we exist to re-imagine the wine experience.
We don’t just sell wine – we sell an immersive escape that engages all senses & unifies all wine drinkers alike.
cheers until next time!
whitney (the thinker & WONDRY co-founder)