Why You Should Pay Attention to Whiny Baby

27-year-old founder Jess Druey is all about "Pouring out the old and empowering the new."

But, like, literally CRINGE.

Seriously, I literally—not figuratively—cringed when I first saw the Whiny Baby labels. I will give you this link to their website, but I am warning you that the brightly colored emoji/GIF-like illustrations may very well make you, also, cringe.

Unless, that is, you are a member of Gen Z who does not already drink “fine” wine. That is to say, unless you are one of the roughly 43 million Americans (Statista) who are already 21+ and belong to the so-called “whiny” generation—and who are not pouring Lapierre Beaujolais or Chavost Champagne or Meinklang Grüner into their Zalto. (Acknowledging that, clearly, there’s at least 0.00023 million Gen Z-ers in America who are doing that.)

All snark aside, let’s be real about the millions upon millions of could-be wine-drinkers coming down the pipeline whom all these wine industry corporate types keep lamenting over and over and over “are often not drinking at all, and are definitely not drinking wine.” Kittens: You’re doing it wrong. As I’ve suggested in several previous pieces, it seems that they’re just not drinking YOUR wine.

But back to my cringe face. I also tasted the wines—aromatically pleasant, definitely ripe and fruit-forward but not cooked/candied. They were perceptibly sweet on the palate (16-27 grams per liter residual sugar as per their tech sheets) without enough corresponding acidity for my leathered old freak palate. All in all, pleasant if meh, definitely geared towards not-yet wine drinkers.

My frown turned upside down, though, when I realized how many followers Whiny Baby had and how many million potential drinkers were as-yet untapped and wholly interested in those don’t-take-yourself-so-seriously colorful labels and strange little beaded bracelets that come with the package (my seven-year-old was super into those). My scornful eyebrows shot up, impressed, when I learned how Whiny Baby had partnered with the McBride Sisters, and when I saw how thoughtfully and intentionally Whiny Baby founder Jess Druey was approaching her brand’s growth. It was a thrill and an honor to get to sit down with Jess to talk shop, education and entertainment, and resiliency. What follows below are excerpts from our conversation and insights I gleaned from it. The wine industry should pay attention.

I have so many thoughts and feelings about Whiny Baby, and I want to hear more about the brand itself—you’re such a disruptor!—but to get started, I first have to know: How did you ever even decide to found a wine brand at 25 years old?
I definitely didn’t foresee myself working in the beverage industry! I’m from Bakersfield—in fact I still live there now—but was interning for a PR company in San Diego. They were opening an LA office, and I kind of naively was like, “I’m going to just drop out of college and start my career now!” So I went to LA and was working on music videos, commercials, that sort of thing, and I would post to my Instagram some of the videos that I’d worked on as a Production Assistant and Associate Producer. Those got the notice of a friend who was working at Red Bull, so I ended up going to work for Red Bull doing music video production. Red Bull turned out, in retrospect, to be very very influential for me: It’s not just an energy drink—Red Bull is a lifestyle with revenue in the billions. Their brand is a mindset and a lifestyle that’s way bigger than the product itself. Half the time I was there I forgot I was working for a beverage brand because I was promoting content focused around sports and athletes, who advocated for the beverage but through their lifestyle. Red Bull taught me how to honor your product, but that you don’t need to shove the product in your audience’s face. You just need to show them that it belongs as part of their lifestyle, their mindset.

I definitely didn’t say, “I’m going to strategically apply my Red Bull knowledge to continue working in the beverage industry and develop a wine lifestyle brand… but then, as I was developing Whiny Baby I realized how invaluable that experience was.”

If the wine industry could take 10% of the mindset of Red Bull and the way they approach beverage marketing, we’d be in SUCH a better position.

OK but, so, you’re at Red Bull…
Right! So I’m there for about four years, and then the Pandemic hits. I had all this time on my hands, and I had this ah-ha moment at the grocery store when I was trying to pick out a bottle of wine. I was like, “I have no idea what a varietal is, these labels are so old and boring… there’s a need for a product that appeals to people in my position right now.” I knew immediately I was going to call it Whiny Baby because it was going to be for people like me, my age, whom older people are always accusing of being entitled, whiny babies, and I became obsessed with this idea of “how do we innovate on the experience of wine?”

Then I Googled “How to start a wine brand,” and I was like, ooh, this seems really involved. It kind of fell to the wayside until almost a year later. My stepdad got sick, was in the ICU for several months and eventually passed away, and that triggered for me this decision that if I wanted to do this, I shouldn’t wait. You know—“life’s too short.” Carpe diem. All of that.

I also like to be very transparent about finances in this business, especially as a young woman, so I’ll share that some of the money that my family had set aside for me for college (not a lot—we’re talking, like, a couple thousand dollars) that I had asked if I could have after I dropped out, I decided to ask again explicitly if I could have for this project. I literally pitched my family on the idea, and they said okay, and that’s how I started the brand.

I absolutely love hearing scrappy start-up stories like that because I think it’s so inspiring when you share them with people—especially young people, and especially women—and they realize “Oh, wow. That could actually be me!” Can you take me through a little bit more? What happened next?
Yeah, it’s literally just the power of determination.

I was still working at Red Bull but remotely, so I had time to work on this project as well, so I’m learning about all of this wine stuff like “shiners” and “bulk wine” through Google, and I’m getting referred to buying these things from this guy who referred me from this other guy, etc. I found a graphic designer on IG because I had these agencies who would quote me like $75,000 for designs, so I found a girl on IG, and she is still my Graphic Designer to this day. I got a Type 85 liquor license for Direct-to-Consumer sales in California only, I launched on IG, and I shipped all of that first release by myself… with my mom… from our living room!

There were so many issues, so many flaws, but I just… figured it out! I had NO clue what I was doing, and now I try to balance maintaining that naiveté with my growing knowledge of wine and the business of wine, because my consumers also have no clue. My superpower in the wine industry is that I don’t know how things are supposed to be done. For example, all three Whiny Baby wines are in what are, apparently, “sparkling wine” bottles—the shape and the crown cap are, I guess, specifically for sparkling wines. I had no idea. My wines are not sparkling. I just like the way they look! Oh that’s not what you do?! I don’t care. My consumer does not care. I was—and try to still be—focused on the experience first, not the wine itself. The brand SHOULD BE experience first, because at the end of the day most people are purchasing wine for the experience, for the fact that the product is relevant to and enhances or pairs with their lifestyle and the experience of life they want to have!

What other parts of the experience of “normal” wines versus Whiny Baby have you thought about?
Everyday consumers do not know almost anything about varieties, wine regions, wine production… they want to know what kind of mood they should be in or what kind of occasion they should buy which wine for.

So we have three core details that reimagine the wine drinking experience: First for me was to put a front label that doesn’t have a variety or blend, but instead has a word that represents the mood or occasion or reason for buying the wine. Our white is “Unwind,” the red is “Obsessed” and the rosé is “OMG!?!” These are words that make it easier to select a wine for your occasion, versus a variety or place name, because I didn’t know the difference between those.

A second core detail was the question or conversation starter on the cap—it makes it playful and encourages connection. We circulate through around 300 of them; some examples are “What’s your pet peeve?” or “Go-to gas station snack.” Wine is the cultivator of so many moments of connection. It’s truly the greatest connector—it gathers people, creates community, fosters connection. Our generation is in a loneliness epidemic, and wine matters so deeply because it brings people together. The conversation caps help encourage this cultivation of community and shared experiences that I think our generation, especially, so desperately needs.

Third was the fill-in-the-blank savable label where you can fill in the date, location, and memories from when you were enjoying this bottle, because I think wine helps capture memories. Our bottles are meant to serve any mood or occasion, cultivate connection, spark joy and create magic moments in daily life.

I agree with everything you’ve said, and I’m obsessed with your belief that wine matters because it brings people together. But I guess I get stuck, then, on how you think an everyday consumer who gets into Whiny Baby could ever then navigate the rest of the world of wine. How do you think about “bringing up” your consumers or even maintaining them as they potentially evolve or grow into being interested in drinking more “serious” or traditional wines?
I think about this all the time. I would love if we were the gateway wine for people. Everyone starts somewhere, and I want to bring people into wine that otherwise thought “wine isn’t for me.” I don’t view the idea of competition in the market as bad, I don’t get behind the idea of “you can ONLY drink our wine.” I want to create products that invite consumers on the journey of wine. The problems our industry faces will be solved through education and entertainment. We’re looking right now at possibilities for this. Maybe it’s a tasting room? An expansion of our in-person events? An expansion of our own line of wines? We’re working on our orange wine right now, and I think about how to educate people about what orange wine is, since so many people think it’s actually made from oranges, or that skin-contact means the winemaker is having… skin contact… I thought that! And I have no shame about that, about being on this learning journey. Gen Z is very humorous, we embrace the “don’t take everything or ourselves so seriously” mindset, so we’re creating all these pieces of content that communicate and educate in a fun way that gives the everyday person just a little bit of confidence in their wine journey.

What are your biggest challenges right now?
My biggest hurdle is always getting people to understand that the wine itself is actually really high quality wine. People assume “fun packaging” necessarily means “not high quality wine.”

Can I press that a bit more? When we talk about “quality,” at least in my part of the wine industry, we’re often talking about farming and production techniques, about technical details and specifics around sustainability. So when you say “high quality wine” what exactly do you mean? Do you… do any of that?
There’s a whole other conversation to be had about agriculture and farming responsibly yet making a product available to the masses. I grew up in a farming community, and it’s important to me that people don’t just think I’m this branding/marketing girl from LA, because that could not be further from the truth. And yet, Whiny Baby is made with the intention that it’s a boutique-style wine available to the masses: for example, a chill-able, fun red that someone can get in the grocery store in Ohio. Those consumers have never asked me about farming or production specifics. Our standards and practices are the same ones kept throughout the McBride Sisters company, and we do not use any flavoring or color additives. We’re carbon neutral certified. Next year, we’ll be in Whole Foods, and they have a fairly extensive list of requirements, but I can’t speak to all of our specifics.

Hmm. Honestly, I find your answer challenging, and I’d encourage you to look into this. It feels like everything I know from both my own shops’ younger-leaning guests, and everything I hear/read about younger generations—like you’re explicitly targeting—is that they’re very focused on prioritizing their spending with companies who are transparent, values- and ethics-driven, and sustainability focused. Based on your comments above, I feel like you have a lot of room to grow and to uniquely push not just the narrative but also the actual practices of the “bigger” wine industry and wine made on a larger scale towards more sustainability, more organic or regenerative agriculture, more transparency in wine labeling, and more—as I like to call them—resiliency efforts. I think your consumers would really value this, and you have the potential to make a big impact.
I think that’s a great point. As I said, I’m still a beginner on my wine journey, I’m still learning about what we can do.

I will say: The “conventional” wine industry is in the rough place it’s in now because it’s failed to introduce and captivate the next generation of consumers. It’s pigeonholed itself, made it feel confusing and alienating and exclusionary. It feels hard to get into, and some of these technical conversations contribute to that. Interestingly, I think the natural wine scene does this as well in their own way; there’s its own level of snootiness and unapproachability.

With Whiny Baby, I created this wine that stands out at a big box store as clearly not the old-school norm, but then it also doesn’t fit at every “natural” wine shop because it’s made in a way that can be available to the masses. It has this interesting element of falling in between both worlds. And my point of all of this is to say: The longer I’m in the industry and meet people like you, who say that I can bridge this gap with Whiny Baby, I think to myself, how can I do this more? How can I bridge this gap better? Where can we improve and continue to innovate?

I’m trying to increase my knowledge and understanding of all of this naturally but also maintain the mindset of our core consumer. Having had Whiny Baby on store shelves for a year, I personally have a much deeper love and appreciation for wine and am thinking so much more about how Whiny Baby evolves. As I’ve said, I think the problems our industry faces will be solved through education and entertainment. I’m focused on trying to imagine how we can better captivate this generation to make changes for good.