A wine just for millennials? Wine not

Posted on 25 May, 2018

As a millennial and lover of a good drop, Canberra’s Kata Cser was keen to take the stuffiness out of the wine industry with her new business, Wine Not The Brand.

Aimed squarely at millennials who love a good quality wine, the wine label focuses on the three things Kata says the younger generation find important in picking a wine: packaging, price point and taste.

“What I noticed was when I talked about wine or when my girlfriends talked about wine, we literally had no idea what we were talking about,” Kata admits.

“So I decided to create a label that spoke more to us as ‘Gen Y’ females. And when you do your research, you’ll actually find the way we select wine is firstly based on what the label looks like, second the price point and thirdly the taste, that’s what will get you to go back.”

Kata Cser

For the label, Kata chose feminine, modern packaging and worked with local winemakers Capital Wines to create good quality wine at a more modest price point.

Interestingly, bottle choices are based on emotions rather than varietal: “For example, instead of shiraz or chardonnay, we’ve got ‘Adulting’, or ‘Me Myself and Wine,’” Kata says.

“I found we usually pick wine based on our emotions, so I feel like this takes a lot of the confusion out of the wine industry for the younger generation.”

Kata, who also works for Arbonne and a consulting company, says the business venture began in the most unlikely of places – Tinder.

“I drink a lot of wine, as a lot of us do, and people started tagging me in ads for wine businesses and it made me think about having my own wine label,” she says.

“I was on Tinder one day and saw a guy on there who was a wine consultant. I just thought, ‘why not, let’s see what happens?!’ So I met with him, pitched him my idea, and he is now my business partner.

“That was back in 2016. I thought it would be a really quick process – you just buy the wine and stick a label on it – but it actually takes a lot of time to get it just right.”

Kata says the label’s Rosé is currently available for pre-ordering online, while the white and red blend is expected to be available from July online and eventually in selected stores and cafes.

the essentials

What: Wine Not The Brand
When: Rose available for pre-ordering online now
How much: From $22
Website: winenotthebrand.com