Modern winery Sheep Black Wine launches stel+mar premium California wine packaged in ultra-portable and environmentally friendly cans and boxes.
Until recently, premium quality wine was only offered by traditional wineries in glass bottles. Toronto born-and-raised Company Founders Chris Noll and Justin Dumitrescu ventured to California with the goal of creating a modern winery that would put the same premium quality wine into portable packaging formats including cans and boxes.
Year-to-date, the canned wine category is up 94.9% over the past year. Despite rocketing growth, options for really good wine in cans is limited, forcing consumers to sacrifice taste for convenience. “That’s when the lightbulb went off in our heads,” said Co-Founder Justin Dumitrescu. “We didn’t think you needed to sacrifice taste to get convenience, so we went to work putting really, really, really good California wine in cans and boxes.” With the launch of stel+mar, consumers can now get highly rated California wine in modern designed and convenient single-serve packaging formats.
stel+mar only uses premium California wines that are low sugar but fruit-forward – wines that are sure to impress new and loyal wine drinkers alike. Wines are packaged in ultra-portable single-serve cans (250ml) and Tetra Pak boxes (500ml). “One of the major benefits of cans and boxes is that you can take them anywhere,” said Co-Founder Chris Noll. “With stel+mar, really good wine can now go where you go – to the park, to the party, to the dock…all the places traditional bottled wine couldn’t go.” In addition to convenience, portion control is a huge surprise benefit for most consumers. “People often open up a bottle of wine and either end up wasting some of it or feel obligated to drink more than they wanted.” “With stel+mar, that problem goes away; you can open one, two, three, or more cans if you want more wine.” Cans and boxes also have a much lower carbon footprint for the environment: glass bottles are heavy and bulky to ship; cans and boxes are significantly lighter and more efficient to ship, resulting in less trucks on the road.
Over the next 12 months, stel+mar will launch five premium wines: a dry classic style Zinfandel (100% Red Zinfandel) from Lodi, California with notes of raspberry, blackberry and cherry; a dry but fruit-forward 100% Unoaked Chardonnay from the North Coast of California with flavours of ripe green apple, melon, and hints of caramel; a killer Grenache/Syrah Rosé that’s exceptionally well-balanced with notes of ripe nectarine, grapefruit, and strawberry; and a Sparkling White and Sparkling Rosé that are perfect wines for savouring or celebrating, whether they’re served in a glass or enjoyed straight from the can.
Sheep Black Wine is also proud to announce a brand new and exciting innovation in wine packaging. Launching June 2020, stel+mar Premium Rosé will come in a box of 6x500ml Tetra Paks!
stel+mar 6x500ml Tetra Pak contains three litres (3L) of really, really, really good California Rosé wine with the added convenience of six individual 500ml single-serve units. “With this innovation, consumers get the best of three worlds: the taste of premium California wine, the size and value of three litre boxed wine, and the convenience of single-serve portable wine,” said Co-Founder Chris Noll. “In addition, it’s the most environmentally-friendly packaging option available to wine drinkers.” “We think this is a game-changer for wine,” added Co-Founder Justin Dumitrescu.
For more information about stel+mar, please visit www.stelandmar.com and follow @stelandmar on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
