Ep. 38: Zero Sugar, 90 Points, 1 Smash Hit: The Story Behind Sunny With a Chance of Flowers

What can dog food teach you about the wine market?

Heidi Scheid was walking through the supermarket in 2019 when she noticed that there was a low sugar, ‘better for you’ version of absolutely everything — including dog food.

The result of her insight is the blockbuster wine Sunny With a Chance of Flowers, which is 9% abv, zero sugar and barely any calories, but which has regularly scored 90 points.

In this lively conversation, she explains how Scheid Family Wines moved up the value chain, from being a grape supplier to a producer of private labels, and then to making its own brands. She talks about business decision-making, from when to create a brand to when to kill it, and what consumers are looking for right now. She also mounts a robust defence of the culture of wine drinking, explains the SKU-rat and goes into detail on their flowers-for-a-year sweepstakes.

You’ll come out the other side understanding what makes a successful wine business tick.

Meet your host:

Felicity Carter is an award-winning wine and drinks journalist, editor, speaker trainer and content strategist. She led Meininger’s Wine Business International to become the world’s most must-read wine trade magazine, and was founding Executive Editor of The Drop/Pix, which the Wall Street Journal named one of the most trusted sources of wine information. A regular keynote speaker at international events, she was named a 2024 Industry Leader by WineBusiness Monthly.

And Drinks Insider is an award-winning podcast! It has won the 67 Pall Mall Global Wine Communicator Award in Audio.