After a successful soft launch in November 2020, BABE wine nationally debuted its newest product this week—BABE 100 Rosé. The canned wine is a sparkling rosé with 100 calories, zero grams of sugar and 6.9 percent ABV. If those numbers sound familiar, that’s because they are, relative to the nutritional facts on popular hard seltzers; BABE 100 is the brand’s response to the rising category.
“We think of this as seltzer 2.0,” Chelsea Phillips, general manager of BABE, told Forbes. According to Phillips, more than one-third of the hard seltzer market is derived from wine drinkers seeking a lighter drinking experience.
For clarity, BABE 100 is indeed wine. Like the original cans (rosé, red and pinot grigio), BABE 100 contains only wine, water and carbon dioxide, however, it’s less robust on the palate, instead offering a crisp, clean finish you would expect from a seltzer.
“You can’t replicate the taste of wine with a product that is malt based and have it be this refreshing,” said Phillips, referring to the base ingredient found in familiar hard seltzer brands like White Claw and Truly.
“We talked a lot in the office about seltzer fatigue,” explained Phillips on the early days of BABE 100. “They were too sweet or too artificial and as wine drinkers first, we wanted a product you could take to friends who love wine but also friends who love seltzer.”
For comparison, BABE’s traditional canned rosé checks in at 206 calories, 4.5 grams of sugar and 12 percent ABV. Since BABE 100 presents half the calories and ABV, Phillips describes it as more drinkable, opposed to the original which is more savourable. Babe 100 launched with rosé as it’s the brand’s iconic variety, but BABE 100 pinot grigio and red are not far behind, expected to release by summer.
So why launch the rosé now—in the middle of winter? Phillips commented on how rosé and seltzers both started as seasonal products but they’ve since evolved into any time, all-season beverages. She cited the great rosé shortage of summer 2015—which itself inspired the BABE brand—and how far the pale pink liquid has come. “Now rosé is part of our everyday life versus it being hyped one time a year.”
Phillips continued, “Wine snobs probably have strong feelings of when and how things are consumed but our whole premise is: throw that out the window and just enjoy what you enjoy.”
From its founding days in 2015, BABE positioned itself as a “wine for all,” and BABE 100 was designed to further this notion. Phillips shared, “What I love about BABE 100 is it pairs even better with so many different occasions.”
One of those occasions was this past weekend, as BABE is the official wine sponsor of the NFL. The brand collaborated with Pepper Teigen to showcase how the wine suitably paired with a wide variety of flavors typically served on Super Bowl Sunday. “It’s really fun when we can tap into an occasion when wine typically isn’t invited,” said Phillips.
Other activations over the past year included BABE’s commitment to its consumers throughout a global pandemic, from the likes of their one million dollar wine giveaway and their partnership with Bumble to cover moving costs after a quarantine breakup. “We thought about things we could do to lift people up during an anxiety-inducing time,” said Phillips.
As the brand continues to evolve with the latest trends, Phillips emphasized the drive to bring BABE 100 to the market as something truly different, “instead of just tacking on” to an already oversaturated category. So while it’s BABE 100 Rosé wine, it comprises all the attributes of seltzer to stand on its own in the hard seltzer space. This is also why BABE 100 chose a lavender can to spice up the traditional white cases so often found in the seltzer aisle.
“White typically means light and refreshing but we want to continue to provide things that are arresting, fun to look at and fun to drink,” said Phillips. “We’re standing out from all the sameness in a way that’s unique to our whole aesthetic.”
BABE 100 Rosé is currently available nationwide. To find a retailer near you, visit drinkbabe.net.
