Back in 2017, a small Studio City, California company called Drunk Jelly turned wine-flavored spreads into a genuine viral moment — the kind of thing that gets picked up by Time, Tasting Table, Good Housekeeping, and half a dozen other outlets in the span of a single summer. We’re bringing the amazing idea, that was ahead of it’s time, back and this time it’s going to have actual award winning wine inside the jar!
The Original Drunk Jelly Story
Drunk Jelly started the way a lot of good ideas do: over a picnic. The idea sparked on a Sunday afternoon in the park, working through a charcuterie board with a glass of wine in hand, when the thought hit — why not put the wine into the spread itself? What followed was weeks of recipe testing to land on a lineup the founders felt could stand up to any cheese board, dinner party, or wine club gathering.
The original lineup covered seven flavors: Rosé, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Moscato, Pinot Grigio, and Chardonnay. Despite the name and the wine-inspired flavor profiles — the rosé jar, for instance, was built around notes of cherry, watermelon, and lime — the original Drunk Jelly product was entirely non-alcoholic. It was sold in 4oz and 8oz jars, individually priced between $6 and $9, with full seven-flavor sets available for those who couldn’t pick just one.
Viral Fame
Drunk Jelly’s timing lined up perfectly with the rosé craze sweeping the food and drink world in the summer of 2017, and press coverage followed fast. Tasting Table featured the rosé jelly directly alongside its Pinot Grigio, Pinot Noir, and Merlot siblings, and outlets like Time, PhillyVoice, and Good Housekeeping all ran their own takes on the trend, generally landing on the same joke: an all-day rosé habit you could finally spread on toast without the hangover. Wide Open Country dug into the flavor lineup in detail, and the brand’s non-alcoholic novelty — a wine-inspired jelly you could genuinely serve to a kid’s peanut butter sandwich without anyone batting an eye — became as much a part of the story as the flavors themselves.
All told, Drunk Jelly picked up coverage from Bustle, Time, Wide Open Country, Wine Spectator, Good Housekeeping, the Dutch outlet Culy.nl, PhillyVoice, and Tasting Table — a genuinely impressive spread of press for a small, independently founded spread brand.
What’s Different This Time
Here’s the twist: the version we’re bringing to market is not the same non-alcoholic novelty that went viral in 2017. We’re building an actual wine jelly — one that contains real wine as an ingredient, not just wine-inspired flavoring. We’re hand picking the best wines from the best monthly wine clubs we’ve signed up for so you only get the best wines in your jelly. We’re currently developing the line and anticipate launching in Q1 of next year.
We plan to honor what made the original brand click — the charcuterie-board pedigree, the flavor variety, the sense of humor in the name — while delivering something the original product never actually was: wine jelly that’s actually made with wine.
Drunk Jelly Photos
Here are some of our favorite Drunk Jelly (AKA Fancy Wine Jelly) photos from the past.
