To my palate they have at least as much in common with soft drinks (7-Up comes to mind) as they do with, say, Robert Mondavi Cabernet.īut if you don’t drink Mondavi Cabernet, then this comparison may be meaningless to you. So how, you ask, does it taste? The Stella Rosa wines resemble wine, they’re reminiscent of wine, but no one who drinks wine regularly would mistake it for wine.
(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)Īccording to Anthony Riboli, sales of the Stella wines are particularly strong with women, as well as Hispanic and Asian buyers he will tell you that the tasting room is just like the melting pot that is Los Angeles, and in the several hours I spent there, I saw no reason to dispute this. The tasting room at the historic San Antonio Winery near downtown Los Angeles. There are Pink, Platinum, Black, Gold and Imperiale versions there is Stella Peach, Stella Green Apple, Stella Red Apple, Stella Tropical Mango, and other flavors, all natural, all made to order. The Ribolis re-upped immediately and have been re-upping ever since, adding wines, flavors, testing different tiers, different colors and different flavor combinations. The first 1,000 cases of wine were sold in two weeks. The arrested fermentation leaves plenty of residual sugar, and the wine is lightly frizzante, which gives it a more pleasant mouthfeel. Stella Rosa wines are 5.5% alcohol by volume, or less than half as boozy as the average bottle of wine. So they ordered half a dozen prototypical blends, and from those initial samples, Stella Rosa red was born. The Ribolis had import partners in Piedmont, who were already making versions of such wines, like Brachetto d’Acqui, a light, fizzy red wine with sharp, bright aromatics. “They were interested in the health benefits of red wine,” Riboli says. Occasionally in the tasting room, the staff would take queries from patrons asking if there was such a thing as a red Moscato d’Asti. Market Watch, an industry analyst, estimates that sales will exceed 2 million cases this year. It has enjoyed double-digit growth almost since its inception, and its popularity shows no signs of slowing. The company has sponsored floats in the Rose Bowl, flown airplanes trailing banners down West Coast beaches, and placed a majority of its 400 billboards around the greater Los Angeles area, extolling you to “Taste the Magic” and to “Stellabrate.” So if you’ve never stellabrated, perhaps it’s time to get acquainted.Īccording to data from Nielsen, Stella Rosa is the top-selling import brand in the country.
It’s an Italian import called Stella Rosa, created by the Riboli family, a wine company based not in Napa or Sonoma but in the shadow of Dodger Stadium, in Lincoln Heights.Įven if you haven’t tasted Stella Rosa - there are 22 different flavors to try - you can’t help but be familiar with the brand. It’s not Josh or Barefoot or Coppola, or Two-Buck Chuck. The bestselling wine brand in California isn’t from California.
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