Lucci launches today at a price of $19.99 and is a Lambrusco style wine from the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. Lucci is both fruit-forward and dry and described as "crisp, fruit-forward, ruby-red and refreshingly dry with notes of black cherry, blackberry and bright acidity." The new Italian wine brand will be sold at major retailers including Total Wine and Harris Teeter, as well as online channels ReserveBar and Wine.com.
In the U.S., Lambrusco had its heyday in the 1980s and was a top selling imported wine style until Italian winemakers began to tilt too heavily into sweet flavors that turned off American drinkers. Graham says she has found it difficult to hunt for Lambrusco at various restaurants and retail stores. With Lucci, she hopes to make Lambrusco more accessible and an approachable price point.
The idea to launch Lucci came three years ago while dining at the Los Angeles Italian restaurant Bestia, where Graham and her business partner, Danny Epstien, were having bone marrow, noshing on pasta dishes and sipping some Lambrusco. "And I said, 'Why don't we just make our own Lambrusco?,'" recalls Graham. Epstien is the founder of Los Angeles-based Skylark, an investment firm that focuses on consumer-facing brands, sports and entertainment.
The model reached out to an Italian winemaker on Instagram (Graham isn't disclosing who is making Lucci) and visited Emilia-Romagna four times to get the business off the ground, though it only took a couple of trips to get the flavor how Graham envisioned it.
"I knew that I didn't want to go so dry that it zinged down your throat," says Graham. "But I also knew I wanted to stay way, way, away from sweet."
The wine category, which generates $74.3 billion in annual revenue in the U.S., has plenty of offerings from celebrities including rapper Snoop Dogg's 19 Crimes, actor Brad Pitt's Miraval, and Avaline and Invivo X from actresses Cameron Diaz and Sarah Jessica Parker, respectively. But the category has faced challenges, including luring in younger drinkers, in part due to being stuck in the pricey fine dining "occasion" and not particularly youthful in its approach to marketing or branding.
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