By: Courtney Iseman
sophistication and a European flair to celebratory imbibing.
With three distinctive brands and intentional aesthetics, Caravella communicates to consumers they can enjoy the sparkling wine experience with less alcohol and fewer calories.
“Caravella is named for the style of ships Christopher Columbus used to discover the New World,” says Bob MacNevin, the brand’s Vice President of National Sales. The moniker fits. Caravella isn’t looking to carve out a niche just for its brands, but for an altogether new category: highquality, low-alcohol sparkling wine.
Caravella founder Valery Balinian set out to change that with years of research with wineries around the world. The result is a portfolio of different brands under the Caravella umbrella: LOU LOU, 2canos, and Dancing Vines. Each addresses a specific need within the market’s lowABV wine white space, with overlap.
They are all made with organic grapes and no additives, they are gluten-free and vegan-friendly, and they provide consumers with affordable luxury. “It’s important,” MacNevin says, “that consumers get the lower alcohol and fewer calories many now seek, without sacrificing the taste or experience of a glass of bubbly.”
Because this is such a new category, and because consumers may have been burned in the past by less painstakingly crafted products, MacNevin says branding has been as vital as the winemaking in building Caravella.
“The packaging sells your first bottle, the liquid sells your second,” he explains. To help crystallize what’s special about each offering, Caravella has organized its offerings into these distinctive brands.
Dancing Vines exemplifies Caravella’s mission to forge a successful path for low-alcohol sparkling wine. Considering prosecco’s significant growth in the United States – the Prosecco DOC Consortium reported $519 million in US sales in 2022, a 19% increase from 2021 – Balinian wanted to extend this lower-alcohol, lowercalorie option here. Caravella trademarked the term “lightsecco” and introduced its lightsecco brand, Dancing Vines. A serving boasts 5% alcohol and 60 calories. Importantly, a bottle of Dancing Vines is designed to resonate with prosecco consumers expecting sophistication and a European flair to celebratory imbibing. White and gold vines sprawl across the bottle, and gold foil wraps its corked finish.
As Dancing Vines conjures up images of Tuscan dinner parties, LOU LOU is its chic sister party-hopping on the Amalfi coast. With a bubbly brut rosé and a bubbly semi-sweet rosé, LOU LOU puts Caravella’s fine low-ABV wine into sleek on-the-go cans. They’re 8.4% ABV and have 12 ounces for two servings, ensuring affordable luxury.
Dancing Vines and LOU LOU could speak to different consumers, older versus younger, for example, or simply to the same consumers for different occasions. To convey this, LOU LOU’s can art is colorful, poppy flamingos and elephants splashed with geographic prints. It’s vivid, spontaneous, and effortless.
Finally, 2canos expresses the creativity of what its bottles behold with vibrantly hued wraps, splashed with the brand’s namesake toucans and each variety’s fruits seamlessly incorporated into the art. This effectively captures Caravella’s intention of showcasing 2canos as celebratory but for every day – there’s no doubt pulling one of these eye-catching bottles out would set a festive tone. The 2canos brand features three varietals of Spanish frizzante, more gently effervescent, lower-alcohol wines with natural fruit flavors. Where 2canos innovates on this crowd-pleasing style is its unique combinations; as MacNevin points out, most existing offerings in the category are single fruits, whereas 2canos has Strawberry & Coconut, Blackberry & Mint, and Peach & Apricot.
Dancing Vines skews elegant, LOU LOU playful, and 2canos transportive, but they all share a common lightness and vivacity guaranteed to grab attention, get consumers to try what’s in the bottle or can, and come back for more.