Spicing up rosé sales

Drawing on a love for spicy cocktails, Kristen Knapp founded Heartbeat to “add unexpected spice into the wine category”. Can her ‘Hot Rosé’ succeed in attracting younger drinkers to the category?
The wine industry is propped up by older drinkers and, as a category firmly rooted in tradition, struggles to appeal to experience-seeking millennials and zany Gen Z.
And while messing with tradition might feel sacrilegious to some, Kristen argues dramatic change is what’s needed to attract drinking age Gen Z-ers to the category.
Kristen partnered with woman winemaker Gianna Fugazi (former Flowers winemaker and currently the force behind two Maker Wine collaborations) for the project after meeting her in Sonoma County, California, in 2020.
Instead of flavouring or infusing flavours, this new product, Heartbeat, ferments fresh peppers to create a proprietary pepper-based wine, which is then blended back into a California rosé for an elevated flavour profile.
Each 750mL bottle is 11.7% ABV, 103 calories, and contains no sugar or artificial flavours.

Spice was an obvious choice for Kristen (above) – herself a spicy cocktail lover. Spice is trending among younger consumers: TikTok has over 10 million impressions of users dropping jalapeños into their rosé glasses, proving a strong thirst for innovation and obsession with spice within the Gen Z and Millennial demographics.
And from shots of Fireball to spicy margaritas, there is a rising popularity of spice-infused alcohol.

‘It’s completely rosé-forward – the kick doesn’t roll in until the finish’

However, while spice might be the key differentiator and selling point, Kristen says her product is still fundamentally recognisable as a wine. “The kick is comparable to a spicy margarita, drinkable and refreshing,” she told us. “What’s so unique about this product is that it’s completely rosé-forward, and the kick doesn’t roll in until the finish, leaving your mouth salivating and wanting more.”
Creating this balance of spice and wine, however, was not the easiest of tasks. “It’s tough with wine, because it’s a product that constantly changes; at each phase leading up to bottling you need to retest and recalibrate,” she continued. “We’re happy with where we’re starting because it’s an incredibly approachable product.”
The wine is currently available for purchase direct-to-consumer for $21.99 and is rolling out to Los Angeles-based stores and restaurants.
That will inform future development: “Customer feedback is going to be our main driver of how we make the next batch,” said Kristen.


She explained the process in an Instagram post: “Peppers are inconsistent, super microbial, and they destroy winery equipment. After a year of homemade tinctures, natural flavourings, and getting my friends drunk, I met former Flowers winemaker @wander.mustwine and finally an adult took over! She instantly had an idea: what if we treat the peppers like grapes?
“And thus the Heartbeat technique was born: we ferment fresh peppers to make 100% pepper wine, which is then blended into our rosé. The details are proprietary, babe!
“Our method and recipe are so unique that the federal regulatory group classified us as “Other” – instead of the hundreds of existing wine categories. It’s special!
“We’ve spent two years (meeting in kitchens, wineries, awful parks, and restaurants) figuring out what makes this blend pop. Most people that taste it say they can drink a bottle. People who hate spice finish their glass. And snobs at the winery are finally coming over to us, excited about what we’re doing. Gianna is an insanely talented winemaker and I’ve had so much fun working on this with her.”

Embrace change not tradition

A 2021 Harris Poll asked the question, ‘If you were invited to a party and asked to bring an alcoholic beverage, what would it be?’
Wine was heavily preferred by those over 65 (49% of this cohort said they would choose wine). The other cohorts scored 20% lower, with the 21–24-year-old cohort the least likely to favour wine. And the wine industry hasn’t been doing much to change this – taking a ‘passive approach’ to attracting younger consumers.


Shaking up marketing strategies is one way to appeal to millennials and Gen Z. But Kristen believes the problem for wine is more fundamental: while other alcohol categories embrace change, wine embraces tradition.
And tradition isn’t a great selling point for Gen Z: particularly given the array of beverages vying for their attention (think hard seltzers, FMBs, canned cocktails, craft beer…)
“Heartbeat Hot Rosé opens up the category to more people, like cocktail drinkers looking for a low-sugar option, seltzer drinkers looking for more freshness and flavour, and, of course, rosé drinkers who never get anything new,” said Kristen. “We’re not trying to disrupt wine – we want to redefine it, challenging the what, how, and who.
“The industry can’t be afraid to act counterintuitively to wine culture. And I don’t just mean cute and fun packaging – I mean getting comfortable doing the weird stuff that gets people talking. Nobody will ever reach a new audience by making small tweaks to tradition or playing it safe.”

The minimalist packaging

Designed by Kristen, the bottle’s aesthetics are minimalistic yet echo the essence of the wine. “I wanted something you could see from 20ft away and instantly know it was Heartbeat,” she commented. “Fundamentally, I wanted this to be a minimalist product living in a loud world. To speak to a stylish crowd, you have to know how to edit the visuals, just like in fashion. Anyone can add stuff, but the real art is in taking things away. My creative advisor, Matt Cruz, kept challenging me to take more and more off the design until all we had were the squares. He really advocated for the simplicity of this design, and it paid off. Creating something that’s so uncomplicated, while also completely standing out, is difficult to do. I’m very proud of what he and I have created.”

This article was first published in our sister publication beveragedaily.com.