THE FIRST INDUSTRY-WIDE PROGRAM TO BRING GEN Z AND MILLENNIALS TO WINE REACHES CRITICAL MILESTONES

Something fresh in the wine industry now: Young subject matter experts recommend wines in easy-to-understand language make wine inviting to Gen Z & Millennials.

SONOMA, CA, UNITED STATES, March 3, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- ENJOY NOW WINES, LLC, Sonoma, California today announced major milestones achieved after their inaugural year in business. When most wine industry experts would agree 2025 was one of the most challenging and discouraging in generations, Enjoy Now Wines, LLC, achieved some critical milestones worth noting and the growth is both inspiring and encouraging for an industry that needs some positive signposts of good news.

Enjoy Now Wines is a young start-up community that brings together talented, certified sommeliers across the country who demographically mirror the Gen Z and Millennial consumers. They look like, sound like and have the same life-experience as this elusive consumer target that isn’t embracing wine. The difference is that these young people recommending wines are subject matter experts who are credentialed by recognized wine education institutions (usually The Court of the Master Sommeliers or WSET) and have earned at least Level 2 or higher. This community addresses the typical objections Gen Z and Millennials have to wine: “Wine is too complicated. Wine is not cool. Wine is what my parents drink. Wine is too expensive. Wine has too many calories.” Wines are evaluated in a new, proprietary format that simplifies wine recommendations for this audience.

Every wine reviewed has an interesting story behind it. Enjoy Now Wines CEO, Dennis Sones, stated “Our pathway to attracting these younger consumers is to present wine as a way to bring people together and to turn those gatherings into something special and therefore, memorable. A memorable gathering gets amplified by these consumers in their favorite social media channels. When this happens, wine can be seen as becoming a part of their lives. Think of this as ‘product placement”, from a marketing perspective. We don’t have the expectation that wine will be enjoyed at every meal occasion or every day. For this reason, we focus on “uncommon” wines that have a great backstory, regardless of price, varietal, geographic location and we share this with our somms as they incorporate that into their evaluations for that wine.”

Mr. Sones clarified that not every wine they evaluate earns the coveted “5 Somms Say So” status. “In fact, it takes five of our somms, who evaluate wines independently from each other, to recommend a wine. When that happens, wineries get a written Composite Review that shows which five somms endorsed their wine and comments about Taste, Situations, and how this wine contributes to a Memorable Experience. Wineries are given permission to use any of this information free of charge in their marketing programs for as long as that wine is available for purchase by consumers. We are completely transparent, unlike other wine-recommending organizations; we identify the five recommending somms and show what they had to say about the wine. Each wine we endorse gets free video endorsements in our social media channels”, Mr. Sones noted. He observes that right now there is unparalleled innovation happening in the industry including new lower alcohol, lower calorie, varietals, pairing with newer popular cuisines, retail portions and packaging that excite our somms. He urges winery marketing teams to be fearless and to be as innovative as their winemaker counterparts and challenge historical marketing tools that proved to work 20 years ago.

Critical milestones achieved by Enjoy Now Wines today, after its first year in business:
1. 1,000 new followers on Instagram, earned organically through word of mouth.
2. Posted over 300 reels in the past year.
3. Endorsed 50 wines.
4. Expanded community of young somms to 20; national footprint in 11 states; many working as sommeliers in Michelin Star restaurants with wine-buying responsibilities.
5. Expanded coverage of imported wines: France, Italy, Spain, Bolivia, Australia.
6. Launched a new paid-media product that has proven to gain verified unique viewers of our somm-endorsing videos for pennies and proven click-to-winery-website for less than $1.

One young somm recently commented why he continues to be part of this community after one full year, Jame Blackmon of Napa, California said, “Wine is the beautiful bridge between the generations, and Enjoy Now Wines is doing an amazing job in bridging that gap by showing new wines to these new wine drinkers.”

DENNIS SONES
ENJOY NOW WINES, LLC
+1 415-971-9624
email us here
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