Ever chasing the trends, Constellation Brands Inc. on July 1 revealed it bought Empathy Wines, a “digitally-native wine brand” and direct-to-consumer (DTC) platform co-founded by entrepreneur and media personality Gary Vaynerchuk with business partners Jon Troutman and Nate Scherotter.
Constellation said Empathy Wines focuses on producing high quality, sustainably made wines, sold direct-to-consumer through its eCommerce platform, powered by consumer insights and content-driven digital marketing. The price was not disclosed.
“This move aligns with Constellation’s wine and spirits vision to be a bold and innovative, high-end portfolio of distinctive brands and products that deliver exceptional consumer experiences,” the buyer said.
“As part of the agreement, Constellation will work with the Empathy Wines team to further scale the brand’s growth, while leveraging their rich consumer insights and analytics, proven brand building expertise and high-performing digital technology to build DTC and digital capabilities that Constellation intends to scale across its wine and spirits brands to help deliver strong and sustainable growth.”
Vaynerchuk is an author, wine maker, founder of VaynerMedia and creator and host of Wine Library TV. Empathy wines “has experienced impressive growth since its initial product launch in 2019, selling approximately 15,000 cases and acquiring more than 2,000 subscription customers to date,” Constellation said.
Constellation is a big stockholder in Canadian cannabis company Canopy Growth and owns the U.S. rights (including a Mexican manufacturing plant) to Mexican beers Corona, Modelo and Pacifico. But it has been selling off some old-school wine and liquor brands lately.
