Ep.35 / Joey Wölffer, Co-Owner & CBO Wölffer Estate
Turning a Family Vineyard Into a Global Lifestyle Brand
Wölffer Estate Vineyard started on Hamptons potato fields in the 1980s, when Christian Wölffer's dream of a Long Island vineyard was such a long shot that he had to lure his own winemaker across the Atlantic with a small exaggeration — Roman was told the estate was "20 minutes from New York City." (It's closer to four hours in traffic.) The winery's first rosé, released in 1992, was so pink and so sweet that Zinfandel drinkers called it disgusting. Today, that rosé's descendant — the now-iconic Summer in a Bottle — is one of the most copied labels in wine, and the business has grown from 20,000 cases a year to 300,000.
In this episode of Professional Jealousy, host Natasha Jakubowski talks with Joey Wölffer, Chief Brand Officer and co-owner of Wölffer Estate Vineyard, about the hungover, middle-of-the-night decision at 27 that led her to buy into her father's struggling business instead of selling it, how she and her brother rebuilt the brand around the "soul" of the Hamptons rather than the wine itself, and why she recently turned down an acquisition offer from a much bigger company to protect what she'd built.
Key Themes
A Hungover Decision Not to Sell
When her father died, Joey was 27, building a career in fashion, and leaning toward selling the family winery. Her mother and older brother, Marc, talked her out of it. "I remember the moment I was lying in bed — I was, to be honest, hungover," she says. "My mom and Max were like, you're not selling... you're just doing it because you think it's what's right, but in the end you'll really regret it." Marc, whom she barely knew growing up, told her, "Nothing would make me happier than being your partner." Looking back, she credits naivety as much as conviction: "If that happened to me now, no way I would have taken that chance. The business was not making money."
Designing the Brand Around a Place, Not a Product
Rather than starting with the wine, Joey built the brand around the Hamptons itself. "We need to make the soul of this brand the history of the area," she says. "What does this area mean? It's creativity, it's curiosity, it's artists." Summer in a Bottle came out of a three-hour conversation at a pub in East London with a designer her husband tracked down: "We sat there talking about the area and the brand and my family and the history, and became so connected. And he just got it." There was no research behind it — "There was no board. There was no industry research. It was just: cider is big in England, and Wölffer is summer in a bottle."
The Label Everyone Copies but No One Can Replicate
Summer in a Bottle's floral artwork became one of the most imitated designs in wine. "I've seen a version of that bottle everywhere," Joey says, "but nobody can actually do the artwork, because it's actually printed on the bottle." Her advice for tuning out the copycats flooding the rosé category is blunt: "Don't try to be them. Don't even look at them. Don't even engage with them. You keep doing what we're doing."
Turning Down a Buyer to Protect the Brand
As Wölffer scaled from a boutique tasting room into Whole Foods and California's Pavilions grocery chain, Joey says she's had to actively guard against consolidation. "We had somebody come to us recently... they were like, well, we're huge," she recalls. "This is my brand, and I have to protect it. Would you hurt my brand? Yes. Is it worth it for what comes of that? Probably not."
Rejecting the "Founder Is Sexy" Myth
Joey pushes back on how entrepreneurship gets marketed online. "I think social media is such b.s. in the way that they present these founders," she says. "Why don't you present the other side — the tears, the fights — that makes a lot of founders feel a lot better?" Asked about the single biggest misconception about being a founder, her answer is one word: "That it's sexy."
Joey names Juliet de Baubigny — the entrepreneur, investor, and longtime champion of women in tech and venture — as the person she's most professionally jealous of. "I think she is one of the most exciting women in entrepreneurship, tech — really just championing women and teaching them how to create businesses, helping them, connecting them," Joey says. She hopes to eventually follow a similar path herself, moving into advising and investing in other founders: "There's so few women that are not threatened by other women... I never had that, and I would love to be that for somebody else too. She is just the pinnacle of that."
Check out https: https://wolffer.com/
Timestamps
00:00 – Introduction and welcome
01:35 – The elevator pitch for Wölffer Estate Vineyard
01:55 – Her father's vision: a vineyard on Hamptons potato fields, and finding winemaker Roman
02:40 – Launching one of the first Hamptons rosés in 1992 03:22 – How the business runs today: husband as CEO, brother Marc in strategy, Roman as winemaker
04:21 – Growing from 20,000 to 300,000 cases in 13 years
05:18 – The hungover decision not to sell
06:13 – Borrowing money from her brother to buy out her sister
06:58 – How her ADD fuels her creativity
07:23 – What she learned working in London fashion before coming home
08:47 – Building the brand around the "soul" of the area, not a product
09:17 – No board, no research: how Summer in a Bottle and the cider got made
09:52 – Why nobody can actually copy the Summer in a Bottle label
10:30 – Modernizing a "stuffy" tasting room for a younger consumer 11:24 – Building a "Wölffer world," not just a wine
12:08 – Growing up around her mother's rebellion against a stuffy English upbringing 13:29 – Her advice to brands: "Don't tell me somebody else's story"
14:18 – Staying focused while copycats flood the rosé category 16:08 – Why celebrity wine brands miss the point
16:44 – Her distribution and marketing strategy today
17:05 – The "perfect pie" of husband, brother, and winemaker running the business
18:35 – Tips for working with family ("get a therapist") 19:00 – How marriage and motherhood changed her at 44 versus 27
21:01 – Why she closed her fashion store in September
22:55 – Why community involvement matters more than opening another shop 23:20 – On being called a "lifestyle influencer"
23:55 – Using social media for a community GoFundMe 24:31 – Why she tells brands "just buy the wine" instead of asking for freebies
24:47 – Why the era of the "quick sale" is over
27:11 – Founder culture became "sexy" — and the reality is anything but 27:56 – Navigating tariffs and economic uncertainty
28:09 – Her positioning philosophy: authenticity and sense of place 28:52 – Turning down a buyer to protect the brand
29:44 – Her vision: building Wölffer into a legacy brand like Hermès 31:01 – Favorite brands and a quick-fire round
32:18 – Her superpowers: connection, passion, and multitasking 33:20 – How she manages ADHD day to day
34:04 – Best and worst career advice 35:38 – What she's working on: reacting less
36:34 – The biggest misconception about being a founder
37:10 – What she wishes she'd learned earlier: Spanish
38:00 – Who is Joey professionally jealous of?
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