For winemaker Samantha Sheehan, the spritz’s rise to one of the most popular cocktails in the U.S. has been a boost to her Napa-based aperitif brand Mommenpop. Now, she’s trying to ride that bubbly wave to new heights with a brighter label color palette and visual cues distinguishing fresh citrus as the heart of the brand’s identity.
Mommenpop was founded in 2017, a few years before Prosecco’s breakout moment in the U.S. (sparkling wine makes up part of the spritz), and prior to the rising interest in low-ABV cocktails. It was also right before Aperol was beginning to win major benefits of a decades-plus Aperol Spritz campaign.
“At that point the general public didn’t understand the category as much, and it was definitely a lot harder for us to sell the product to the market,” Sheehan said.
But digital-heavy brands, like Haus and De Soi, also helped to raise awareness of the cocktail style.
That collective momentum has led to “peak spritz”— when the drink and its variations, like the Hugo Spritz, can be found on menus across the country. In 2023, spritz sales on-premise tripled, jumping eight spots to become the seventh most popular cocktail in the U.S., according to data from CGA. That has created a runway for Sheehan, whose priority now is differentiating her product from other spritz ingredients on the market.
Sheehan has two wine brands, Poe Wines and Ultraviolet Wines, for which she makes sparkling wine, rosé, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Cabernet Sauvignon. But the winemaker was inspired to play with citrus and capture the seasonality of fruits in the Napa Valley: Mommenpop’s 17% ABV lines feature blood orange, ruby red grapefruit or Seville orange, as well as organic grapes and select botanicals.
That experience gives Mommenpop an advantage: the dye-free aperitif is made with chardonnay, meaning it comes with less sugar than spirits-based versions on the market. Sheehan encourages bartenders to treat the product less as a modifier and instead flip traditional cocktail proportions to make Mommenpop more of an equal part for a spritz, or an non-traditional add to a margarita. Leaning into those citrus flavors is part of what has helped sell it (and inch up case sales). Other American aperitif makers have also leaned on being a lower-ABV product or including natural ingredients to get an edge into bars and specialty retailers.
But Sheehan is now aiming to bring the “citrus to life,” centering her brand as the citrus aperitif with new branding as she expands into retailers like Whole Foods and Total Wine & More. As bars and menus dedicated to the spritz pop-up, and as the Aperol Spritz becomes the most google-searched cocktail in the country, Sheehan is positioning her brand to compete by offering a refreshed, brightly colored line of organic Spritz possibilities.
The lively, metallic labels, done by Sheehan’s husband and designer Michael McDermott, now feature less abstract citrus designs, with the words “citrus aperitif” floating underneath. The branding also aims to distinguish the brand as certified organic, which will now read so on the back, and include a spritz recipe.
The new labels are currently making their way out nationally and in the meantime, she’ll be doing more in-store demos — a benefit as a wine versus spirits base— to help consumers “feel more confident with the category.” Whole Foods Markets also carry her sparkling wine, ideally making the demos more lucrative. Patio takeovers at restaurants have also been part of her summer campaign.
“I do think the category is confusing for people, because aperitifs can taste so different— they can be sweet or bitter or herbal— a lot of people don’t always understand what an aperitif flavor is, and so we’ve tried to help kind of demystify that by making Mommenpop all about citrus,” she said.
To Sheehan, flavor is the way in versus “being category generic,” she said, arguing that early feedback from the trade gave her the inspiration to build on flavor versus replicating other products.
“I never look at data,” she said. “It was really about the idea of preserving local flavor, and then it became about the versatility, and it felt really fun and like it had a place.”