Episode 009 – Bringing the Ancient Art of Herbalism Back to Wine with 5to9 Wine

Today on The Heart-led Brand Podcast, we’re chatting with Nana Meriwether of 5to9 Wine!

5to9 Wine is an innovative alcohol/wellness company that makes wine out of herbs and botanicals – a technique that dates back as far as ancient Rome, Greece, China and Egypt.

Nana has lived MANY different lives throughout her career. From an Olympic-level volleyball player, winning Miss USA, working at Harper’s Bazaar Magazine, and working in the tech industry – every twist and turn in her journey led her to pursuing entrepreneurship and starting 5to9 Wine.

Episode Highlights:

How Nana’s interest in wellness led her to discover herbal wine:

“It was in the fall of 2017. I went to the doctor and found out I was on the verge of a chronic lifestyle disease and that if I didn't change the way I was eating, I would be sick. I'm so confused. I'm a former athlete. I'm in my early 30s. Like, how am I starting to get sick? None of this makes sense.

And I'm a writer. So my New Year's resolution was every week in 2018 at the turn of the year, I would write about a topic in wellness. Like meditation – why should we do it? What's intermittent fasting? All these different topics and I wrote about them in like a humble beginner's mindset.

So during that year, I came across a field called herbalism, which was our first medicine. In ancient times, there was no CVS, there was no aspirin. Your great grandmother or the woman in the village would walk into the forest and know which bark to peel, which flower to brew, which tea to tincture and make medicine from plants and herbs.

So I began to apprentice with herbalists because it intrigued me so much. And this is where it like the doctor and healer in me was like * ding ding * there's something here. I've always had an interest in how to take care of the human body and understand the systems. And within herbalism, there's something called herbal wine, that we used to brew herbs and botanicals into wine.

And especially because herbs and botanicals have functional benefits. For example, hibiscus is full of antioxidants and if you make the wine of it, it proliferates in the liquid and it's like a delicious brew. As soon as I learned about herbal wine from herbalists, I was like, ‘Why does this not exist?’

And so I began to build the business. I started to get inklings that I wanted to do something in 2019 while I was studying with herbalists. And then I began to officially build business in 2020.”

On facing challenges in the wine industry:

“The things I faced earlier on, you know, there was cultural things. For example, I'm a woman. And a woman of color. And there's less than 1% of winemakers who are African American women. Although here’s a fun fact. In ancient times, and even today in my mother's culture (she's from South Africa) women were the fermenters. It was the woman of the household who would make the family beer. We brewed wine with herbs. And so it's a woman's tradition to be in fermentation and making brews.

And then also the logistics. Alcohol is one of the most regulated industries stemming from prohibition. A lot of the laws literally don't make sense. And you can tell they were written ages ago, but it's so steeped in like taxes now that it's going to be so hard to unravel.”

Marketing lessons that Nana has learned:

“There are so many different avenues to get the word out that you exist and I feel like we've tried all of them. We started with classic PR, which was super expensive. We did get some traction with that, so PR worked for us. And then we then moved into social media ads. That was like lighting a pile of money on fire. As a small business, we could not afford social media ads or to get to the level of investment to actually see traction there.

What's really worked for us is just organic, honestly. On all the channels that we have – from Instagram to TikTok, even now using YouTube. We're going to start Pinterest. And the content we share isn't like ‘look how shiny and awesome we are and everything's perfect.’ On Tiktok, I'm in my car and I have no makeup on. So we're very scrappy like that. I'll take you behind the scenes at the winery, my hair's up in a bun, and I'm literally doing the work. A lot of BTS.

And then there's an educational component too because herbal wine is new. It is an ancient tradition, but a lot of people don't know what it is. And so we'll educate as to how we make wine out of herbs. So there's a lot of content to do with education, but in general, it's organic and super grounded content.”

Nana’s key to building a successful business:

“If you're going to start a business, make sure you're passionate about the subject. Pick something that actually speaks to your soul because there's going to be really tough days. If I didn't have that love and passion for my product, I wouldn't have made it. So that's my biggest tip. Your soul will give you signs as to what you're drawn to and what you're meant to create here in your life.”