My Founder Letter: Introducing Cale, Herbal Wine

I hadn’t heard from him in days - I am totally being ghosted again aren’t I? Ugh. It was November 2017,I lived in a run down apartment in Brooklyn. I had been at my job for three years and had never received a promotion and so I asked for one the other week … today my boss let me know that despite my efforts, she was not going to give me one. At least I got to leave work early to go to the doctor, I cried on the walk over. And now I am sitting on that cold crunchy paper doctors make you sit on, and she walks back in … with more bad news.

I am only in my early 30s and my blood tests revealed that I was on the verge of a lifelong chronic disease if I did not immediately change my ways.

As soon as I got home that day, I pulled out a notebook and began to plan my year 2018. Something had to change and so I vowed that each week in the new year I would research and write about a topic in wellness because I knew nothing about how to be well, clearly - I was neither happy nor healthy.

And so I did. Week by week in 2018, I researched and wrote a column about what makes for great health and happiness. For those of you who followed my writing back then, I do not think you realized it but I was writing to save my life.

By the end of the year 2018 into 2019 I had completely changed my blood chemistry around, I’m healthy, I moved, I changed jobs - I am still working on the finding a boyfriend part - but through daily practices and doing the work, I have managed to level up, to live in an in general state of gratitude, in awe and in wonder that I am human and I get to be alive!

A direct and pure manifestation of my wellness journey is Cale - an Herbal Wine brand that I am set to launch on Monday, February 22. Yes, I have been building! I am super nervous, I can’t believe I am telling you that. But I am also really excited - I have been working on this for 2 years now, bearing the wind of doors closed, slipping through windows open and to bring to you: Herbal Wine - an ancient tradition practiced by the Greeks, Romans and Egyptians past.

I am working out of Napa Valley. I infuse wine grape varietals with healthful, functional and adaptogenic herbs. My first release is: Hibiscus Pinot Noir Herbal Wine.

I call it my ‘Weekday Wine’ - If you feel like drinking less, you’re pretty much only limited to: hard kombucha, beer or hard seltzer. I am introducing wine a new archetype in the selection of around 4.5%abv adult drink options. My wines are low alcoholic, low in sugar and low calorie. I use non-GMO grapes locally sourced from a family in Northern California, my yeast is non-GMO, and my herbs organic. This first release, Hibiscus Wine, you will find to be dry (not sweet), light-bodied, and with notes of dark cherries and wildflowers.

I humbly ask for your support, I hardly ever do. Pass this note along to a friend or two, have them sign up for my mailing list at www.DrinkCale.com, follow Cale on Instagram, if you are moved to, pre-order a bottle of Cale next week, Tweet or Tiktok about it or whatever it is people do these days. I’ll be in touch with an update on when my website opens up, but honestly thank you all for your love and support as I step into this the newest (most scariest) chapter of my life to date.

Drink the wine, enjoy it, but mostly I serve it to you with the hopes that you are inspired to be welI, that if you are in a dark place, know that you can rise again. With so much gratitude and love to you, thank you thank you.

My very best,

Nana

Nana Meriwether

Founder, Cale

www.DrinkCale.com

www.Instagram.com/DrinkCale