Beverage Chronicles, September 26, 2026

Beverage Chronicles
New Beverage Launches, a Fresh Contributor, and Wine Made for Real Palates with Erin Redden
Title: New Products, New Voices and Wine Made Welcoming
We discuss a range of recent nonalcoholic launches, from hydration and sports-drink innovations to energy mocktails, protein shakes, craft sodas, cold brew and better-for-you beverage options.
Contributor Jessica Gonzalez interviews ECR Vintners founder Erin Carroll Reddan about her small-batch California wines, approachable wine education and hospitality-focused tasting events.
The program closes with a community-minded announcement: Denny’s Heroes is seeking nominations for local educators, caregivers, first responders, volunteers and other hometown difference-makers..
Gary Monterosso runs down a wave of new beverage launches and welcomes new contributor Jessica Gonzalez, who sits down with Erin Redden, founder and CEO of ECR Vintners, to talk small-batch California wine, wine hospitality, and shedding wine intimidation.
New Beverage Launches Fill The Aisles
Gary Monterosso opens Beverage Chronicles with a rapid tour of new products reaching store shelves, noting upfront that the show has no ties to any brand mentioned. He highlights Yesly's new dragon fruit flavor for its vitamin- and electrolyte-infused still water line, arriving alongside a new 12-ounce slim can, and Rockstar's cocktail-inspired Mocktail energy drink, offering mojito, piña colada, and berry spritz flavors with 100 milligrams of caffeine, no sugar, and 46 calories per can. He moves through Silk's first ready-to-drink protein shake, Jones Soda's nostalgic return with Crayola for a Crayola-colors six-pack, and Slice's new pineapple dirty soda. Monterosso also mentions Michigan-based Paramount Coffee's first cold brew line, Joe Knows Coffee, sold in four flavors. He rounds out the segment noting each product's website, keeping the pace brisk and treating the roundup as a snapshot of where beverage innovation stands heading into the fall shopping season.
Sports Drinks And Hydration Get A Refresh
Monterosso shifts to the sports and hydration category, noting BodyArmor's new Flash I.V. Caffeine Zero Sugar line, launching nationwide in pineapple passion fruit and watermelon punch flavors. Propel, fresh off twelve consecutive years of growth, introduces Propel Clear Protein, a ready-to-mix powder combining protein, fiber, and hydration, sold through major retailers and TikTok Shop. Gatorade, owned by PepsiCo, is overhauling its packaging and stepping away from its long-standing focus on professional athletes, organizing its lineup under a new Gatorade Advanced Hydration System built around specific use occasions. Monterosso closes the roundup with Plezi Nutrition, the public-benefit company co-founded by former First Lady Michelle Obama, which has relaunched Plezi Hydration as a next-generation sports drink made with real fruit juice and no added sugar, artificial colors, or what the company calls junk ingredients. He notes the product was developed in collaboration with Steph and Ayesha Curry, closing out the new-products segment before introducing the show's new contributor.
A New Contributor Joins Beverage Chronicles
Monterosso welcomes Jessica Gonzalez as the show's newest contributor, a New York City-based creative marketer and storyteller with a background in psychology and public relations who founded Jessica of All Trades. Gonzalez opens her first feature by introducing Erin Redden, CEO and founder of ECR Vintners, whose wines Gonzalez says she has tried and can personally vouch for. Redden explains that ECR Vintners is a small-batch California wine and hospitality company built around the palates of women, an idea born from years spent in the wine industry and drinking with friends in New York City. She recalls hearing millennial women repeatedly say they avoided California wine, expecting overly oaked whites and bold reds shaped by cheaper bottles common on the East Coast in their twenties. Trips to Napa and Sonoma showed her how good small-production wine could be, inspiring her to craft wines in styles those women actually wanted: higher-acidity whites, lower-tannin reds, and everyday sparkling.
Wine Hospitality Meets Wine Education
Redden describes the ECR name as her own initials, Erin Carol Redden, a deliberate choice in an industry where women have historically been left off the label and out of production. She defines a vintner simply as a wine merchant, covering everything she does. Asked what sets ECR apart, Redden says the company has grown into both wine production and wine education, fusing the two in a way she rarely sees elsewhere: most wineries separate the person who crafts the wine from the person who teaches about it, while she and her team travel to do both together. She describes hosting tastings built around what she calls girl dinner, pairing wines with cheese boards and lighter bites guests can snack on throughout an evening. Gonzalez calls it a new kind of wine catering, comparing it to how familiar food catering already is, and Redden agrees enthusiastically, saying good wine, good food, and good company is simply how life should be lived.
Practical Advice For Wine Newcomers
Turning to advice for intimidated drinkers, Redden says the single best tip is learning to describe what you like and dislike rather than reaching for vague labels. She notes that people often ask for a dry white wine without realizing ninety five percent of white wines already are dry, so the real work is figuring out whether someone prefers minerality, fruit flavor, or tartness. Gonzalez asks whether that means matching wine to a preferred drink style, like sweet or bubbly, and Redden agrees, comparing wine preference to clothing that shifts with the seasons. She says someone who loves sundresses in summer might gravitate toward high-acidity whites, while colder months call for a bold red and warmer ones call for bubbles. Redden encourages listeners to try tasting flights side by side to notice these nuances, framing the exercise as one of the most enjoyable parts of drinking wine rather than something to fear getting wrong.
Rapid Fire, What's Next, And A Community Callout
Redden previews ECR Vintners' fall and winter plans, saying she is leaning harder into producing her own events rather than only booking private tastings for birthdays, bachelorettes, and corporate clients, focused on what actually makes a wine gathering enjoyable. In a closing rapid-fire round, she picks bubbles over red or white every time, calls cheese her favorite wine pairing partner, and tells listeners to stop worrying about serving temperature, saying it is always safer to serve wine a little too cold than too warm since it will warm up in the glass. Gonzalez points listeners to Redden's Instagram, @ecr_vintners, and her website, ecrvintners.com, for questions or bookings. Monterosso closes the broadcast with an unrelated community announcement, introducing Denny's Heroes, a nationwide search honoring educators, caregivers, first responders, and volunteers, with thirty selected honorees receiving a Denny's-catered celebration for up to fifty guests hosted by a local franchise owner. Nominations remain open through October 30th at dennysheroes.com, closing out this week's episode.