Hi! We are Julia and Alex, the co-founding husband and wife team behind Sovi.
Julia Littauer, Certified Sommelier
Julia became a Certified Sommelier at the age of 22 while training under a Master Sommelier in New York City. She has also worked many roles in the wine & spirits industry including retail sales at one of the largest wine stores in the US, marketing at the global spirits giant, Diageo, and brand management for Beringer in Napa Valley, one of the largest and most historic wine brands.
Alex Littauer, DipWSET
Alexander is a WSET Diploma holder, a challenging and prestigious wine certification. He has devoted much of his professional and personal life to wine. He has worked as a cellar intern at a winery in Walla Walla, WA, a retail wine buyer in New Jersey, and a direct-to-consumer marketing manager across a number of iconic Napa brands including BV, Sterling, Beringer and Stags’ Leap.
Our Story
We met while both working for Treasury Wine Estates in Napa in 2015. We immediately bonded over everything we had in common- we grew up an hour away from each other on the East Coast (Princeton, NJ and Bryn Mawr, PA), we were both were passionate about wine and food, and we both moved out to the Bay Area to pursue our passions and a career in the industry. We left the Bay Area 3 years later to go to business school at Cornell, which is where the idea for Sovi was born.
So much of our life revolved around wine, but all of the alcohol was taking its toll. We weren't as healthy or productive as we wanted to be, and hangovers always seemed to get worse. For us, the change wasn't about cutting out alcohol completely, but rather about finding balance. We still love to enjoy a great bottle of wine with dinner and are always learning about and trying new wines. However, there are so many occasions where we would want to enjoy a glass of wine, but didn't want the effects of alcohol. Happy hours, weeknight dinners, and weekend brunches with friends are just some examples. Through friends and family we discovered how great non-alcoholic beers could be, like Athletic Brewing. At the time, the only options for non-alcoholic wines were big brands made with very inexpensive wine and loaded with sugar. Needless to say, they weren't going to cut it for us.
So, we started trying to create it ourselves. We quickly found that making a good non-alcoholic wine was no easy task. After a year and a half trialing wines, we released our first batch of Sparkling Rosé in March, 2021. We wanted the final product to be as wine-like as possible without having to add natural flavors or lots of sugar. Dry and with good balance and food-friendly acidity is how we like our wines, so our non-alcoholic wines had to meet that same criteria. And of course, we wanted something that we enjoyed drinking and something that we could stand behind so that anyone who wants to enjoy a great glass of wine, but doesn't want the effects of alcohol can do so.
With Sovi, we can now find that balance we were looking for without having to give up something we love. We hope that Sovi can help you do that too.