We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kristin Bernard a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Kristin, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
When I founded Côtes de Femme in August of 2019, as a Certified Woman-Owned wine brand, I wanted to create a product that empowered and uplifted all women. Côtes de Femme translates from French to English “sides of woman”, representing the many shapes, curves, tones, and types of women. My actual wine journey began many years ago. My husband Andy and I have been married 27 years and dating for 28. When Andy and I were a young married couple with young children, we didn’t have the means to have many date nights, or travel. When we would go on dates, I would order a glass of wine and Andy would order a soft drink. Andy will tell you he wanted to be a better date, so he bought a book to learn more about wine. This became our weekly date night. We would research a new wine and a food pairing. We would put the kids to bed early, create a meal, and enjoy a new bottle of wine from a different part of the world. We began to learn and “travel the world” through wine from our home. When I created Côtes de Femme, I wanted to create a wine brand that is more than a beverage… It is an experience. Life should be celebrated or as we say, “Live Extra”!
Years later, we had been able to travel and learn about wine. However, When I walked into a store, I still did not see a wine bottle that represented ME. Even after years of studying wine, I shop like every other consumer. You approach a wine shelf already anticipating THE EXPERIENCE that YOU are about to have, a girls’ night, a date night, a party. I wanted to create a product that would solve that problem. You walk into the store, see our bottle, and know it is perfect for your occasion.
Our packaging was very important to me when creating Côtes de Femme, and definitely celebrates our motto of “Live Extra”. Every bottle of Côtes de Femme comes with our patented BLING on the neck of the bottle that you remove and use to decorate your stemware. The bottle definitely grabs your attention but as you know, looks will only get you a first date…what is beautiful on the inside earns you a second date. We put a lot of time and research into carefully crafted wine blends from the best wine regions of the world that will make you want to return to enjoy Côtes de Femme again and again.
Of course, our packaging also includes our logo. I commissioned an artist named Elena Naumchenkova. She specializes in “line art”. I had her design for me a woman in a hat, holding a glass of wine, and wearing heels. What I loved about line art is that it is non-specific. There is no age, skin tone, or even gender. I wanted anyone to look at that image and say, “Oh that’s me! When I have a glass of wine in my hand, I feel empowered and uplifted.”
Kristin, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
When I created Côtes de Femme, I had no idea that a woman owning a wine brand was rare. Even today, less than 5% of the entire alcohol industry are women and minorities. As our voice emerges, more and more trade partners are realizing how our form of authentic marketing is what the customer has been missing.
One of our slogans is LIVE EXTRA! At Côtes de Femme we believe in living life to the fullest. Wine is not just a beverage, it’s an experience. We celebrate, curate, and project our customer’s future experience with our bottle. We take you to your next great gathering with friends and family. I am proud to say that we are complimented by customers telling us that they see themselves in our social media. My goal is for our social media to put a smile on your face each day and for you to see yourself in our lifestyle shoots. Wine should be inclusive. I want you to look at our photos and say, I want to drink wine with those people! We specifically want to navigate the industry with extending our family to yours. We love to participate in events and bring activations that people will never forget. One of our favorite activations to bring to a wine event is grape stomping. I love the look of sheer joy on people’s faces when they step into the grapes! They are creating lasting memories, and of course photos with our wine and with our brand.
We are not just a pretty bottle and beautifully curated events. Our Côtes de Provence Rosé has earned a 95-point Double Gold Medal from American Fine Wine Competition. It has also earned BEST OF SHOW at the New Orleans Wine and Food Experience Tournament of Rosés 2 years on a row, 2023 and 2024! Our Cabernet Sauvignon is from Alexander Valley, California it scored 94 points from USA Wine Ratings.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
In the Spring of 2022, the world was still recovering from the effects of the pandemic especially the shipping industry. The ports were completely delayed and congested. Imported items were arriving months late. As we began to track our shipping container bringing our Rosé wine from France, we realized it was never going to arrive on time. We had promised stores Rosé for their Spring and Summer programming and we had to deliver. We knew we could not rely on regular shipping methods once it arrived in port as trucking companies were experiencing backups and delays as well. We bought a trailer and modified it to hold 7000 lbs. of wine. When our shipping container of rosé finally arrived in port and cleared customs, we were ready! We drove over 5,000 miles in 6 days and delivered the rosé to all our distributor’s warehouses. We called it “Operation Rosé by Mother’s Day”. I am happy to say; our stores and our customers were happy and had there rosé in time to celebrate.
We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.
A common misconception is that every wine brand owner is also a farmer. We are definitely not farmers. I joke that I COULD NOT keep a silk plant alive. We do, however, create our own wine blends. We have a partnership with a vineyard in France, Château des Bormettes. We travel to France each year after they have harvested the grapes and we work with their team tasting the different tanks. Then, getting out the graduated cylinders, we begin the blending and tasting process until we finally arrive at our Côtes de Femme Rosé for that vintage. Our Rosé is then bottled in France where we import it to the US ourselves.
How we found our vineyard partners is a fun story. A year before I started Côtes de Femme Wines, my husband and I went to a Beyoncé and JayZ concert in Nashville, TN. Before the concert we went to a local restaurant and had a great meal with an incredible bottle of rosé. We loved it so much, we ordered a 2nd bottle. The night, the meal, the concert, was all so much fun. We had the best time. The next day before leaving the city, we decided to go to a wine shop to fine that bottle of wine. When we arrived home, we put it in our wine fridge and added it to the collection. A year later we had begun the process of creating Côtes de Femme. A friend in France had connected us with a co-op of farmers for us to source our grapes. In our conversations with them, they told us that we would have to wait until after the next harvest to see if they had enough grapes for our project. One day in September of 2019, we got the disappointing phone call that the co-op did not have enough production that year for our brand. We were back to square one. As we got out our laptops to do more research, we decided to open a bottle of rosé for inspiration. We pulled our “Beyoncé JayZ” bottle out of the wine fridge. When we tasted it, we were immediately flooded with memories of that fun night. Wine is about the experience! The rosé from Provence was so delicious. We flipped the bottle over and saw there was a phone number on the back. So, we decided to call it and tell them how much we loved the wine and about our project. The phone number connected us with a Frenchman who lived in the US and was in the wine industry. He agreed to connect us with some of his partners and friends in France and the rest is history! We met the most amazing partners and now lifelong friends at Château des Bormettes to help produce our beautiful aware winning rosé.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://cotesdefemme.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cotesdefemme
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CotesdeFemme/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cotesdefemme
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@cotesdefemme
