Wine coolers are back, thanks to this SLO County father-and-son duo

Will Sandberg said a common taboo in business is teaming up with a family member.

The San Luis Obispo resident decided to test those odds two years ago when he asked his father Blake Sandberg to reinvent wine coolers with him two years ago, and off the pair went.

Their creation, Wilbur Wines, brings back the original wine cooler vibe of the 1980s, but with a modern twist — calling it “the reboot nobody asked for.”

“Rather than creating something that’s brand new, we love looking at what has been done and saying, ‘Cool. This worked. This is what we would have done differently,’” Will Sandberg told The Tribune. “We love to critique things and look at things that have been done, and we always question why certain things haven’t come back. One of those was wine coolers.”

Wine coolers got their start in 1981 when California natives Michael Crete and Stuart Bewley created the California Cooler, a mix of fruit juice, white wine and club soda.

The first wine cooler was a smash hit and sparked a copycat rush from corporate brands like Gallo’s Bartles & Jaymes (which itself actually relaunched in 2019) and Seagrams.

Demand reached its peak in 1987, before plunging due to alcohol taxes in 1991 when malt-based beverages replaced wine coolers.

How father and son launch their wine cooler line

Fast-forward 33 years: The Sandbergs were looking to start a business and knew they wanted to be in the wine industry.

The final push toward bringing back wine coolers occurred when they met Crete and Bewley in the span of two weeks coincidentally while traveling doing research on their future business.

The Sandbergs took it as a clue for something bigger.

“We kind of took it as a sign of, I think we’re on the right path here,” Sandberg said. “I think this is a sign we’ve got to do this kind of thing, so that pushed us in a certain direction, which was kind of funny.”

The Sandbergs began experimenting with their wine cooler combinations in October 2024, spending endless hours crafting up recipes and ratios of fruit juice, wine and carbonation.

With California Cooler stopping its production in the 1990s, however, the father and son duo had no original references to go off of.

“We had no starting place,” Sandberg said. “It was created from scratch and tested on the kitchen counter, and mixing some fruit juice with some wine and trying to find the right ratio. We started to really lean into the actual components, breaking down the science of it.”

Finally, by the end of September, Sandberg cracked open his latest potion of Wilbur Wines and knew it was the one.

“I even heard it, just purely based off the sound,” he said. “I poured it in the glass, and I liked how it looked — the color was great, the bubbles were there. You could still smell that you’ve got these wine aromas off of it.”

Wilbur Wines goes from dream to reality

Wilbur Wines officially launched Nov. 16, with its red-and-white cans touting the company’s motto, “Two generations. One damn good cooler.”

“When my dad talks to people from his generation, a lot of people are almost jealous, but they’re really stoked for us, like ‘Oh my God, you get to work with your son, how cool.’” Sandberg said. “It’s this rare thing for people to do nowadays. We started this business together, and we’re working side by side.”

Wilbur Wines has two current wine coolers — Backroad Bramble and Coyote Citrus.

Backroad Bramble is a red wine with ripe blackberry notes and is slightly fizzy. Coyote Citrus is a white wine with a hint of lemon-lime.

Sandberg describes the feeling of sipping on a wine cooler as enjoying a drink at the beach or the clear ambiance of summer times past.

“We launched a business in the winter, and it’s essentially a summer beverage, even though it’s really not, but people are still loving them,” he said. “They’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, this immediately takes me to being on the boat, being at a beach, or just being outside, which is what we love.”

Wilbur Wines can be found at retailers like Field Day Coffee in San Luis Obispo, Sebastian’s General Store in San Simeon and Capo Leisure House in San Juan Capistrano. The wine coolers are also making their comeback at live events announced on the business’s Instagram.

For more information

For more information about the blooming wine cooler company Wilbur Wines, visit its website at wilburwines.com.