Jeni Bonorino with Bono Brands

Thirsty Thursdays @3PM EST

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Welcome to Thirsty Thursdays @3PM EST!

My name is Jessie Ott, the Host of this Podcast which is all about Beverage Innovation. I talk with Innovation Pioneers from Agriculture to Glass.

This week I spoke with Jeni Bonorino, Director, Business Innovation and Brand Strategies at Bono Brands.

eni has one of the most unique experiences of anyone I’ve interviewed so far on my podcast. Jeni spent time in London and a stint at Cost Plus World Market learning about wine in San Francisco before moving to Adelaide, Australia to get her MBA as well as an understudy in international wine marketing.

Coming back to the US she started working at Total Wine & More and was one of the first team of buyers and they only had about 9 stores! She specialized in sourcing wines from the southern hemisphere, Spain, Portugal and the Champagne Region in France.

Her and her husband, who is Brazilian moved to Rio where she learned about the wine industry in Brazil and of course learned the Portuguese language. Did you know great sparkling is made in southern Brazil? I sure didn’t. Even Chandon makes sparkling there.

She experienced being in Carnival and then headed back to the US sourcing private labels for a Canadian based retailer that had shops in both Canada and the US.

They then moved to Miami and now own Bono Brands and distill their own gin products in unique packaging to the Brazilian market. Why gin? Well it sells like tequila in the US, so basically like hotcakes. Smart.

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