When Josh Cellars went viral on X, its team couldn’t log in – but the internet did the work for them. This is the inside story of the wine brand’s accidental meme moment and the marketing rethink that followed.
Dan Kleinman, chief brand officer of Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits
When Josh Cellars went viral on X in January 2024, its marketing team could do nothing but watch.
“We were locked out of our Twitter account,” laughs Dan Kleinman, chief brand officer of Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits. “All three people on our IT team were on vacation. For 72 hours, we just had to sit there and watch it blow up.”
It started when a user called Optimus Prime 32 posted a photo of a bottle captioned, ‘Come on y’all, grow up - this is way better than Stella.’ The internet seized on it. Suddenly everyone was “making a joshumentary” or joking that they “had that Josh in me.”
“Other brands piled in – Chipotle, Rolling Stone, even agencies – it became a full-on meme,” says Kleinman.
By the time Josh Cellars regained control of its account, the bottle had become a cultural punch-line – and a purchase trigger. “We were honest about why we were slow to respond. And people told us we needed younger people running our social… so we actually hired an intern named Jessica and put her in charge,” he says. “That was the moment we stopped speaking sommelier and started speaking social.”
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That self-deprecating agility marked a turning point. In less than a decade, the brand has gone from selling 1m to 7m cases a year – a rare growth story in a flat wine market.
Before he joined Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits, Kleinman had already carved out a 20-plus-year career in the beverage-alcohol business. He cut his teeth in marketing and innovation at companies such as Diageo and came into DFWS in 2017. But it was with Josh Cellars that he really made his name.
Josh Cellars wasn’t born in a boardroom. It began with Joe Carr, a former sommelier from upstate New York who wanted to make a wine that honored his father – a working-class lumberjack named Josh – and proved that good wine didn’t have to feel exclusive.
“Joe and his dad didn’t always see eye to eye,” Kleinman explains. “His mom actually suggested naming the wine after him, and she even hand-lettered the script you still see on the label today.”
The look is deceptively simple – parchment label, looping calligraphy – but it’s a masterclass in semiotics. “It feels elegant, yet the name Josh makes it friendly. It delivers the refinement people expect from wine, but in a way that’s instantly approachable,” he says.
As Kleinman puts it, the name itself does a lot of heavy lifting. “It’s not a dynastic family name, it’s not a place – it’s Josh,” he says. “I always joke that I don’t know any Joshes who are jerks. Every Josh I’ve ever met is a good, gregarious guy. There’s something about that name that just feels approachable.”
Deutsch Family acquired the brand in its early stages, keeping that emotional core intact while scaling it nationally. “The liquid’s great, the price point’s right – around $12–13 – and the quality over-delivers. That’s why it’s grown so fast. We’re not just marketing a feeling; we’ve got the product, price and distribution to back it up.”
Josh Cellars built its campaigns around a universal emotion: gratitude.
“Our purpose is to help people thank the ones who lift them up,” says Kleinman. From personalized bottle labels to Mother’s Day phone booths and the annual Josh Giving initiative, the brand has turned appreciation into a creative platform.
Those gestures feel real because they mirror the founder’s story – a son who only learned to value his father after he was gone. “That’s what connects with Gen X and younger boomers,” Kleinman says. “They see their own lives in it.”
When the 2024 social-media storm hit, Josh Cellars treated it as a creative reset. Working with Kleinman’s team moved away from its highly polished creative and leaned into looser, creator-led work that felt more natural to social platforms. “You wouldn’t think a wine that’s a premium wine would partner with Wendy’s, a fast-food restaurant,” says Kleinman, “but Wendy’s has an amazing social presence - she’s the queen of TikTok, she’s got tons of followers.”
So, on Valentine’s Day, Wendy and Josh went on a date – but decided to part as friends. “That was another kind of fun,” Kleinman recalls. “It made sense for the culture, and it worked.”
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The data vindicated the risk. January and February – traditionally the slowest months for alcohol – saw a sharp rise in both loyal and new buyers, especially under-40s. “It was a seminal moment,” Kleinman says. “If we wanted to bring younger people in, we had to change our approach.”
Today, the team runs what he calls a twin-engine strategy: one engine aimed at its core older drinkers, another designed purely for recruitment via social creators and culture-first partnerships.
That approach powered Josh Cellars Crisp White, a new product built squarely for younger drinkers. “It’s lighter, lower-alcohol – what we call a patio pounder,” Kleinman says. “We launched it with over 60 influencers, hit music festivals, and ran ads like 'Wine pairs best with chicken' showing people chicken fighting in the ocean.”
The results: 64 percent of sales came from under-44s, the brand sold out in its first year, and now it’s growing triple-digits year-on-year. “That’s proof you can modernize a category people said couldn’t be modernized,” he says.
Deutsch Family’s ambitions extend well beyond wine. Its portfolio includes Yellow Tail, still the leading Australian import in the US; Gray Whale Gin, made with foraged California botanicals; Bib & Tucker and Redemption Bourbon; and Cantera Negra Tequila.
“These are smaller, fast-growing brands,” Kleinman says. “In spirits, we build them drink by drink – it’s all about unforgettable trial and local fandom before mass scale.”
Yellow Tail, meanwhile, faces the tougher economics of its price tier. “Retailers are squeezing that space with private label, and Australian imports face tariffs,” he admits. “But it still has an incredibly loyal base, and we’re refreshing how we speak to them.”
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We met Kleinman at the ANA Masters of Marketing Conference in Orlando, where every conversation seemed to circle back to artificial intelligence. “It’s fascinating but daunting,” he admits. “Everyone’s asking how to cut costs with AI. I’m asking how to keep creativity human. There’s no paint-by-numbers guide for this.”
That tension – between automation and authenticity – is one reason Josh Cellars stands out. While others chase efficiency, Kleinman is betting on emotion. “An enduring idea,” he says, “is still the best ROI you can show the C-suite.”