Maui Girl meets Mainland
A new marketable, versatile and accessible wine, designed to be priced under $20.
Ashleigh Hutchison moved off Island, to pursue a career in the wine business after her first break into wholesale wine sales in 2008. New to motherhood with a 3 year old, she met Alan Jahns, partner of JMD Beverages in Hawaii. He offered Ashleigh a sales route in West Maui after building a successful ‘Vineyard Dining Series’ at the acclaimed David Paul’s Island Grill in 2008.
Ashleigh replied to Mr. Jahn’s job offer with a blank stare, to which he replied, ‘Yes, Ashleigh, but you know everyone on the Island.” And with that, she never looked back.
After leaving JMD in December 2011, she moved with her son to St. Helena, CA – the mecca of the wine business and the Heart of Napa Valley. She was welcomed and supported in the business landing a sale route with Vinifera WineMarketing representing a portfolio of esteemed brands. With this learned experience, she started her own Out of State brokerage, Ashleigh Elizabeth Consulting – Representing smaller brands from well established winemakers with their own projects that had little time to sell on their own in outer markets.
After 3 years in the Valley, she accepted a position with Miner Family Winery as their Western Regional Sales Manager and relocated herself and her son to Pebble Beach, CA. There she was able to reconnect with the ocean and surf community she grew up knowing so well and was able to connect food and wine with the locals.
The travel schedule involved with the Regional position with Miner helped Ashleigh realize two very important things:
Time away from her son growing up could not last forever & sales managers are road warriors – which this, she was not. However, all the time spent on the road, led to creative sales & marketing. Meaning, the more and more you talk about the same product, you have to find creative means to sell/tell the story and never to the same person. The creativity eventually made its way to paper, and she began writing back labels and designing brands that she felt would have a niche in the ever growing and saturated wine market.
Industry Outlaw, was a dream of Ashleigh’s beginning in 2016. The business was born as a creative writing endeavor with a coffee table book titled, “The Art of Spitting”. The current business umbrella allows Industry Outlaw to delve into creative writing into many mediums including the latest project – MANA Wines.
MANA wines is a wholesale wine company selling to the new generation of Millennial wine drinkers appealing not only to price points below $19.99, but as a lifestyle brand for those who can associate with the Ocean whether as a surfer, swimmer, kayaker or merely living by the ocean during some point of their lives.
MANA’s Polynesian translation of Energy & Motion is reflective of the iconic mosaic wave embossed on the label. It is a reflection of her personal life, but more importantly an emancipation to spend more time with her son.
MANA Wines are meant to be enjoyed daily with friends & family and most importantly; economically affordable to do so.
Mana is the first of many brands to come and fall under the Industry Outlaw umbrella.
For more information, please visit manawines.com OR email ashleigh@manawines.com
MORE ABOUT MANA : PRESS
EDIBLE: New local brand Mana Wines draws a fast following.
Ashleigh Hutchison keeps certain things close to her heart. Inches from it, in fact: Her four primary mantras are tattooed there on her right rib: Ikeloa. Ha’aha’a. Mana. Pono.
Loosely translated from Hawaiian – and interwoven with the inked outline of the Hawaiian Islands – they go like this: Serve the land. Live with humility. Live with energy. Live with virtue. Read more at www.montereycountyweekly.com