Reese Witherspoon's production company's Drop of Sunshine Wine

"Do you know my name? I'm an American vintner!"

In Citizens United v. FEC (2010), the Supreme Court held that corporations were people and had a legal right to donate to political campaigns.

They also declared that production companies were celebrities and could make wine, too.

To be clear, this is not Reese Witherspoon’s wine. It’s made by her production company, Hello Sunshine. I can’t seem to find any evidence of Reese ever trying this wine or even talking about it (I can, however, certainly find evidence of Reese drinking). Instead, the Drop of Sunshine Instagram is filled with blonde women who look like Reese Witherspoon.

The name Hello Sunshine is very funny to me. There’s something so literal about it, something so directive. Is it a greeting? Is it something Reese utters to the sky every morning as she’s putting on her Fabletics? And yet, it just might work. Women do be loving to say hello.

Hello Sunshine, as they write on their website, is “on a mission to change the narrative for women.” Apparently, the existing narrative is that women CAN’T go missing; that they CAN’T buy farmland upstate with their husband’s ghost; that they CAN’T be landlords while also being podcasters.

I don’t mean to be flip about this. I’m not Benson Boone. Apparently Reese’s Book Club is a big deal. She’s cornered the market on airport novels called, like, All The Little Girls Sing Fires Everywhere and the Six. I once watched a YouTube Short (because I hate Chinese propaganda so much) about the business of her book club and, basically, they don’t take a cut from book sales but in exchange get a first-look on IP. If a book sells well in Reese’s demo, Hello Sunshine adapts it. Is my free trial to Puck showing?

Uplifting women’s voices conveniently makes money, too. To the tune of $900 million, which is what Hello Sunshine was valued at when it sold in 2021 to Blackstone, the investment firm my dad owns. I, too, listen exclusively to women's voices and yet Celebrity Skin Contact is not worth even half of that.

Sure, a lot of Hello Sunshine’s success has to do with smart business choices. But it also has to do with how good Reese is in these terrible projects. The other night I watched You’re Cordially Invited, her new rom-com with Will Ferrell that makes absolutely no sense — they both book a wedding on the same day on an island where … that’s illegal — but she is just so winning! She even tries her best on The Morning Show, where she plays a lesbian named Bradley who goes to space and is accidentally in Jan 6.

Now, Hello Sunshine wants to vertically integrate female empowerment like Rockefeller with Standard Oil. It’s pretty smart, if not cynical. On their Netflix show The Home Edit, which helps celebrities in need of a purposeful office space, you can buy those wicker baskets you saw installed in Retta’s house (more like, Hello SunShein). And at Shine Away, their annual two day convention, you can meet your favorite Reese’s Book Club author and attend a workshop on “meaningful entrepreneurship” for $275.

And now — because what pairs better with your murder mystery than chardonnay? — there’s Drop of Sunshine. The brand was launched at Shine Away at the end of 2024 in partnership with Treasury Wine Estates, one of the largest wine distributors in the world. Drop of Sunshine makes a sparkling rosè, a chardonnay and a red blend all from the central coast of California.

Their business model follows a well-trodden path: the wine will soon be incorporated in various Hello Sunshine projects like The Home Edit, Reese’s Book Club and their podcasts. Expect to see a huge glass of wine in Kerry Washington’s hand in the near future.

But this wine is not just wine, you see. It’s about values. It’s about women. Diverse women: women who tell stories, sure, but also women who create spaces. As they write on the Drop of Sunshine website, “we want to foster genuine connections through powerful storytelling. We believe that every drop of our wine holds the potential to create meaningful interactions, celebrating the authentic stories that make each of us unique.”

There’s something so threatening and infantilizing about this word soup. Their copy reads like a Democratic yard sign. Do people connect to this, or even know what it means?

Found on the wine’s Instagram. Huh?

I poured a glass of the 2022 Chardonnay into the biggest wine glass I could find to see what all the fuss is about. It’s not the oaky, buttery chardonnay I thought it was going to be. It’s much tarter than your traditional California chard. That initial taste of lemon pie reminded me of a vacation I took to Italy with my stepdaughter. And the finish of fresh nectarine with that subtle sweetness was sort of like my husband before he died in the fire I started to kill him. It drinks more like a Sauvignon Blanc which is not my favorite, personally.

But nevertheless, this is a great wine to pair with brie cheese while you’re walking on your Peloton treadmill (so long as your child is not underneath it).

TTYL!