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Sweet Dreams puts a new twist on wine, cocktails

BY JORDAN ROGERS Progress Staff Writer

Sweet Dreams Vineyard and founder Bill Gibbs have brought a cutting-edge product to the cannabis industry.

As of early 2021, the company released a nonalcoholic, THC-infused red wine and margarita, dubbed “Cannabernet” and “Marijuarita,” respectively.

Both products are sold to anyone over the age 21 at Herbal Wellness Centers, as well as a growing number of dispensaries around the Valley.

The cost is in the low to high teens for the 187mL bottle of either Cannabernet or Marijuarita and in the low to high $30s for a 750mL bottle of Cannabernet, depending on the strength. As they are both essentially juices, both products must be refrigerated after opening.

“The impetus for this is I’m older, and I love to drink alcohol, but it’s just getting harder and harder for me to do,” Gibbs said.

“But I love the social experience of being around people. So that was kind of the impetus about why I did it, it was sel�ish on my part. I wanted to drink less alcohol, but I didn’t want to change my lifestyle at all.”

These beverages also offer fast-acting effects similar to that of an alcoholbased beverage without the hangover. By using nano-emulsi�ication technology, which makes the THC water soluble, the effects are felt in as little as 15 minutes.

Cannabernet has half the calories of traditional wine per serving, and the Marijaurita only has 45 calories, which is far fewer than the traditional version of a margarita. Gibbs said keeping his products healthy was at the top of his list for things to accomplish.

No stranger to the marijuana industry, Gibbs founded a dispensary called Urban Greenhouse Dispensary in Phoenix in 2012 and served as its CEO until he later sold the company to Harvest Health and Recreation.

While he was with the company, Gibbs was at a marijuana convention in 2016 when, for fun, he threw a cannabis label on a bottle of wine.

“Just out of a lark, I took a bottle of wine and put a cannabis label on it,” Gibbs said. “I got calls from – and of that convention attracts an international crowd – all over the world, from people going, ‘We’re going to get the wine in my location.’ That was kind of an amazing response. I also literally got probably around 100 emails from people.”

After selling that dispensary in 2019, Gibbs took a break from the industry. When he decided to get back into it, he followed up on that response he received at that convention. “I thought there would be a million products out there by that time because at that time, nobody had done it,” he said. “I was surprised to see that there was virtually none.” “You know, we’re close to California. I thought I’d get some (nonalcoholic) wine and put THC in it. There you go; there’s the product.” What Gibbs hadn’t realized is that non-alcoholic wine is not exactly fruitful in the taste department.

“It’s not just awful; it’s incredibly terrible,” he said. “You would never want to have it by the glass. I don’t know exactly what causes that, but without the alcohol in there, it really is bad.’”

Gibbs hired a sommelier and purchased “every kind of juice known to man.” The two of them, Gibbs said, sat in his kitchen to try and �igure out the juice combination that would best mimic the taste of a glass of red wine. After �inding the correct combination, Gibbs wasn’t exactly done with the beta stage. He said the “edible experience” is something he did not want his cannabis-infused beverages to mimic, as edibles can be unpredictable and take a long time to take effect.

“When I was able to do some research, I realized that this was an issue that the pharmaceutical companies had solved a long time ago to be able to have the active ingredients enter the bloodstream at a much quicker rate,” Gibbs said. “Then, I just went about trying to �igure out how to do that.”

Gibbs wanted his product to have the quicker response time that alcohol has – roughly 15 minutes.

“With cannabis, it’s been illegal for so long, so there’s no manual,” Gibbs said. “Nobody writes any of this stuff down; it’s not like almost any other industry. If you go into any other industry, there’s long legions of people that have done stuff before.”

After learning about nano-emulsifying technology, he was able to �igure out how to correctly utilize it, and he had his �inished product. In this case, nanoemulsi�ication converted the THC into something that would allow it to enter the bloodstream faster. Gibbs said the �lavor the of the juices serve as a blocker to the bitter taste cannabis brings.

Gibbs, however, said he doesn’t want people to expect a perfect �lavor pro�ile to a classic Cabernet.

“You’re never going to drink that and go, ‘That’s the best Cabernet I’ve ever had,’” he said. “You’re going to say, ‘It’s wine like, and it tastes good.’” “The big reason about why I wanted the alcohol experience, is that it includes the social aspect of it,” he said. “You could bring a bottle of this to a party where you might not be able to bring a joint. This encourages the social aspect, which for alcohol, for me, I think is one of the most important and endearing properties of it.”

Information: sweetdreamsvineyard.com

Sweet Dreams Vineyard founder Bill Gibbs has found a unique product that blends the effects of marijuana with the taste of red wine.