Our Brief History
Like most game-changing ideas, the inspiration for ONEHOPE Wine didn’t come from an Ivy League MBA program – it rose from the aisle of a grocery store. It was the morning of October 15, 2005, while stocking shelves that young Jake Kloberdanz, a sales rep for a large wine distributor, had his “Eureka” moment. Jake noticed that specialty items used to raise awareness and proceeds for causes enjoyed preferential, more prominent placement on shelves, and consequently moved off those shelves much faster than other products. Some six months after Jake’s cause marketing epiphany, a good friend of his was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma at the age of 23. It wasn’t long, April 19, 2006 to be exact, that HOPE Wine was incorporated and the first bottles were corked soon after. Pretty soon a buzz was building about HOPE Wine at charity events. In 2007, Jake was having lunch at Mama D’s Italian Kitchen with HOPE Wine co-founders Tom Leahy and Brandon Hall. While discussing the exciting possibilities before them, Mama D’s owner, Keith, overheard their spirited conversation and it piqued his interest.
By the time the HOPE Wine group was finished with lunch they had managed to secure their first-ever restaurant order. More important than the order however, was the realization that the potential for HOPE Wine was enormous. What followed the next year is a classic American tale of altruism and entrepreneurship. Soon the eight founding members decided to quit their jobs, take on this mission of HOPE full time and set out to make their dream a reality. Long nights, countless meetings in living rooms, and distributing cases of wine out of the trunks of their cars became standard operating procedure for most of year one. From 150 cases of wine with “garage labels” distributed in Newport Beach, to 8000 cases being sold in ten states within the first year – HOPE Wine was on its way. It was clear that the idea behind HOPE Wine was larger than just wine; it’s really a brand that stands for hope and unity of purpose. Today, we’re called ONEHOPE. It’s more than a name, it is in every sense a culture, a lifestyle, and an umbrella under which many causes can be served and millions of lives made better.
The new name symbolizes the idea of a group, no matter how small or big, coming together as ONE and working towards HOPE for the future.
