Our Story
- Our Founder
- Our Brand
- Our Process + History
- Our Ingredients + Nutritional Facts
Our Founder
I came up with the idea for Navina while sitting in a tree on a permaculture farm in Costa Rica on the heels of writing a year long column about wellness and what makes for great health and happiness. I was inspired to begin studying Herbalism - the ancient tradition and knowledge of how plants, herbs and botanicals heal. I was simultaneously drinking less alcohol, and although my social life remained robust, my adult beverage options while out and about or even on Friday nights on my couch were limited to none existent; There were no sophisticated in taste, functional and low alcohol wine alternatives and so I set out to build Navina.
It is my pleasure to create for you my Herbal Wines, cheers and be well!
-Nana Meriwether, Founder of Navina
Our Brand
Navina is a wellness company focusing on alcohol alternatives. Our first releases will be Herbal Wines including Hibiscus Wine - an easy drinking, light-bodied, dry, floral, low-alcoholic Flower Wine with lingering notes of wildflowers and dark cherries.
Later collections will include botanicals, plants and adaptogens including Reishi Mushrooms, Lemon Balm, Schisandra Berries, Stinging Nettles, Damiana and more herbs inspired by the ancient tradition and knowledge of Herbalism.
We are woman founded.
Our Process
We uniquely combine Herbalism with Winemaking by creating wine from plants and botanicals known to Herbalists to be healthful, functional and adaptogenic; Herbs including Hibiscus and Marigold Flowers and hopefully soon to come Lemon Balm, Stinging Nettle, Ginseng, Reishi, Elderberry and so on to make our Herbal and Flower Wine.
To ensure quality, our wines are lab tested throughout our process by ETS Laboratories and Cornell University.
The History of Herbal Wine
Herbal Wine is an age old traditional that even the Greeks, Romans and ancient Egyptians practiced. The making of herbal ferments were usually done by the woman at the head of the household. We have put a spin on the folk method that simply fermented herbs however - we uniquely infuse traditional wine grape varietals with herbs and botanicals known to Herbalists as healthful, functional and adaptogenic to create our collection of Herbal Wines.
Our Ingredients
Our Herbal Wines:
•Organic herbs (adaptogens, medicinal mushrooms etc)
•Premium grapes locally sourced from a family in Northern California, 100% natural, non-GMO
•Carefully sourced vegan, gluten free wine
•Sulfites (Sulfites have been used in winemaking since ancient Rome, they are a naturally occurring and powerful antioxidant. A fuller explanation of why we use sulfites is below).
•Non-GMO yeast
•No artificial flavors
Numbers You Should Know
•Low in Alcohol (4.5% - 5.5%abv)
Your 'Weekday Wine': If you feel like drinking less, you’re pretty much only limited to: hard kombucha, beer or hard seltzer. We are introducing wine a new archetype in the selection of around 4.5%abv - 5.5%abv adult drink options. Our Herbal and Flower Wines have less alcohol than traditional wines that are sometimes even above 14% abv and most hard kombucha, hard seltzer, and beer.
•Low in Sugar (only 0.4 - 0.2 per 5oz serving)
Our Herbal Wines are fermented to dry and not sweet - that means any glucose or fructose is fermented away by the end of our process for you to enjoy an extremely low, almost zero sugar wine. We add no additional sugar.
•Low in Calories (50 - 67 calories)
50 - 67 calories per 5oz serving
•Low in Sulfites (we add about 25ppm)
Sulfites are a naturally occurring powerful antioxidant. See our note on sulfites below, an amount minimal, in line with natural wine amounts and well below the federal government limit of 350ppm.
A Note on Sulfites
The use of sulfites in wine has been around since as far back as ancient Rome. Sulfites are a naturally occurring, powerful antioxidant inherently found in many foods including grapes themselves - in fact it is said, that “more sulfites can be found in a salad bar than in a bottle of wine”. Almost every bottle of wine in the world can “contain sulfites” as they are a naturally occurring and a byproduct of fermentation.
Winemakers use sulfites in order to prevent the potential growth of bacteria that will spoil the wine into vinegar.
Most people can safely consume sulfites with minimal risk of adverse side effects. In fact, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) estimates that only 1% of the population is sensitive to sulfites.
Sulfites are often blamed for the side effects that can come about from consuming wine - but given that 1% of the population are sensitive, side effects of imbibing are more likely to do with overindulgence or a reaction to histamines, tannins, high alcohol percentage, or that one is dehydrated. It is best to check with your doctor.
Nevertheless, we add an amount minimal, in line with some natural wine amounts and well below the federal government limit of 350ppm.