Denver entrepreneur producing healthy wines for women

By Jay McKinney

In the elegant world of wine, bottles are often labeled with beautiful imagery of vineyards and fancy names of chateaus they represent. Mom Juice, founded by Kristin Taylor and Macie Mincey, isn’t one of those wines. As the name suggests, Mom Juice is a wine that’s easy to drink, non-pretentious and made especially for all the mothers looking to treat themselves after a long day.

While the wines are made in Napa with California grapes, Kristin Taylor is a Denver resident who considers Colorado the home of the company. About five years ago, Taylor was living in Charlotte, North Carolina, and decided to buy a cheap ticket to Denver on a whim. She fell in love with the Colorado lifestyle and the dry climate that kept her hair from curling so much. She decided to move out west shortly thereafter.

“I love the south, but Denver just has something about it,” Taylor says. “Waking up and seeing a mountain outside your window is insane. I don’t know how I didn’t know that this existed for so many years, so now I’m never leaving.”

In 2020, while Taylor was working remotely for Dish Network, she found time to start KT Winery (the parent brand of Mom Juice). When Taylor decided she wanted to start a winery, she reached out to Macie Mincey, whom she had met years earlier through a blind business date and asked if she would be interested in consulting.

Mincey lives in Charlotte and had a tech start-up in the beauty space. While Taylor had relocated to Denver, she was eager for business guidance and convinced Mincey to join the partnership. Taylor admits that the promise of wine might’ve been a persuasive factor, despite Mincey being initially somewhat intimidated by wine.

Between Taylor’s love of the wine industry and Mincey’s passion to make wine more approachable for the consumer, Mom Juice has been thriving since it was launched. The wines can be found in more than 300 stores throughout Colorado.

Mom Juice currently produces four varietals: cabernet sauvignon, a red blend, rosé and a sauvignon blanc. However, the company is planning to release a sparkling non-alcoholic wine and hopes to collaborate with a Western Slope winery in the future.

Taylor initially wanted to make Mom Juice wine in Colorado, but it was logistically easier to produce it in Napa with the business goals she had. Despite her frequent trips to Napa, she has high praise for Colorado’s wine country.

“I would say Colorado’s wine country is the prettiest wine country I’ve seen in America,” Taylor says. “It’s insane to be drinking wine and there’s just this massive red rock formation next to you and there’s vineyards cascading.”

As an ambitious entrepreneur, Taylor has lofty goals for Mom Juice. She sees the company becoming a household name and is committed to making the wine with integrity and prioritizing sustainability.