“The truth is, I never set out to start a sangria brand, it all happened naturally,” says Bo DiBuono, the founder and master blender of New Rochelle, NY-based Manor Sangria. Crafted from natural fruits and pinot noir, his signature drink sold by the glass during his time managing a tiki bar in Larchmont Manor. After garnering 15 years of rave reviews, he says, he started to believe the hype. “I would say ‘one day I will put this in a mason jar and sell it,’” DiBuono explains. The pandemic was that “one day” and in the two years since he launched, DiBuono has sold more than 100,000 jars. Primarily offered at farmer’s markets and coming in 2023 to New York liquor stores, the sangria ($25 per jar) comes in various blends, including Classic, which has apples and citrus; a not-too-spicy Jalapeno; Holiday, which features fresh cranberries and cinnamon; and Summer, with fresh peaches.
“The reason people love Manor Sangria is because we don’t use any liquors for flavor. It is all coming naturally from the fruits and is perfectly balanced,” says DiBuono, who also runs Happy Kid Lunch, a food service company that feeds upwards of 6,000 kids a day. Oh, and when we say he took those rave reviews into consideration, we mean it: He has never tasted his blends because he is allergic to the fruits in them. “The only reason I know it is good is because of my ability to blend flavors through many years of culinary experience,” he says.
