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Spotted on on the counters of any hip kitchen, drizzled over aesthetically pleasing meals, or sizzling on the pan of foodies nationwide, olive oil-superstar Graza continues to be a fan favorite. But, for the holidays, Graza is leaving the kitchen for a place on the dinning table. On November 4, Graza released its “Nice Wine” Pinot Meunier holiday set, featuring the brand’s iconic Sizzle and Drizzle bottles, potato chips, a custom corkscrew, and yes, Gaza “Nice Wine.” “We heard from friends and customers that they now give Graza as a gift instead of wine,” co-founder and CEO of Graza Andrew Benin says. “Every single olive oil company’s next product would be a vinegar, salad dressing, or tomato sauce, just because that’s most logical and that’s not what we do.” While acting illogically seems counterintuitive, its is in the brands DNA to stand out by being different, setting itself apart through its bold packaging and a chef-inspired squeeze-bottle design. Featured Video An Inc.com Featured Presentation Just three years since its January 2022 launch, Graza is already an industry leader, representing 24 percent of the total olive oil growth in 2025, the company says. It’s also become the fifth largest national olive oil brand per Nielsen. With around 40 employees and offices in New York, Austin, and Spain, the olive oil is available at more than 11,000 retailers—a 2x increase from 2024. Selling a bottle every six seconds, Graza is on track to triple its gross sales this year, compared to $48 million last year. “I don’t think [another olive oil company] ever launched a wine,” Benin says. “So it’s definitely different, and that makes the small team motivated, because everything we’re doing is new.” Nice wine Contrary to what it sounds like, a glass of Graza Nice Wine does not taste like olive oil, Benin says. Paying homage to holiday flavors, it features hints of rooibos spices, cinnamon stick, and red berries. To bring the idea to reality, Benin partnered with natural wine distributor MYSA, who had access to an Oregon champagne grape that is usually not used for table wine. “We’re not going to launch a Pinot Noir and just be another Pinot Noir. We want people to try something different.” Benin says. “Launching wine is more in service of supporting our core business than a logical category expansion where you’re fighting amongst a lot of other people that have been established there. It’s just it reinforces our story.” And while Benin has no aspirations to make wine a year-round product, he says that sometimes its worth launching a product for fun. “It’s the holidays, we’re drinking it at the office, we’re gifting it to our friend, our families. It’s just a fun thing,” he says. “We were lucky to have the latitude to be able to launch something that a majority of people in our office just want to enjoy.” To collab or not to collab While there’s value in fun, releasing a wine also served as a learning opportunity for Graza. “It’s probably the first time we’re planning 12 months out in our in our history,” Benin says, a practice that is becoming increasingly more common at the company. This year, Graza has collaborated with hummus brand Ithaca, Firehook Crackers, and even ice cream brand Alec’s for a flavored ice cream, popcorn brand BjornQorn, and many more. “This company gets pitched by big CPG on licensing opportunities because they want to use our brand to try to reinvigorate their younger consumer base or try to access growth,” Benin says. “People don’t see is how selective it’s becoming.” Back to basics Even though many regard Graza as a success story, Benin still sees room for improvement. And to get there, he is going back to square one. For instance, this year Graza reexamined its bottle design, one of the main reasons behind its success. Seeing demand from some consumers for glass, rather than Graza’s signature plastic bottle, it introduced glass bottles as one of its available packaging options. Beyond packaging, Graza is in constant change from within, formalizing simple processes like goal setting to improve the company’s workflow. And oftentimes, lessons come from mistakes, he says. “This is like a living, breathing organism that gets sick sometimes and then builds more immunities because it got sick and made a bad decision.” From learning to properly budget, to improving forecasting, Benin emphasized the need for companies to improve not just their brand, but their business by investing time towards strengthening their financial and operational mechanisms. “Open up Harvard Business Review 2003 instead of Harvard Business Review 2025,” Benin says. “Take yourself back to basics and make sure that your team is set up for both components of running a business and also running the brand.”
