The Future Is Bubbly: How LoSecco’s Zero-Sugar Prosecco Is Redefining Wellness in Wine

Want to go to Tuscany with Laurie in 2026? Email laurie@thewinecoach.com for a brochure all about her Treasures of Tuscany Wine Tour October 12-17, 2026--A wine filled week exploring the best wine and food that Tuscany has to offer!

Summary

In this episode of The Sipping Point, Laurie Forster, The Wine Coach®, uncorks a conversation with Monika Elling, founder and CEO of Lo Secco Prosecco. Together, they dive into the story behind this innovative zero-sugar Prosecco that’s changing the way we think about sparkling wine. Monika shares her inspiring journey into the wine world, her mission to bring nutritional transparency to the industry, and the challenges of crafting a high-quality, low-sugar wine that still delivers on flavor and fun. They also explore how her personal health journey shaped her vision for wellness-focused wines and the exciting future of mindful wine marketing. 

Takeaways

• Monika Elling champions zero sugar as the soul of LoSecco Prosecco.
• She’s leading the charge for nutritional transparency in wine.
• LoSecco Prosecco pairs perfectly with today’s wellness-minded lifestyle.
• Monika’s background in health and nutrition shapes every bottle she creates.
• She calls for bold innovation and honesty in the wine industry.

Wines Tasted

Lo Secco Prosecco $24.99

Find out more about Lo Secco Prosecco CLICK HERE

Mark your calendars for 12/10 for my virtual tasting Bubbly Bash 2025 where we'll try a few of my favorite bubblies and toast to the great year of wine we have shared!

Transcript

Laurie Forster (00:29)
Welcome back to The Sipping Point. This week we're focusing on Prosecco and a new Prosecco coming to the market called Losecco Prosecco, which has zero sugar added. Do you know how much sugar is in your wine? Well, most of us don't because wines don't have any nutritional labeling. Well, Monica Elling is going to school us on that and so much more. I'm very excited to bring her into the show in just a minute. Just a reminder.

To mark your calendar, December 10th is my next virtual wine tasting, Bubbly Bash 2025. We are gonna feature four amazing bubblies that are perfect for the holidays and beyond. If you wanna sign up, go to thewinecoach.com and click on events and you can get a ticket. You'll get information on the wines you wanna get so you can sip along with me and more.

All right, my Treasures of Tuscany tour is open. We already have about 10 people signed up to travel with me throughout the Tuscan countryside on a wine-filled journey, October 12th to the 17th, 2026. If you're interested in learning more, you can also go to the website, click events, and there are a couple of spots left. So definitely check that out soon

Okay, let's bring Monica into the show. Monica Elling is founder and CEO of Loseco Prosecco. She's a seasoned global industry professional and she has experience on the supplier, wholesale and entrepreneurial side of things. She was key in the creation and strategic development of brands like Empress 1908 gin and

known for her wine blending skills, her expertise in strategy, and deep understanding of market trends, consumer behavior. She's committed to fostering innovation and her leadership has been recognized by people like Goldman Sachs. She's a certified nutritional psychology professional, published author, and serves as a media contributor and mentor to startups in the industry. So let's go ahead and bring her into the show.

Laurie Forster (02:29)
Monica, welcome to The Sipping Point.

Monika (02:31)
Thanks so much for having me, Lori.

Laurie Forster (02:33)
Well, I'm so excited. We actually connected on TikTok, which is funny because people might not think we are the demographic for TikTok, but we are. And I was really drawn to the Losecco Prosecco, which we're going to talk about today. But I always love to find out in the beginning of these interviews how everyone came to the wine business. And I know my listeners love to hear that as well. How did you end up in the wine business?

Monika (02:57)
I'm still figuring that out. But basically there was no grand scheme, there was no grand plan. I grew up with wine, I was born and raised in Europe and then we came to the US. But there was no specific route for me. I started out in marketing and Assachi & Sachi universe right out of school, Madison Avenue, classic advertising, publishing direction.

Laurie Forster (02:59)
If right.

Monika (03:23)
And then I started to, I got married, started to have my children. And in that regard, I got involved in international trade and investment promotion because it was the period of 1989, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the revamp of post-communist Europe. And I wanted to give back because my family hails from Budapest in Hungary. And I thought it was a great time for me to get involved.

And so as I ran an organization, a nonprofit, one of the biggest tasks at hand was the privatization of the wine industry, of the legendary wine industry in Tokai. And through that, met pretty much everybody. My first vineyard walk was with Tibor Gal of Ornellaia And then it just went from there to Vega Sicilia Aksumalesame, Jean-Michel Cas, some of the great legends of the industry.

And six months later, I found myself in the wine industry.

Laurie Forster (04:20)
wow, that's amazing. you know, you've are so early on, you had so many legendary experiences. And now you've created your own brand, which is the Losecco Prosecco. I love that it's vegan, it's low carb, it's low calorie, and it's sugar free. It's very mindful. It's very in tune with today's consumers where, you know, we don't necessarily want to cut out alcohol, but we want

to be healthier and more mindful, what was the impetus or the inspiration to create a brand like this?

Monika (04:52)
Well, being in the wine business, as you know, we live the good life. So we're always being entertained or entertaining. in that zone and good wine is just part of that lifestyle. So the thought for me was from the very beginning, I was a nationally ranked tennis player in my teens and grew up to play D1.

So my journey in health and nutrition and fitness began very early on. And the connectivity between what happens in my body from a nutritional fueling standpoint, it was something I drew from and drew on in the early days. The best part of that was today, these things are all branded. So I was doing what's today known as keto, low carb, intermittent fasting. I just called it skipping breakfast because

That was what my body was telling me. So I was very connected on that level and that built a lifelong nutritional path for me that changed over time. So whether it was post pregnancy with each of my three children or even just as age plays a role in how your body impacts or rather how food impacts your body.

All those things have been part of my personal journey. And it's the nutritional mindset that I've also given my children. Two of the three were nationally ranked athletes. So swimming, tennis, these are all grueling sports and very, very much nutrition based in terms of the quality of your performance. taking all that into stride and then looking at some of the

products that are in our sphere, wine spirits, so whether it's cocktails or a glass of wine, I realized and I recognized that the sugar was a problem, whether it's in cocktails using simple syrup or whatever ingredients or in wine where they have high residual sugars in it.

And people don't realize, particularly I think Prosecco is in a path of high sugar levels. And I was just hell bent on creating something that was super clean, aromatic, where there is no feeling of less than. So I blend, one of the things I do for clients around the world is blend wines. I've hit wine spectator top 100 several times. So quality and flavor profile are paramount to me.

Laurie Forster (07:14)
Nice.

Monika (07:18)
It begins right there. And if you can't deliver a high quality and a delicious product, you're just going in the wrong direction as far as I'm concerned. What I set out to do was to work with premium fruit and then to deliver an incredible flavor profile and wine experience, meanwhile eliminating things that cause a problem in the body, namely the sugar side.

Laurie Forster (07:42)
And might be the right time in a minute here to taste the Loseco. And I know we both have it ready. I'm going to show it for our video watchers so they can see the label and I'll post a link for those who are listening audio. When we go, let's go ahead and taste it. And then I want to talk about sugar and how that affects our body and why this is so important. I mentioned to you before we got going with the interview that I don't

really drink a lot of Prosecco anymore because I find so many of them are sweet. And when I'm getting champagne, I know to look for brut because I know pretty much that's one of the driest styles. There's extra brut or brut-nature, which is what this is, zero sugar. But a lot of the Prosecco's on the market right now are extra dry. And tell people what extra dry really means.

Monika (08:31)
Sure. So we do a great job confusing consumers with our labeling and our information as an industry as a whole. And case in point, the extra dry. Extra dry actually has a very high level of sugar in it. And most prosecco ranges between 16 to 40 grams of sugar per liter. We are

a trace, so a technical zero on a five ounce pour. And you know, the question I've had from people, well, what else do you put in it? I said, absolutely nothing. When you use really high quality fruit, then you're going to get all those flavors and aromatics as a, as someone who blends wine and works on wine for clients around the world.

I always look at high sugar levels in some ways as disguising poor quality fruit. So all you're really getting is a sugar bomb and not a high quality wine product. So I want something that tastes amazing, that's good for me. And frankly, a lot of the myths out there about alcohol and about sulfites have been just that because it's really about the sugar.

in these products. Sugar acts as an accelerant when combined with alcohol. So to me, when you drop on the sugar side or eliminate it to bare bones, then you don't have most of those side effects. It's not about reducing alcohol. When you reduce alcohol, you have to put something back in. And we don't have that. We have standard 11 % alcohol. It's a full wine experience.

And frankly, it's better tasting than just about any other Prosecco out there. That's not me saying it. That's consumers coming back to us. They've called it Angel's Brew. They've called it the Champagne of Prosecco. So we're getting unbelievable consumer response.

Laurie Forster (10:12)
Mmm.

I mean, it has all of the great aromas on the nose, the apple, the pear, peach that you might expect, and the elegant bubbles. But that nice dry finish is just so much more refreshing to me. And that's what I look for when I'm looking for a sparkling wine. And this really delivers. It's a DOC, which is one of the, of course, parts of the quality pyramid in Italy.

Monika (10:30)
Mm-hmm.

you

Laurie Forster (10:42)
And I do appreciate that. obviously the sugar can play into say, after effects, you know, like the alcohol hitting you faster, or even hangovers, I know. But you've talked before about because I know you have a background in nutrition and psychology, but the difference between, if I have a steak versus having a bowl of ice cream,

Monika (10:48)
Yes.

Mm-hmm.

Laurie Forster (11:04)
what that does to our body and how did that play into your thoughts as well for this?

Monika (11:10)
Sure.

So the information from the media out there, generally speaking, has been also misguided. And we get to tell the real story. And the real story is it's not about the calories. It never was. The reality is you can have 100 calories of steak, 100 calories of ice cream, and your body will be saying, yay, on the one hand, and screaming at you on the other, because you will see the blood glucose spikes.

So people are becoming more more aware of diabetes too. Certainly we have 76 % or higher metabolic disease in this country, which is outrageous. And the awareness is really rising. The reality is insulin spikes, glucose spikes are detrimental to your health. They create metabolic resistance. They drive disease of all sorts. And that's the last thing you really want.

So when wines out there or products out there say, oh, low calorie or 100 calories, I don't really care. There are products out there, RTD sweetened with agave. Fructose is the worst possible type of sugar that you can use in terms of your body's reactions. So.

It doesn't matter about the calories. What does matter is removing the sugar or getting to a zero sugar level. And then of course, the quality and the flavor profile, you know, it wouldn't matter if it didn't taste good. It only matters because it's really good.

Laurie Forster (12:34)
Mm-hmm. It does.

It does. It tastes delicious. And, you know, I'll hear from consumers when I'm doing wine events or different things around the country that, you know, hey, sometimes I pick my wine based on the label, you know, is that wrong? But obviously, you as a marketer and a seasoned wine executive know that the packaging does matter. It needs to be great inside to get me to get it a second time maybe, but...

Monika (12:57)
So.

Laurie Forster (13:00)
Tell me about the inspiration for the label, the packaging, and then we're going to talk about the nutritional info on the back.

Monika (13:07)
Absolutely. we, first of all, we are an agency, brand development, brand creation agency. And so we know that packaging has to align with the brand quality, the price point, everything has to align to have a winner because consumers have a split second decision when they walk by a shelf, whether that's a digital shelf or physical shop, it is absolutely paramount.

This category has had very little innovation in last 15 years. when we put, or rather as we see it in retail already, in the last few weeks as we've rolled out, we are seeing the difference on the shop level. So our bottle pops on the shop level. It looks nothing like the rest of the Prosecco lineup, and that was by Pure Intents. Losecco, we wanted to make sure it was pronounceable internationally and that it did convey

something around, hmm, I should think about this. There's something more to this brand than just being a Prosecco. So we wanted to start that conversation from the first sighting. And the pronounceability is a big deal because when you're talking about an international brand, you want to make sure that people of all languages can remember it and have an ease of use.

Laurie Forster (14:22)
Absolutely. The clear bottle, think, is something that's very identifiable. I don't know if there are any others, but to me, that was like, ooh, this is a little different. And of course, the label is gorgeous. On the back, you have the nutritional information on there. And by law, you're not required to put that on there. Strangely, when you take a wine and you de-alcoholize it and make it a non-alcohol or an NA wine, you

have to put the nutritional information on there. But when you're a wine with alcohol, you don't. But I always wish that people would do that so we kind of know what we're getting into for calorie-wise, nutritional information, but also some large companies put additives and different things in the wine that are legal, but I don't necessarily want in there. What was the decision around the nutritional labeling for you?

Monika (15:12)
So the entire premise of this brand is it's a different day. It's a different consumer market globally. And I personally align with your thoughts. I want to know. And my market segment, and I don't really talk about demographics because I don't care about that. I care about lifestyle and I care about market segmentation. So if you're following

a better for you nutritional direction and you look at labels and you want to know what you're putting in your body and you don't necessarily trust even a whole foods tuna salad which I now find out has sugar in it and you actually yeah believe it or not that was yesterday's incident and the whole idea that you are now really

aware of the bombardment that we're facing in terms of food and agricultural products, whether it's chemicals or additives and definitely sugar and everything. In fact, check your salt at home. You'll be surprised. So those people in terms of a market segment, I don't care if they're 21 or 121 or any age in between. I don't care if they're male, female because

Laurie Forster (16:13)
Mm-hmm.

Monika (16:24)
This is about improving our lives and that begins with health and really not creating a lesser experience. This is where I digress and differ from the non-alcoholic or de-alcoholized movement. That's always been around. It's not new. So I'm not really sure why everybody's even talking about it. It's always existed. It's never tasted great.

Laurie Forster (16:46)
Yeah.

Monika (16:49)
And from a winemaking principle, when you remove the alcohol, you have to add things back in. And those things are not favorable to your health. In fact, they're detrimental. So you're adding sugar, you're adding chemicals and things to create stability because alcohol stabilizes a product on a shelf. So a lot of these things have to have other preservatives in order, including sugar, in order to make them shelf stable.

Laurie Forster (16:58)
Mm-hmm.

Monika (17:17)
How is that better for you? It is not. This, this is made in the vineyard. That's it. So.

Laurie Forster (17:21)
Yes, as it should be. ⁓

Had to catch a second sip there, so should you. And while we're on this topic, you've challenged out there openly everything from cereal marketing to the food pyramid, which thankfully is being challenged, I think, in a major way right now. Tell us any outdated wine myths that you want to challenge or just eradicate here on the show.

Monika (17:47)
Well, I think we have to think about wine as an agricultural product, which it is. And so I do believe that we are dealing with some of the fallout from other agricultural elements such as glyphosate and the like. And to me, these are things that we are going to be addressing as an industry immediately because

There is a movement for some US wine makers to take it out of their production, their vineyards and so forth, but it's a slow go. I think consumers want better solutions faster. So the transparency, I think, is going to come for the industry and we're leading that conversation.

Laurie Forster (18:28)
I like that. And another one that I often will talk about on the show is that great wine doesn't have to be expensive. And I noticed that at least you sell this direct to consumer on your website. It was priced at $24.99. I believe what a great price point. It seems to be a sweet spot for a lot of consumers that are looking for great wine. $25 and under is a great place to be.

Let folks know your website. can go into, I think we said 40 states, and then tell us a little bit about where you're also on the retail shelves.

Monika (19:08)
Sure. So you can now purchase for most of the country we deliver and once you put in your address, you will know if your state is allowed or not. But most states are clear for us to ship to and you can go to the loseccoprosecco.com and essentially place an order. We will have a lot of exciting things coming out over the course of the next four to six weeks. We will have a full robust website and lots of information including on nutrition and on

wine pairings, wine tastings on cocktails that are using our Losecco but are keeping the sugar levels at minimum. So we'll have a lot of fun stuff there. And then we just started in the market three weeks ago in Connecticut and we are rolling out in the Northeast and we will be heading to other states over the course of the next few months. It's been rapid fire. We have

ton of major retailers excited about the brand because they know their customers and they have the customers that are looking for this kind of lifestyle to translate into their wine experience.

Laurie Forster (20:18)
I mean, obviously you've had much success even before Losecco Bricecco. I knew you were part of the Empress Gin brand and that was such a success. I actually have a bottle right behind me here. There you go. ⁓ Big fan. But, you know, if there are other women or men that are out there and maybe, you know, younger generation just getting started,

Monika (20:31)
you

Laurie Forster (20:40)
What kind of advice would you give them to start a beverage brand, a wine brand, or just kind of get into the industry? Where do they get started?

Monika (20:49)
I think the great place to be involved is on the sales side within distribution. Frankly, because you have to understand how that product travels in a highly regulated marketplace. It's not just what you see coming off the shelf. There's a whole other universe behind it. It's more alike with pharmaceuticals frankly in terms of regulatory than anything else.

And that understanding, that comprehension allows you to create strategies and plans that will at some point be able to translate into both the consumer side and the trade side because this industry, call it really B2C2B, not B2B2C, but because I put the consumer first. Most brands in this arena don't. They're considering themselves B2B.

Laurie Forster (21:34)
Mmm, nice.

Monika (21:40)
And that is just so outdated. I have no allegiance to that at all. So to me, as consumer first, I know that I create a brand and a product and a quality level that consumers will love and then backfill through the trade and the three tier system and the global trade routes.

Laurie Forster (21:58)
Nice. I love that. And great advice. Sales is always a great place to start because you kind of see all aspects of the business and then you can kind of figure out where you want to go from there. I did a little bit of that myself, of trying the sales, the retail, the restaurant. And I figured out that wine education was what I love. And now you know what you love building other brands, but now you've created this amazing brand yourself. So

Monika (22:15)
Mm-hmm.

Laurie Forster (22:25)
I think your story is super inspiring

Monika (22:28)
We're getting wonderful, wonderful feedback and multiple repeat purchases. So I'm just so excited to share a wine of this caliber that is actually not going to upset you as far as nutrition goals and will be aligned with longevity targets and wellness.

It's just great fun for me to be able to bring such a brand to market.

Laurie Forster (22:50)
you have now restored my love for Prosecco because this is the style that I absolutely enjoy. so thank you so much for sharing this with me. And Monica, thanks for coming on The Sipping Point.

Monika (23:03)
Laurie, thanks so much for having me. Cheers.

Laurie Forster (23:04)
Of course,

cheers.

Laurie Forster (23:06)
I hope you guys enjoyed the show, getting to know Monica and Losecco Prosecco, super dry. I am absolutely loving it. It has redeemed my thoughts on Prosecco. You can check it out at LoseccoProsecco.com. If you're interested in finding out more about my virtual tasting on December 10th, the Bubbly Bash 2025, or possibly joining me on a trip to Tuscany, just go to thewinecoach.com, click on events and you'll get all the information.

If you enjoy the show, please share it with another wine lover. I always love to have more people join us for our fun journey in the world of wine. And until next week, cheers.