Pizza in a bottle? Behind a Kansas winery’s unusual collaboration with Pizza Hut
Ed and Cindy Irvine have been making tomato wine in Kansas for about 13 years now.
They produce other wines at Irvine’s Just Beyond Paradise, their family winery northeast of Lawrence — wines created from grapes, pears, apples and peaches. But Ed always liked how easy the process was with tomatoes.
“You can go from seed to bottle in nine months,” Irvine said. “Grapes are perennial — it takes four or five years after you plant the vine. Tomatoes are annual. Plus, nobody around here really makes tomato wine. I wanted to do something different, think outside the box.”
In April, Irvine’s tomato wine came to the attention of a marketing firm in New York working on behalf of Pizza Hut. The firm ordered a couple of bottles from Irvine, then asked for a few more to be shipped to the chain’s corporate headquarters in Plano, Texas.
“I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, this could be big for us,’” Irvine said.
His instincts were correct. In mid-November, Pizza Hut debuted its first-ever “pizza wine,” made in partnership with Irvine’s Just Beyond Paradise. Tomato Wine by Pizza Hut, as it’s formally called, sold out in less than 24 hours, and, as of Monday, Irvine said there’s a waiting list with more than 1,700 people ready to make a purchase once his winery can crank out more of the stuff.
You might be wondering: What’s in this stuff? Is it meant to complement a pizza? Or is it like drinking a pizza? Since when is tomato wine a thing?
That mystery and novelty was part of the appeal for Pizza Hut, Irvine said.
“I think they wanted something that would get people talking,” he said. “I was told they were thinking about working with Heinz on some kind of tomato wine, but then thought they might take a chance with a little winery. So they searched online and found us. Plus, we’re a winery from Kansas, and we use all Kansas tomatoes, which they liked since that’s where Pizza Hut started.” (The chain was founded in Wichita in 1956.)
The partnership required some modifications to Irvine’s products — a process made easier by the fact that Ed and Cindy’s son Ed. Jr. is a molecular biologist with a laboratory on site at Irvine’s Just Beyond Paradise.
“They wanted something more like a marinara sauce,” he said. “So we took our Pomodoro wine and added some oregano and basil and a hint of garlic to get it closer to what they wanted. They basically wanted it to be pizza in a bottle. So Ed Jr. was able to reformulate our existing tomato wine to Pizza Hut’s specifications.”
In marketing materials, Tomato Wine by Pizza Hut is described as “crafted from perfectly ripened tomatoes harvested at their peak of sweetness,” with “bright notes of herbs creating a savory, yet sweet, experience that challenges traditional wine boundaries.” It has a “subtle hint of toasted oak.”
A less elevated description of the wine might note that it is visually red but tastes more like a white. It is meant to be served chilled. It is 12.7% alcohol by volume. It’s a little garlicky. And it does not, Irvine said, taste like V8.
“Absolutely not,” Irvine said. “V8 doesn’t have alcohol. Ours tastes mostly like tomatoes. It goes nicely with pasta, spaghetti, pizza. It’s a good wine to cook with, too.
“We’re trying to stretch the limits of what wine can be,” he continued. “That’s been happening in the craft beer industry for a long time, and the same thing is starting to happen with wine. Wine isn’t just about grapes. There are these other wrinkles to the wine industry, and tomato wine is part of that.”
A bottle costs $25 — but after The Today Show, the New York Post, and other national media outlets covered the rollout, none are left.
Irvine said Pizza Hut wants more of the pizza wine “as quickly as possible,” so he and his family are racing to produce more bottles. They expect to have more to sell sometime in 2025. Until then, you can join the waiting list or try out Irvine’s Just Beyond Paradise other tomato-based varieties: the Tomato Table Wine and the Pomodoro, which go for $17 and $15 a bottle, respectively.
“Tomato wine — it’s not for everybody,” Irvine said. “But we get a lot of people who come by the tasting room and give it a try and say, ‘Wow, that’s not what I expected.’ And then they take home a bottle. So we were hoping people would feel that same way with this Pizza Hut deal. And so far I’d have to say it’s turned out pretty successful.”
This story was originally published December 3, 2024 at 1:30 PM.
