The sake-based hard seltzer Ysidro is a pandemic baby, born out of a dream inspired by a Zoom wine tasting, an open air walk allowed by social distancing rules, and that sense of why-the-hell-not that so many felt during Spring 2020’s end-of-days atmosphere. The wine tasting was hosted by Alex Dessouky, who’d just launched his Barrel Down Selections import company, and his Montecito neighbor, Monica Epstein, was one of many “attendees” staring at her computer screen and sipping along.
“The whole thing was very surreal,” she said of that early stay-at-home era. “That night, I had a dream that we were on Zoom and talking about a drink we had started.” She told her husband, Seth Epstein, about the vision, and then they ran into Dessouky while at Miramar Beach that same morning.
“We thought the world could end tomorrow,” recalled Dessouky, “so we figured we’d give it a shot.”