Stella Rosa Wine: The Riboli Family's Sweet, Fizzy Range

Stella Rosa is a range of semi-sweet, semi-sparkling wines from Italy, created by the Riboli family of Los Angeles. The main wines the brand lists have 5% alcohol, come in flavors from Black to Peach to Moscato d’Asti, and cost about $12 at US stores. In our view, it suits anyone who finds dry wine too sharp and wants something light and fruity, chilled. Tastings.com scored several of the non-vintage wines 90 or 91 points in December 2025, the only professional scores we could confirm, and at these prices that earns a value verdict on our method. This guide covers who’s behind it, what’s in the range, how sweet and strong it is, and what you’ll pay. Wine Blue Book is independent and isn’t affiliated with Stella Rosa, the Riboli family or San Antonio Winery.

The story behind Stella Rosa

The family’s story starts with a Los Angeles winery, according to San Antonio Winery’s own history page:

• 1910: Santo Cambianica leaves Berzo San Fermo, Italy, and eventually settles in downtown Los Angeles.
• 1917: He founds San Antonio Winery, named for his patron saint.
• Prohibition: The Archdiocese of Los Angeles permits the winery to make sacramental wine, which helps it survive.
• 1946: His nephew Stefano Riboli marries Maddalena Satragni.
• 1956: Santo dies, and Stefano is granted full ownership. The winery’s page lists family members through a fourth generation.

Stella Rosa came much later. VinePair’s 2020 profile says customers in the Los Angeles tasting room kept asking for lighter, sweeter wines, and that the family responded with a Moscato d’Asti, followed by Stella Rosa Rosso. A 2019 report in Kane’s Beverage News Daily likewise says the brand was created for patrons who wanted something sweeter. No exact launch year appears on the brand’s site, but Beverage Industry’s 2017 report said the family created it “about 14 years ago”, which would point to around 2003.

The Italian connection runs through Maddalena Riboli. The brand’s story places its start in Asti, in Piedmont, her hometown, and its product pages label the wines a product of Italy. So in our view, “Italian wine from an LA family” is the simplest way to describe it.

How big it has become

Shanken News Daily reported in January 2023, citing Impact Databank, that Stella Rosa grew from 1 million cases in 2015 to more than 7.2 million in 2021. Steve Riboli, then president and CEO, called 2022 “a tough year”, and the 2023 forecast was just over 6 million cases, still more than double pre-pandemic levels. We didn’t find a more recent figure we could open.

How it’s made and what style it is

VinePair describes the wines as frizzante (semi-sparkling), made by stopping fermentation early and using the tank method. Stopping fermentation early is what leaves both natural grape sugar and low alcohol in the wine, because yeast makes alcohol by consuming sugar. Our guide to low-alcohol wine explains the same idea in other light styles.

The brand’s own wording is “semi-sweet, semi-sparkling”, and it describes Stella Rosa Rosso as “America’s first semi-sweet, semi-sparkling red wine straight from Asti”, a claim we report as the brand’s own. It says that wine led to more than 25 flavors.

The Stella Rosa range

The brand’s product pages describe the main wines as follows. The flavor notes are the brand’s, in brief. We don’t taste the wines ourselves.

Wine	Style	Grape, per the brand	ABV, per the brand	Brand’s flavor notes
Moscato d’Asti DOCG	Semi-sweet white	Muscat Canelli	5%	Ripe pear and apple
Black	Semi-sweet red	Brachetto	5%	Blackberry, blueberry, raspberry
Red	Semi-sweet red	Brachetto	5%	Raspberry, wild strawberry, red plum
Peach	Semi-sweet white	Moscato	5%	White peach and honey

Beyond these, the brand and Target list many other flavors, including Rosso Red Berry (strawberries and red berries, per the brand), Blueberry, Berry Rosé, Pink, Pineapple, Watermelon, Green Apple and Tropical Mango, plus a Chili series (Mango, Pineapple, Watermelon, Lime) and a sparkling Pomegranate. It also makes Naturals, a non-alcoholic line, as well as brandy and cream liqueurs. Our guide to non-alcoholic wine explains how those products are made in general.

Sizes vary by flavor: the brand lists 250 ml, 750 ml and 1.5 liters for Black, and 187 ml, 250 ml and 750 ml for Peach. Small bottles can be an easy way to try one before committing to a full bottle.

Note: The Moscato d’Asti is the one wine here with an Italian DOCG (a protected appellation) in its name.

Sweetness and alcohol: what’s published

• Alcohol. The brand states 5% ABV for Black, Red, Peach and Moscato d’Asti. Tastings.com agrees on 5% for Black, Red and Peach but lists 5.5% for Moscato d’Asti and Rosso, and VinePair said in 2020 that the wines generally run about 5.5%, with some near 10%. Read your label.
• Sweetness. The brand says semi-sweet and gives no number on the pages we opened. Tastings.com calls Black, Red, Peach and Moscato d’Asti moderately sweet and lists 10% residual sugar (the sugar left in the finished wine) for each. We found no published calorie figure. If you’re tracking sugar, our guide to low-sugar wine covers the drier styles.
• Gluten and vegan status. The brand’s FAQ says its wines are gluten-free. It lists many wines as vegan, including Black, Red, Berry, Peach, Pink, Blueberry, Green Apple and Moscato (blue capsule), but not every flavor appears on that list. If you have a medical condition, ask your doctor.

What it costs in stores

Regular (non-sale) prices we opened in November 2026, for 750 ml non-vintage bottles:

Wine	Target	Other US retailer
Stella Rosa Black	$11.99	$11.95 at BuyWinesOnline; $13.99 regular at ShopSK
Stella Rosa Moscato d’Asti	$11.99	$11.95 at BuyWinesOnline
Stella Rosa Peach	$11.99	$12.99 at The Barrel Tap
Stella Rosa Red	$11.99	$12.99 at The Barrel Tap

Target also listed Rosso Red Berry at $11.99 and the 1.5-liter Black at a regular $22.99. We confirmed those two at one store only, so we treat them as a rough guide.

BuyWinesOnline labels its price “sale price” but shows no discount and no higher regular price, so we count it as the shelf price. Target’s Moscato listing is titled “Moscato”, and its description names the Moscato d’Asti DOCG. The brand says its wines are sold in the United States, select Costco stores in Mexico, and the Philippines. Prices vary by state and store.

Is Stella Rosa good? What critics say

Tastings.com, the review site of the Beverage Testing Institute, is the one professional source we could open with current scores. It rated these on December 9, 2025. For each wine this is the only professional score we could confirm, and each verdict below rests on that one score, which our Blue Book Value method allows as long as we say so.

Wine (NV)	Tastings.com score	Its summary, in brief	Price, Nov 2026	Verdict
Black	91, Gold Medal	Red berry and fruit punch	about $12–$14	Great Value
Peach	91, Gold Medal	Peach, citrus, herbal notes	about $12–$13	Great Value
Red	90, Gold Medal	Strawberry-led, sweet and bubbly	about $12–$13	Great Value
Moscato d’Asti	88, Silver Medal	Dried stone fruit, nectarine	about $12	Great Value
Rosso	85, Silver Medal	Sweet, berry and cocoa	$11.99 at Target only	No verdict: price confirmed at one store only

The thresholds are 90 to 92 points at $20 or less and 88 to 89 at $15 or less for a Great Value. All five are sold as NV (non-vintage), so there is no year to match: a score applies to the release tasted, and your bottle may come from a newer one. Tastings.com is also the only publication behind these numbers, and we’d like to see a second critic’s view: we found none for current releases.

In our view, Stella Rosa is still best judged by whether you enjoy a sweet, fizzy style. Its 5% label makes it lighter than most table wines, though it’s still alcohol. If you’d like to compare it with other sweet sparkling bottles, we’d start with our best Moscato list.

How to serve and store it

The brand suggests serving chilled. Its pairing ideas lean toward cheese and fruit: Havarti and Manchego with Black, Asiago and mixed berries with Red, fresh fruit, salted nuts and pad Thai with Moscato d’Asti.

Its FAQ gives a general shelf life of one to two years unopened and says to refrigerate an opened bottle and drink it within two to three days. In our view, that’s reason enough to buy a smaller size if you only want a glass or two.

Wine is for adults of legal drinking age (21 in the US). Please drink responsibly.