When Fabienne Stanitz founded Luxembourg-based startup FabstWines, she wanted to marry her passion for wine and hospitality. Less than a year later and she had already expanded into Germany.
In May of 2024, FabstWines launched its pilot testing phase with 10 winemakers in Luxembourg. In November it launched its MVP platform. “It worked so well that within four weeks, we had 80% of the Luxembourg market,” Fabienne Stanitz explains. “In February, we expanded in Germany and already have over 100 winemakers on the waiting list, which we’re onboarding step by step.”
The founder adds that FabstWines has also started officially working with a German government institution, although at the time of interview she was not at liberty to reveal which one. “They’re creating innovative grape varieties and will start doing their initial wine tastings now with our platform,” she explains. “We’re super excited about this.”
Competitive industry
The fact that there isn’t a lot of information on FabstWines’ website is intentional: competition is notoriously fierce in the sector, plus there are worries about copycats cropping up. For now, the platform includes the winemakers they’re working with, alongside events those winemakers have, etc.
FabstWines itself isn’t an online shop but more of a matchmaking site for wine lovers. Winemakers pay a yearly membership, and FabstWines helps promote their products and events, including highlighting the people and history behind the labels on its own social media. The ultimate goal, Stanitz says, is to support local wine growers—if a consumer is interested in heavy-bodied Italian reds, for instance, could there something more local that could appeal to that consumer?
“We look for you and make wine searching a bit easier… we call it a vineyard-to-table concept [like farm-to-table], so we support local suppliers and get more of an ongoing local distribution in wine, which will help the winemakers and individual consumers to explore their neighbours.”
For Stanitz, priority is on the flavour profile of the wines, price is secondary. “There’s no such thing as bad wine, it just depends on who’s the consumer,” she says. “Wine is so complex and every vintage, every year tastes different. The same grape varieties harvested by two different winemakers taste completely different.”
Users can participate in a “tasting game” and then FabstWines matches the right wines for individual consumer taste profiles.
“Wine is such a delicate product,” Stanitz adds. “You know how a grape tastes, but if you drink a wine, it can suddenly taste like strawberries, blueberries or tobacco—different things which aren’t actually in the wine. It’s all about taste, and individual preferences are so different.”
With many of the Luxembourg winemakers already on board, FabstWines is now exploring with three different wine bars to discover a model where they’d also have an added benefit.
Entrepreneurial journey
Raised in an entrepreneurial family, Stanitz always knew she wanted to do something independent—she just wasn’t immediately sure what.
“I was very interested in intercultural management, how different people from different counties behave,” she says. [For understanding] how we can all live together in a globalised world to grow business, it’s very important to understand different mentalities.”
An avid traveller, she had worked in hospitality in several different countries. Despite the challenges the sector faced during the covid-19 pandemic, Stanitz saw positive aspects, like when she helped restaurants with their conceptualisation phases, as well as the overall luxury experience.
“I loved making people smile… to make them happy and help them have this feeling of escape from their lives, creating good memories,” she says.
Ultimately, Stanitz realised she enjoyed being in vineyards and visiting wine cellars and, during her travels, she’d often ask locals for recommendations. Whether she was tasting Bhutanese rice wine or a rare lychee wine in Mauritius, she discovered she wanted to start a company supporting the international wine industry.
Adapting the business plan
Stanitz enrolled in the prestigious Glion Institute of Higher Education in Montreux, Switzerland, where she earned her MS in hospitality, entrepreneurship and innovation. During her 18-month programme, she was awarded a leadership prize and became a senior ambassador, through which she managed a team of student ambassadors and coordinated with the student affairs body.
It was during this time that she also wrote the business plan for what would later become FabstWines. Fascinated by the history of vineyards and their history sometimes over many generations, she has wanted to “support the international wine industry and show consumers a bit more about what it means, how special it can be, and help winemakers be more successful.”
In March 2023, she launched FabstWines. Its name is a play on her own first and last name, and the fact that “Fabst” is so unique means that “I have an amazing SEO on Google!”
At the start, she was flying solo but placed in a number of startup competitions, like the Creative Young Entrepreneur Luxembourg (CYEL) award in 2023, and entered the Fit 4 Start acceleration programme.
Today the team still counts Stanitz as the sole full-time employee, but there are six freelance contractors who help her with operations and tech development. She’s planning to hire more staff in the coming months, particularly in sales and distribution, which she hopes will free up some of her time.
Her tips to other entrepreneurs? “Take care of yourself first. If you only prioritise your business, you’ll have a burnout,” she says, adding that she’s less concerned about competition since it can foster innovation, but that it can take some time to learn how to define limits for one’s own well-being.
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