Startup Stories of Spirits Entrepreneurs: Re:Find Handcrafted Spirits
Contributed by on Nov 28, 2015
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Begin in the wine country with wine, add a passion for spirits and a drive for sustainability, and the result is Re:Find Distillery. Started in 2011 by Alex and Monica Villicana, Re:Find was born out of a crossover of these interests.
Alex Villicana has been a winemaker in Paso Robles since 1993. During his more than twenty years as a winemaker, he noticed that the winemaking process resulted in a lot of leftover juice. According to Villicana, it is not uncommon for producers of Rhône varietals (Syrah, Grenache, Mourvèdre) to bleed a percentage of the free-run juice (resulting in rosé colored juice) from the red wine grapes before fermentation in order to concentrate the quality of the wine. As much as 30 to 40 percent of juice is lost when one bleeds out this fresh juice, resulting in the waste of a used byproduct from wineries.
The Inspiration
Villicana saw the amount of waste and, with a growing desire to be sustainable, began coming up with ideas of what he could do with the leftover juice. Instead of dumping it, he thought about making a traditional aged brandy, but found that it was too costly as it is necessary to age the brandy. He thought about pasteurizing the juice and selling it, but it was a challenge to set up the pasteurization process. Then, eight years ago, Villicana tried Ciroc Vodka, a grape-based vodka, and the idea was born to make vodka and gin from his leftover juice.
Read the complete story at FoodableTV.com