SOMETHING ENTIRELY DIFFERENT - WINE GIN!

            Alex Villicana is on to something, or at least 94.9% of something. He and his wife Monica started planting their vineyard in 1996 and after an attempt with Chardonnay, they discovered a truism for much of the Paso Robles area - it was too warm at their site, so they grafted over those vines to Rhone varietals.

As every grower or hopeful winery operator knows, they needed a market for the product. Part of the winemaking process often used in the Rhone is the bleeding off of some juice prior to starting fermentation to aid concentration of flavor. As with many agricultural byproducts, finding a use for that excess juice might be a business opportunity. In Villicana's case, this was a significant part of the yield from his available tonnage. Thus was born Re:Find Distillery.

As we all know, the government loves to regulate things. Alcohol is one of its favorites, putting a "sin" tax and lots of rules along every step of the way from production to consumption. Alex discovered a favorable unintended consequence. Wineries are allowed to make brandy from their grapes, with a controlled level of alcohol. As long as the distilled spirit does not reach 95% alcohol, and it is derived from grapes, it is legally a brandy. an allowed use. So, they pull the neutral result of brandy distillation just short of that mark. This can then be treated and aged for flavoring, as has been done for many years with other fruit infused versions of grape based spirits.

Getting the heart of the ethanol fraction of the total alcohols available means a loss of about 50% of the initial volume of juice. The juice is fermented to about 17% before a first run through the condenser, raising the total alcohol to the 40% vicinity but retains the "heads & tails". Those are the unwanted components such as methanol and acetone that bracket the desired neutral spirit. The final distillation completes that separation.

In this case, the resulting spirit is either bottled as a neutral brandy or is flavored with botanicals, much like gin in terms of the end flavor profile, and is sold as a botanical brandy. Voila! It took several years of development and paperwork that led to a 60 gallon copper still, heated by steam, brought over from Germany. After some trial runs, Villicana found that the larger Rhone grapes, when well ripened gave the taste he liked and produced a soft and pleasing beverage. The unflavored version is much like a triple distilled vodka and carries a trace of the fruit onto the palate.

Alex hopes to see a six hundred case level of production soon and sells the result at the winery or on line at refinddistillery.com or check out their wines at villicanawinery.com. The future may hold a rye based offering, growing his own flavoring botanicals at the winery and experimenting with other flavors in the infusions.