On the finish of each harvest, winemakers are left with tons and tons of grape pomace, the leftover skins, seeds, stems, and whatnot that stay after the juice that can develop into wine has been squeezed into tanks and barrels. For a lot of wineries, particularly the smaller ones, the gunk goes straight into the compost program, returning to the winery as mulch, whereas bigger outfits are in a position to convert the leftovers into every little thing from extra booze and cattle feed to grapeseed oil and tartaric acid.
However about 15 years in the past, vintners Peggy Furth, who based Chalk Hill Vineyards, and Barbara Banke, who owns Jackson Household Wines, figured there was a extra artistic use for the pomace. In 2009, they developed a course of to show their chardonnay skins into an ingredient known as WellVine Chardonnay Marc, which they then added to chocolate, giving the sweets a lift of polyphenols, antioxidants, and barely fruity taste. The result’s Vine to Bar, a variety of chocolate-covered almonds and flavored bars that depend on chardonnay from locations like Cambria Vineyard within the Santa Maria Valley, one among many Jackson Household properties.
“Conventional makes use of of pomace are definitely a good way to make sure that the leftover grapes from winemaking don’t find yourself in a landfill or in any other case utterly wasted,” mentioned Scott Forsberg, the chief working officer of mother or father firm WholeVine Merchandise. However that leaves worth on the desk.
“Decreasing a totally realized meals again into fertilizer or a by-product product that creates extra waste streams doesn’t seize its true worth,” mentioned Forsberg. “To the best extent attainable, that worth needs to be realized to enhance human well being and meals safety. We name this a better, higher use of the grape.”
Why simply chardonnay? As a result of, not like crimson wine grapes, the skins are pressed earlier than fermentation takes place. “Because of this the grapes utilized in Wellvine are primarily contemporary pressed fruit, made simply hours after harvesting,” mentioned Fosberg. “WellVine has all of the goodness of contemporary fruit however with 90 % much less sugar.” Chardonnay, he defined, additionally boasts a better degree of flavanols (the identical antioxidants present in inexperienced tea and cocoa) and much more oligosaccharides (fibers that promote pleasant intestine micro organism) than is present in breast milk.
On the flavour entrance, the WellVine product turns into 15 % of the ensuing chocolate combine, and its pure sweetness decreases the bitterness of the cocoa. Which means much less sugar in comparison with comparable candies. Toss in a little bit of pink Himalayan salt and almonds, or tart cherry and cocoa nibs, and there’s a lot to fulfill each the palate and the planet on this upcycled dessert.
See vinetobar.com.