You know that the Hallmark movie version of gingerbread house making and decorating is a lie. Or, you’re a parent in the real world, and the thought of making gingerbread houses every year fills you with agony. In contrast, well-behaved and tidy little ones carefully adorn their perfectly crafted gingerbread houses with sparkling gumdrops and sweet little giggles. When you think of gingerbread houses - depending on which camp you’re in - you either imagine making magical memories, Nat King Cole crooning in the background. Hopefully, people will gravitate towards that feeling.” “We just set out to apply our ideology to any given brand. “We don’t set out to be disruptors,” said Phinney. The distillery currently makes two agave spirits, a bourbon, and an American whiskey - Phinney’s favorite. Savage & Cooke is also banking on the iconography of their bottles, which are sure to stand out at any bar, especially the whiskeys. “Where we would stand apart in spirits is the fact that we’re growing our own grains and finishing in our wine barrels,” said Phinney about their process, which starts with crops like heirloom varietals of corn or Hawaiian sugarcane (the latter of which will turn into some small batch rum in the near future). Image used with permission by copyright holder But in this world, Phinney gets to step back from the process and let Jordan Via, master distiller, work his magic. His self-critical eye and deep knowledge of wine have mostly kept Phinney from drinking his wines. It’ll just be dictated essentially by the market.” “We have a rather large tasting room and then we have the space to grow. “We’re fortunate and sort of guilty of having too much space,” said Phinney about the sprawling property, easily capable of doubling production. Nestled in Vallejo, this San Francisco distillery sits on the first U.S. Years of not-so-subtle suggestions from his distributors, the discovery of a natural spring on one of his properties, and the purchase of an old naval yard that was just better suited to a distillery led to the opening of his Savage & Cooke. Mostly, because the universe willed him to do it. Unsurprisingly, 8 Years has been a huge hit, despite this remarkable follow-up to The Prisoner being mostly found in a pricey set of eight. Luckily, the 2017 is a bit more readily available solo.īut how did Phinney go from wines to hard liquor? To quit wine while he’s ahead? To chase higher ABVs than his already potent wines? “It wasn’t just that the wine had to be good.” “We take every aspect of a project hyper-seriously,” said Phinney, discussing the details put into the everything from the grapes to the label to the marketing. The aptly named 8 Years in the Desert marked the end of this restriction in 2016. Of course, with his long history in the wine world and relationships with various growers, he got the Zin-making itch about halfway through the non-compete. “So, the non-compete portion versus the monetary aspect … it was much more important that I was gonna get my life back.” “The success is great, but it comes at a price, which meant not spending enough time with my family,” said Phinney who was married with two young kids at the time of the sale. The catch? An eight-year-long non-compete agreement preventing him from making another delectable Zin blend. After years of hard work and well-deserved fame, Phinney, now 45, sold Orin Swift and his other wine brands and assets for a cool $300 million. The Prisoner was the cornerstone of Phinney’s Orin Swift Cellars, propelling the brand to stardom.
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