New Company Makes Innovative Use Of Wine Leftovers

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Jul 22nd 2007 at 12:02PM

Yesterday I mentioned distilleries that use old whisky casks as barbecue chips and it got me thinking about winemaking leftovers. That's when I ran across this story, on Apres Vin, a new company in Washington that specializes in using winemaking leftovers. The company creates gourmet grape seed oils based on varietals such as Riesling and Merlot infused with chipotle. The ground-up seed meal from creating the oil can also be dried to make varietal flours such as Merlot and Chardonnay, which can create purple tinted baked goods. The flour is also high in antioxidants. The company is also exploring other options such as wood stove pellet fuel made from grape stems and seeds, paper and ink from the grape skins and even Chardonnay biodiesel. The company's website isn't live yet and so far the products aren't available in a lot of places but I think this is a brilliant idea and one I hope takes off.

Tags: apres vin, ApresVin, biodiesel, grapes, washington, wine, winemaking