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Small Lake City
Small Talk, Big City
Join host Erik Nilsson as he interviews the entrepreneurs, creators, and builders making Salt Lake City the best place it can be. Covering topics such as business, politics, art, food, and more you will get to know the amazing people behind the scenes investing their time and money to improve the place we call home.
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Small Lake City
S1, E93: Dendric Estate - Brendan & Carly Coyle
When master distiller Brendan Coyle stepped away from his global role at Constellation Brands, he wasn't retreating – he was pursuing a vision that had been quietly taking shape for years. Together with his wife Carly, he's crafted something extraordinary in Utah's Camas Valley: Dendric Estate, a high-elevation cidery producing sophisticated, wine-style ciders from their meticulously cultivated orchard.
Their story begins at High West Distillery, where Brendan served as head distiller and Carly handled operations and finance. Though their careers flourished separately – Brendan eventually overseeing spirits production globally and Carly moving to the outdoor industry – they missed working together and dreamed of building something truly their own.
The couple's six-year journey to their first bottle release reveals the patience required when agriculture meets artisanal beverage production. They've pioneered methods for growing cider apples at 7,000 feet, researching similar climate regions and enduring years of trial and error to develop what Brendan calls their "playbook" for high-elevation orcharding.
What makes Dendric Estate truly distinctive is their approach to cider itself. Rather than producing the sweet, simple ciders that dominate the American market, they're creating bone-dry sparkling ciders using traditional winemaking methods. Their debut release features zero residual sugar, bright acidity, and mineral notes that have led visiting sommeliers to compare it to Sauvignon Blanc.
"In some ways, America has done the cider industry a disservice over the past 100 years," Brendan explains, contrasting commercial offerings with the fine cider traditions of Spain and the UK. The Coyles aim to showcase cider's sophistication while keeping it approachable – creating a product that's equally at home at backyard gatherings or fine dining establishments.
Looking ahead, they're planning a tasting room for 2027 where visitors can experience their cider amid the very orchards that produced it. It's all part of their vision to deepen connections to the Camas Valley community while introducing people to cider as they believe it should be: complex, terroir-driven, and utterly delicious.
Experience Dendric Estate at select restaurants in Park City and Salt Lake City, or visit their property on Fridays and Saturdays to taste what happens when world-class beverage expertise meets Utah's spectacular mountain landscape.
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What is up everybody and welcome back to another episode of the Small Lake City Podcast. I'm your host, eric Nilsson, and this week's guests are Carly and Brendan Coyle. Now, carly and Brendan both got their careers started at High West Distillery, where Brendan eventually became the head distiller and Carly was the mastermind behind a lot of the operations and finance there. But Brendan had an idea on the back of his head that he always wanted to accomplish of owning his own cidery and owning everything around it, including where they grew the fruit, and wanted to do it. Based in Utah, and after buying the property a few years ago, they were finally able to open this year and release their first bottle with Dendrick Estate. Now the property is based up in Camas, utah, actually not too far away from High West itself, and they just barely launched their first bottle. They're building out their own tasting room and building out the rest of their orchard as well. It's a great story. I'm so excited for it to be based here Two great people that really want to build and create something amazing for the Utah community and was grateful to be able to sit down with them on the property, get a tour of it and excited to share this with you, so let's jump into it. I'm excited for you all to hear from Brendan and Carly, but yeah, let's hear more about how they started Dendrick Estate.
Speaker 1:Brendan and Carly Coyle, I'm excited about this one because, like, the way I met both of you was fun, because I actually just drove past it on the way up at the new Grand Hyatt at Mayflower I don't know what to call that Deer Valley, east Mayflower, off Jordan L, where they were once upon a time going to put a new ski resort pandemic happen. And then Deer Valley is like, actually, you're going bankrupt, we'll take it and build on to our ever expanding empire, but that was never the plan at the beginning. Right, wait, wait. And so go to this huge like because, like, there's events I go to where I'm like, oh, like cool, like fun, like I know people. This is great. Like because, like, my social anxiety is weird where, if I walk into a room where I know everybody, nothing gives me more energy in my life. I love saying hi to my favorite people, catching up up having a great conversation, but if I walk into a room I know nobody, I'm like, let's just go into the corner a little bit. Or if I find like my emotional support human, I'll latch on to them and I'll be like all right, like we're together. Now he's like what do you mean?
Speaker 1:But then I think it was Carly at first, because I was writing actually I'm writing this in text impact and you're like, oh my gosh, like you had the episode with Isaac, uh, winter, more like we were starting the cidery up in Camas. I'm like that sounds amazing. Uh, excited, like congrats, what a huge accomplishment. Like let's touch base once it starts to become more reality. We'd love to have you want to talk about it. And then you've got a little pristagraph, as I'm part of her email distro for all of her PR announcements.
Speaker 1:I see the PR announcement and I'm like it's time and so it's fun, especially your record in the place itself, the orchard right in front of us, where we've done, since you bought it six years ago now, that much R&D into the fruit and the growing and everything into now, where all the machinery that you bought at one point be like we will use this to make me excited. And now it's gone through its processes and it's a lot. So, hey, congrats, what an accomplishment. We're so much done. Yeah, it's here, it's finally tangible right. We got a product to crack open and taste. We got equipment that's been broken in and it's lovely to see the orchard like this healthy, like just all green and grown up. So, yes, it's like. I mean, if you have a kid, it's a nine month process and this is a six year process, so I couldn't have that much patience. After like a year I'd be like all right, come on, like where's the cider already? Like give me, give me the out.
Speaker 2:Trust me, I thought that several times. I'm like wait, how long is this process going to take? But you know, to make a good product you got to have that patience and you got to let it do its thing and we're super proud of the product that we just came out with.
Speaker 1:I'm excited to feel your pride. I can't speak to it yet. I know all of the befores hands, but excited to taste it for myself. But it's so fun. I'm sure it was an easy process, no sort of hiccups, zero bumps no very thick, went according to plan, every last thing, as it always does, that any any project at all man never.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely some hiccups pretty much every, every phase of the project. But, um, that's one thing that it's really great to have a partner especially like your spouse involved is that whenever I'm like I want to destroy this machine, brendan can be like let's take a breath, let's go for a walk in the orchards or coffee, let's touch some trees and figure this out, and so, yeah, we switch back and forth and that support's really important.
Speaker 1:And I love those marital slash business partnerships because I mean I've recorded with enough people and entrepreneurs at this point like so many of them started with, oh, me and my partner a year later bought out my partner because it just didn't work for one way shape or form. And then you have the people who have like a marital partnership on top of it because they're like, listen, we have to make this work, um, or else other things might happen, and so so it's about even thinking about, I mean the most recent one, like Manoli Catenavis, with Manoli's and Perea, just hearing about how strong their relationship is. Their partnership is, I mean, obviously similar to, I'm sure both of you experience where there's times you want to pull your hair out, there's times you want to pull his hair out, but at the end of the day it comes together well, and so I'm sure it's been.
Speaker 2:There's been great memories, bad memories, all the memories, but, yeah, everything in between I mean the. The great thing about this partnership that we started here is we've already worked together. So when we both joined high west I mean bernie joins, but 2007, yeah, um, and I was 2009, and for the first few years there we were working like literally how we're seated right now. So we worked shoulder to shoulder for the first five years of that company and loved working together and that's obviously where our relationship came from. So we already knew before we started this that we loved working together. And when we moved to different positions with High West and then I moved out of High West and we missed working together, so coming back together for this project has been really exciting.
Speaker 1:Which takes something very special, like I've been in enough relationships in my life, both I mean romantically, professionally, like familially, familially, I think that's the word. Yeah, we'll run with it. Like I know there's people I could not do that with. I call like the Jim and Pam dynamic from the office. Like I can't imagine having like hey, we wake up, the kids wake up, we get them ready for breakfast, we drop them off at daycare, we go to work together. We work the entire day. We leave together, we go pick up the kids together, we go make dinner together, we go to bed together. We wake up again.
Speaker 2:Like it's a different type of relationship.
Speaker 1:I don't like. I'm someone who means my alone time and I love people talking and social interaction, but there's times when I go listen. I'm gonna go walk as far as I can that way don't follow me. But on a missing person report, if it's been 36 hours.
Speaker 2:I mean, that's why we have 20 acres here. I can walk in the straight line for a very long time how much space do we need?
Speaker 1:20 acres. How did you get to that number? Do you want to know the answers?
Speaker 2:I was like to walk, but I mean let's. Do you want to know the?
Speaker 1:answers as far as I need to walk. But I mean, let's set the context of like I mean before I mean high west, before the both of you, because I know I mean obviously high west since 2007, since 2009, in your various capacities. But we can start with Brandon and go from like I mean, how did you end up in Utah itself? Yeah, absolutely so. I came from Minnesota, originally born and raised just west of Minneapolis, a place called Wayzata, minnetonka. It's kind of near some lakes and stuff. Does she? Do you know? Looks like you know Minnesota, she's from Minnesota. So she, we were actually there a couple of weeks ago. I flew into Fargo and got a two and a half hour weather delay because of tornado warnings, but then so her family's all in Minnesota and we went to the lakes, which is the whole state. So we went to the lakes. So now anybody says Minnesota, I'm like I already know something, and then they say anything else besides, like the small areas, and I'm like just kidding.
Speaker 2:All you need to know is it's near a lake.
Speaker 1:I was like, yeah, we're like 20, 25 minutes west of Minneapolis. So I grew up at mountain biking. I loved mountain biking in high school and I was like, all right, cool, I'm graduating from high school, I'm going to go get a college degree and I'm going to keep mountain biking. Those are my two goals coming out of high school. It's like I want to keep mountain biking, get a college degree. And so I came to University of Utah on Salt Lake City, because Park City then, and kind of now too, it's still like this mecca of cross-country mountain biking, you know. And so that's what brought me here originally. And it wasn't long.
Speaker 1:I was here for like maybe a year and a half and my neighbor during college gave me a homebrewing kit. And he's like I'm out of here, I got to go, I got these other obligations elsewhere, I'm purging a whole bunch of my belongings. Had you ever thought of a homebrewing in your life? And I was like, no, never. He's like, how about you try? Just try it. I'm like, okay, cool. So that feels like a very like, because I imagine this house full of house full of things, that because when everybody moves there's always the thing like okay, we're going to serve this. We're going to donate and we'll give this away. But to look, you'd be like here's a home and I started brewing beer in the kitchen. Right, I really got into it. So I started kind of changing my degree. I started doing my own studies, I started really pouring all my time and extra money into homebrewing and I was like you know what, if I'm going to pour all my extra time and money into this, I should probably think of it as an actual direction to go. So it was great, I started home brewing. I got landed an apprenticeship at Red Rock Brewing Company back in the day, back when Kevin Templin was there. Templin brought me in, taught me a whole bunch of stuff and just really gave me my break in the industry really. And so I was with Red Rock for five or six years.
Speaker 1:I eventually went to Scotland, did a master's in brewing distilling sciences at harriet watt, which is wild like, because now I know of like four or five people that have done that, which is way too many people for how small and specific that thing it is, but it's fun to see how many people have been like okay, like, this is something I want to do, something I want to be worrying about. Go do it, which is like a very like strong. However, I want to say it like dedication to the craft, the process, whatever I call it, and be like all right of all the because, like that can also be an inflection point of saying, okay, I now I have this worldwide perspective of the distilling process. Oh, I want to go to anywhere in the world, but I mean, especially in your case, we're like, listen, nobody has as good as mountain biking, as bar city, so if you, if you want to make an offer, maybe an offer, but this better be in the offer, because, if not, kick rocks, yeah, right, right, exactly, um, so, yeah, uh, I came back and then when I came back, I just again, it's kind of like like so many things in life are just tiny, right like where you are at that time, and I got hooked up with high west distillery from day one. So, um, where david Perkins was starting the company, he needed a master distiller and so I was just really hot off the degree.
Speaker 1:Only like six months back in the States, I was consulting a little bit, doing some work in the industry, but jumped on with High West from day one and that was a wild ride. For like 20, almost 20 years now. We built the company up and we eventually sold it to Constellation Brands and then I took a global role for Constellation Brands right after that. Yeah, so I was master distiller across their Global Spirits portfolio. Again, a wild time, right Six or seven years traveling around the world and just an amazing opportunity and I learned a ton. But I also learned something very valuable, like what I wanted to come back to. You know, yeah, like I realized, like it was a great education, it was great opportunity, but I was like you know what? It just I'm not done building from the ground up. You know, I want to build something again and this idea was in our heads for a long time and it was like backburnered for a while.
Speaker 1:You know, it was such a big project that took so much resources and time and everything that you kind of backburner it backburn, but it's still scratch, but it's still, yes, it owns up every no way because, like, I mean, even I mean again, like, let's just talk about, like the distilling or I mean outback industry in general. Like I mean, how many people would kill to be like, oh, you're the master brewmaster at what's the title? Master distiller, master distiller, master brewmaster runs off the top there, but we'll, I'll workshop it with them. Uh, master distiller, for I mean one of the largest portfolio of, I mean, outback beverages. Like people kill. Like people kill for that. But at the same time, they're like, listen, it's great, don't get me wrong, but there's something else that I need to. Yeah, doing it. It's not this. Yeah, exactly, I saw it as like, yeah, great opportunity and a great education. So there's so many things that you can learn at a really big company. You can't very valuable stuff, but when you get both sides of the experience, it really shows you what you really vow, what you want that next 10 years, that next chapter, to be. And it was this. It was building something from the ground up again.
Speaker 1:And the key thing about this that really kept scratching, like you were saying I just could not let go of it was that agriculture element To put together another brand, a high-end. You know, essentially we're a winery here. We're a mountain-y, the state winery. We make cider, but we're regulated, we're thought of as just like a winery in the eyes of the federal government. And to bring the agriculture like to a mountain winery because we love to live in the mountains right, we love to ski, love the mountain bike, we love our life in the mountains and to bring like the passion to build something from the ground up to where you want to be the rest of your life in the mountains, like that's just unstoppable, like you couldn't ignore it. Which is such like a common trend when I look at I mean, it's called Utah, it's called Salt Lake, broader Salt Lake area is there's so many things that I mean has inspired people to be here since the mid 1800s and before then.
Speaker 1:But then a lot of people bring what they want with them like oh well, I want this here, but it's not here. And it's one of those like I call it the harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban um theory, where, because there's the time, and if you don't understand, never seen it, then bear with me. And if you have seen it, maybe you'll get it. But there's the point at the end where he's sitting there, all the dementors are coming, he's like no, no, my dad's gonna show up, he's gonna cast a patronus right there, he's the one that's gonna do it. And then it gets to the point he's like shit, it was me, I have to be the one to do this. And so you have this moment where you're like or someone else is going to make this world-class whiskey shop, or someone else is going to bring all these breweries to downtown Salt Lake. But then, time after time, there's these people that are like shit, expect to patrol. It's me now. But I'm also curious of like in your experience, because you have this great career of being like okay, I get this beer kit, this is fun, I like this. I think I'm gonna take this more seriously to then walking into Red Rock and seeing good old Kevin Templin and he's like yo, I got an idea for a thing called LFI. Now, let's do those To. Then going to Scotland, coming back, getting the great experience at High West, getting the inspiration at Constellation I mean, what were some of those key learnings?
Speaker 1:This, for me, a big part of it, was balancing that like that business, that professional mindset, right To make things work because you know you're governed by. You know you don't have limitless money. You don't have like limitless time in like you have to like be wise about the decisions and the actions that you take. You know you have to be like smart business, smart about it, but you also don't want to lose the craft or the art behind it. You know you want to lose the craft or the art behind it. You know you want to experiment, you want to innovate no-transcript of cider over the past hundred years, but this really is like another style of interesting wine. So see that aha moment, you know, but still put it together in like a good, like you know, responsible company, like that's the fun part, right, that's the balance of the challenge.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it reminds me of the conversation with isaac winter, because I mean he started at red rock. They went to uinta where I mean they just gotten private equity money and there's time to like do whatever the hell you want, go make all the beers that you want, and so there wasn't this kind of like business conscious part of it. They had to enter his brain and then, as he took over more there and then went up to high west like. One of the biggest learnings for him was oh, like, because again you have this let's call it artistic, creative side of things, which is the distilling, the brewing, like the art of creating an amazing, amazing beverage that you want to share with people, but then also the board that you go through this process and rise up in leadership and responsibility.
Speaker 1:More of this business side comes in. It's like, oh, you do have a pnl now, you do have a budget, you do have stakeholders, let's see what the board meeting. You do have to be responsible for all these decisions and all of a sudden, like, I mean, you'll want this plague of business logic to come in and impact the creative side of things. But at the end of the day, they have to become harmony or else, right, if you spend too much time referring to one, then the other one gets destroyed. Yeah, if you want the same one, you need the other. They have to go hand in hand and that's the real learning and challenge. But you can do it. You know it's totally doable. It's harder work when it's doable, cool. So I mean, there is, let's go back to the taffra with you. How did you end up in this interesting state to find yourself in?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I grew up on the East Coast and lived abroad for a bit, first in England and then in New. Zealand.
Speaker 1:What took you there?
Speaker 2:England. I was there for middle school and high school with my family and then New I just you know, quote unquote studied abroad for a year there, did a lot of traveling, did I've had a lot of fun. And then came back to the states and kind of kept working my way west and ended up in Yellowstone National Park for a season, which was a super fun year, and grew up skiing. So I knew that I wanted to be in a ski town. My idea was just that I was going to balk around ski towns and live that ski bone life and be a ski patroller. And I came to Park City. I thought that I would just spend a season here. I'm like the you know, quintessential Park City person where I came for one season and now, 14 years later, is still here.
Speaker 1:I always loved that because, like when I was growing up I mean I grew up skiing all the time. I mean every Saturday, if it was in the summer, my grandpa would be towing a boat, picking us up, throwing us back in the truck. We were water skiing In the winters. Throw your skis in the back of the truck, we're doing skiing. And like I I mean as a kid, I mean I never talked to anybody on a ski lift. I was like I'm about to drop. He told me to just buy a joke to get off and we go.
Speaker 1:And then, but then it was funny. I mean, coming back from my mission where I mean call it trauma, I call it just two years of doing the same thing. But like I just got so used to if someone was next to me like to start talking to him, like to the point, I'm waiting, and I like I crack, I'm like all right, I can't do this anymore. Everybody go around the room, tell me your name, tell me something about you, and like all these people are like the hell is wrong with you. But like sure, I'm married.
Speaker 1:But then ski season starts. So I got back and of course I'm sitting in the line next to someone on a trailer, I start talking. And it wasn't from here. I just assumed that if we're in the same place and this is how I got here that we all got here. And then, even more so, when I went in college, I was one of the first lyft drivers and it was fun to just hear people's stories like yeah, I came here for a wedding and never left, and, and so it's fun to see how I mean people get so locked into this. And I'm also always jealous of people that did like the ski bum experience, because, like I, I mean I can do whatever I want to, but it's a lot harder now than it would have been then. But also, I mean just from that perspective, being what made you choose Park City compared to I mean even from like a let's do an eight hour diameter, there's 15 to 20 other options that could have checked a lot of those same boxes yeah, great question.
Speaker 2:So when I was in college at Wisconsin, studying abroad in New Zealand, my family family actually named Derek Pierce, my two younger siblings to Park City and so when I was like ready, when I was done in New Zealand, ready to come home, they sent me a plane ticket and it was into Salt Lake and I was like why am I flying into Salt Lake One?
Speaker 1:meal mistake.
Speaker 2:It's like cool, did you prep my stuff? Am I like? Am I moved too? So yeah, he came to visit them. Um, fell in love with the town. But again, I always just thought that I would kind of pass the year after a season. So I did a volunteer ski patrol on year at our season at uh canyons. Before it was a person demons. Um, I had a fantastic time there. I got a part-time job at High West Distillery and met Brendan I guess two weeks after moving to Park City, and that was kind of it for me.
Speaker 1:So it is like a little Jim and Pam moment here. I interrupted her interview. I was setting up the distillery at the saloon, right Like the High West on Main Street or on Park Avenue in Park City. I was setting up, you know, getting fermenters commissioned in the basement and getting into the go and stuff and and then the you know but the restaurant and finance I, and then, without the business was getting spun up and and they were hiring and I walked in you know the office. I totally interrupted right in your dinner. I'm just like who the hell is this interviewing in the office right now and like from that it's over. Hey, sorry, sorry to interrupt. Uh, what are you for dinner tonight? Just curious. No, no real reason. Here's just some new questions in this interview. Here it's the second part of the interview. Don't tell everybody about this.
Speaker 1:This is between us and you know how long into that experience, because you were there in 2007. She joined in 2009. I mean, was it like a taylor swift song from the beginning, or did it take time, or you just didn't find yourselves getting married? I guess let's start with the data. But what date did you guys get married? And then we can work back from there, 2014. Okay, so see, there's a big courtship in there. It's not fast. It's kind of funny because you know, at the time we're opening high west and like opening a business, especially like hospitality, food, members business, that's like tied to the manifest, like everything opening at the same time, like you're pulling crazy hours right, so like work hard, play hard, right, so we're like we're quick, pulling crazy hours, opening the place. We're also going out partying, you know, at night and stuff together. It's like you just you're burning the candle all the time, yes, and then you trip and you fall and you kiss her.
Speaker 2:You're like, oh, what the fuck is that? We were talking earlier about how small of a community the alcohol beverage scene is in Utah, and just to drive home that point. So Mark Radura, who is the owner of Global Crossing Brewing, he was with Chi West, with us from the very beginning. So Mark Brendan and myself were kind of like this little sharia that would just work all day and then go party in park city at night. Um, and just this, um, just you know, put up the best friends and then uh mark ended up being our officiant at our wedding too.
Speaker 2:So it's, like you know, onto goes out into all of the beverage apple beverage industry here you guys are always sending philadelphia fans.
Speaker 1:But there's and it's also a meme of like it's one of those boards where it's like all the pictures, the yarns drawn to, the pictures of all the investigative and he's like going crazy, like I want to do that with, just like the outbap scene in utah bag. All right, of course we got tim kendall, we helped all of these things and places and how it brings everybody together and everybody knows each other. Like it's funny to think of throwing like let's call it a founder room master who's kind of like heads of all of the places. There's no way anyone are walking like oh sure, no way. If anything would probably turn into a pretty great part pretty quickly. Everybody brings us their own respective six-pack bottle, whatever, and then like the best. Oh yes, let's call it a potluck of all time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sure Might need a hotel room.
Speaker 2:Yeah, someone's going to need to bring food.
Speaker 1:Yes, so you guys go through I mean you work together, you party together blood, sweat and tears of getting High West the saloon up and going get more of the process between the distilling side, get married, and then I mean he has this idea in his head. I mean at least it's some part of the, some part of the process of ideation and execution. Uh, I mean, did you have something like were you there to support him in his dream? Did you have anything else that you want to do on top of this? Or yeah.
Speaker 2:So when, when he first started talking about this, I mean he's like I had a global spirits, I fortune 500 cone film like you're doing pretty good like this, this kind of you know, it's kind of good path for you, um, but the more we talked about it and the more you know we talked about how much we love starting up high west and how much we loved living here and we just really wanted to, uh, be more of a part of the community in the kiamis valley, um, and dig in deeper. So uh, yeah, just the more we talked about it and I was like, okay, okay, we could do this, we could do this, um, and I'm more on the finance side of things, accounting, um, and like brand management, and so of course, my head is immediately like, like how would this work?
Speaker 2:by cleaning all the numbers, um, blood pressure spike eggs, oh, totally just make a great product that people will love.
Speaker 1:You're like yeah, yeah, mr, make a Great Product that's going to solve everything.
Speaker 2:It's like all right, I mean, I know you can make a good product, so we'll see what happens.
Speaker 1:Like I trust you, I trust you, I trust you and you're not even saying that to him. That's just at the bathroom. There was a time when I kind of like forced is probably the wrong word I kind of sealed the deal when we acquired this. So, carly, talking to the process of like how you because I'm sure this isn't the only property you toured we were looking for the property for a while, right, so it had been 2-3 years and like Carly was like she was like on board, but she wasn't on board. I was still convincing her so I thought it was a good idea, but she didn't work convincing, but it wasn't really just to be good it'd be really good, bruce, so we're a good pair in that sense, it's like, hey, listen, I want to go by 20 acres, start our own cider brand in canvas.
Speaker 1:Utah, we're gonna do something I'm in.
Speaker 1:You know, someone's got a you know double chair I think it's fun, it is to be that whimsical, but it's also some pragmatic routes that need to be there. So I'm glad you could bring both. Yes, absolutely. So we were shopping around rather too casually for like two or three years. And then I'm driving to the distillery one morning and they're literally hammering in the for sale sign on this property and I'm like exactly exactly what happened, slam on the brakes, whip it over, call the number, and I'm like just do some hasty research over the next several days. And it was kind of a weird situation where it was kind of like a silent bid, kind of a property sale, which I think kind of scared some people off. But you know, we did all the research and we're like you know what? Yeah, there's a little unknown in there, but I think this is going to line up pretty well. Carly had to leave. She flew out of the country when she was working at Backcountry.
Speaker 1:Oh, you're going to do this. I'm going to go back to New Zealand for a second. I need to go to GoPres, so she heads to was it Journey.
Speaker 2:I was in Germany, for I was with Backcountrycom at the time on their bike team and was over in Germany for Eurobike and, yeah, brenda came over. We decided to extend that into a vacation in Switzerland and do part of the Hope Route.
Speaker 1:So I pretty much like convince her over the phone. I'm like, hey, let's put bid on this property. And she was kind of like, eh, and I'm like worst case scenario if this goes under just sell it.
Speaker 1:It's like it's land it's not going to go down in value. So I take a video of, like myself submitting this envelope, this packet, which is like the bidding packet will land, submitting it into a mailbox at Salt Lake City International Airport, right before I'm getting onto a plane to come to Germany to meet her, to like go hike half the Haute Route after her business trip and stuff, you know. And like, well, there we go, just like, slide it into the mailbox and I love boarding what happens, yeah, so you know, and then had a great trip, hiked half the Haute Route, incredible time, like practically forget about the bid that we submitted. And we Like practically forget about the bid that we submitted, the note sale service, just like, all right, say it all out to hands, we're literally in Zermatt. But yeah, we're having our final dinner in Zermatt, and great place.
Speaker 1:You know like, hey, let's go, let's go spend some money on our last dinner in Zermatt. And so we're at this wonderful dinner, and then my phone rings on the table and it's our realtor who was like, and I'm like, no, forget it, I flip it over, I'm not answering that, this is going to be a beautiful dinner. I'm not going to interrupt it with a phone call and then he goes back a minute later and she sees it and she's like you probably shouldn't answer that. And so I pick it up and he's like, well, you won the bid. So that turned into a celebration dinner of acquiring the land.
Speaker 1:I was like let's get another bottle and I was like I need another carly's brains just going through all of what's about to happen, I would ask for, in starting, yeah, because I know. And then waku, so I mean, obviously you, you get the property, you come back from germany and that, what year was that through? That's 2019. You purchased it, yeah, I mean. And then what was like the next step, because I imagine you had at least done some research of being like, okay, so we have, we have it, we need to start planting, we need to start putting up all of the infrastructure of everything. We need to walk you through the next steps.
Speaker 1:After that, with the agriculture, we obviously knew the agriculture would take the most time. It just takes time to develop and mature. So we wanted to get that in the ground right away and start experimenting. Just start answering all those questions, because we are not farms in case anyone out there is listening, we are not farmers. Okay, I don't have the degree in it, you know, it expires at art farmers. So that was the learning curve right there. So we taught ourselves, you know, uh, how to do this up at this elevation. There's no playbook up here for this, right, but we're doing high density cider fruit on trellis, like. So we figured it out over the next three or four years. Covid helped. We kind of got sidelined. It was the first time I'd heard that phrase. I don't know if there's any use for that phrase. Usually it's like in it almost went bankrupt because of COVID, or almost unalive myself. We were forced extra research and development time because of COVID.
Speaker 2:We dubbed it our COVID sanity project Go ahead and I will project because we go ahead and I will say, like when brennan says we figured it out, like we figured it out with a lot of help from a lot of people. So there's obviously a lot of like google education going on. But this whole valley is like you know. It has that agriculture um heritage to it. So we were leaning on you know, neighbors, other orchardists, and it was like a group effort for us to be like we bought this property, this is what we want to do. Who can help us?
Speaker 2:out so I'm running, says we.
Speaker 1:It was an extended well and it's nice, because I mean this area. I mean for those who aren't familiar with, I mean canvas and oakley, I mean a. There's a lot of people who break horses, a lot of cattle, but there's also a ton of hay farming. So well, I mean shocker animals and hay are different, uh, but I'm sure there's at least you've been. Like I can help you with something, like I can help you start from somewhere, and I mean even in general, just like utah. I mean very collaborative people. People always want to help each other, even if it's the competitor across the street. Like one story I love of um uh, kevin templin is when, um, hannah why can't I think of her last name from Hans Kombucha. Like her printing line wasn't working, she couldn't get it ready to go, she had to bottle all this Kombucha and like I can't remember if she like texted or called Kevin and like he didn't answer or respond and the next thing she knows he's like walking in the back, he's like alright, let's get this figured out, uh type thing.
Speaker 1:So it's, it's nice to have a community and like what a like, cause there's different ways they could approach it. Right, cause, like there's like a lot of the sentiment, especially in kind of like the more rural areas of Utah, like outside, like the next layer, outside of kind of more developed places. We're like oh, I think outsiders are coming in like blah, blah, blah I don't know why I used this accent, but we're going to do it so it could easily just instantly turn their nose at you, look the other way. But instead they're like all right, how can we help?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean what ties it all together is that it was agriculture. Right, it's like it doesn't. They're excited that we're doing something that involves agriculture, even however different it might be from what they're used to and what's normal for this valley. We're doing something different that involves agriculture and so everyone's been so supportive of that. So, so supportive of that, because eastern summit county it's great for you know, we have open space, we have agriculture out here. We're right next to park city. It's getting a ton of, you know, development pressure or like interest, so anything that can promote and protect the agriculture within this valley. I think pretty much everyone's. You Portable Baptist. So walk me through because, like, obviously I would assume you're doing some sort of research before you buy the property of like, oh, here's the fruit, here's the difference in it all, here's like, I mean kind of like thinking about that next step, but that's a very different thing than again, like, we're planting this here right now. Because of this reason, I mean, walk us through a little bit of that deductive process of how you decided on what fruit and why. Yeah, I mean, it's really just a lot of reference and research towards what's being done in those key areas where they grow different types of apples. So, basically, you look to a handful of places throughout the US Washington, new York, michigan A handful of places throughout the US Washington, new York, michigan there's a handful of universities that do some pretty damn good research on modern high-density perennial tree fruit and things like that stone fruit, and so I was just digging up everything I possibly could and trying to find the closest match to our climate here and, oddly enough, if you look through all the temperatures, you know like the temperature graphs, you know the frost models and everything like that across the entire United States. What comes pretty close to the canvas valley is the Bitterroot Valley in Montana, and that's where I kind of really cloned in and we actually took a trip up there. We drove up there to visit the valley, meet with orchardists and understand. You know how they're doing what they're doing up there, because that was the closest you know climate. We could pull for the canvas valley, and so that was part of it.
Speaker 1:And just a lot of reference, a lot of research, and then, of course, you're going to be wrong in a lot of things you do right. It's like there's so much trial and error. It can only take you so close because this is a unique area where we are right here. There's no playbook up here, and so the trial and error filled in the rest. That's over those four years, and now we've got a pretty good playbook on what works up here, from varietals to methods. We've been managing this orchard organic to date and we're pretty excited to keep it that way. Yeah, I mean, like I've talked about, everything goes to choreo plan. Obviously there's no wrenches or kickouts or speed bumps, but you just have to learn to roll with the punches and Kyle, obviously this has been so much of his vision and like he latches onto it. But what have been some of your favorite parts of the things that you've learned the most in it, being kind of brought in from the guy that you legally and emotionally decided to attach your life to?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's been really exciting for me because I've been able to branch out into like every aspect of the business. So usually when you have like a full time job and you've got your silo, you've got your you know punch list for the week with with a startup business as it was with high West as well but you really get to like jump into every aspect. So everything for me it's everything from you know accounting, payroll, hr stuff to, as I say, hr. It's just me and my husband.
Speaker 1:I've talked to HR about this.
Speaker 2:I've got a complaint to make. But yeah, so it's everything from you know accounting, finance, all of that which is my background to you know social media and like newsletters and press releases, and then to like go out into the orchard and like plant a whole bunch of trees and be like well, I hope you survive here and like say sting yappy I try and give them all high fives in the morning, but yeah, it's. It's been really fun just to to be a part of every aspect of the business, from the startup, and I mean even even the parts that suck, like licensing and permits, which we could fill an entire wall in here, of all the permits and licenses that you have to get. I'm sure every brewer and distiller and cider maker knows what we're talking about. But yeah, even those less fun parts are still like challenging and exciting and it's all on you and it's stressful, but we get there.
Speaker 1:And so, brandon, when you think about I mean again, like your career up to this point, it starts with beer. I think your neighbor giving you beer to make in your garage with his own beer maker kit as he takes off to I mean all the way assuming it's a line graphic, we know it's not to be like the master distiller for Constellation Brands. I mean, how did this change the way that you thought about, I mean the creation process, the creative process, because it's very different than anything that you had done before. But what were some of those things that you had to learn and take into account to create that great product that you knew you could make? Yeah, I mean we're very fortunate right now the Alkwev community and like everyone who participates in it as a consumer or manufacturer, and on the food side, we're super fortunate right now that everyone out there seems to want more information, better sourcing, better intelligence, more quality, more transparency around everything they're putting in their body from food and drink, and they want to know the process, they want to understand it better. And the consumer is as smart as they've ever been nowadays and I think a lot of big companies don't give them credit. They're pretty damn smart and they want to know more, they want the intellectual capital, and so one of the things that I really appreciated over the years was that I call it cross-pollination cross-pollination through the industry, right. And so things that I learned in the brewing industry, things I learned in the distilling industry, applying that towards the wine industry you know, the cider and the wine industry and vice versa along the way is, when it comes from techniques to yeast strains, to the oak hem behind it, that's like there's a lot of things you can use outside of this very narrow band that they were developed for over the last two centuries of. You know how the modern industry really developed.
Speaker 1:You can do things and apply things in different ways. On the other side of the coin, you know from from spirits to wine and it can give you a unique outcome, and the consumer right now is like, so ready for those types of you know from spirits to wine and it can give you a unique outcome and the consumer right now is like, so ready for those types of things. You know, I feel like over the last call it century you've had very defined lanes that you know these products kind of stayed in, but now in the last 20 years. There's all these new, different products you know from. You have the hazy IPAs, you have natural wines. You have the consumers so much more open with their palate, they're willing to try things. They're not super rigid, like it has to drink like this, it has to look like this, it has to, you know, and so it allows us, as manufacturers and producers and artists, to like, really do different things, challenge the consumer and see what they like and don't like and say, just open your eye, open your you, you know perception of what this can be and that's what I really love doing over the years is that cross-pollination of sciences, uh, across the industries. It's super fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and especially like, the biggest difference of creating cider, of other things we've created in the past, is you have a fruit where, before you have a grain, you have water. Uh, I mean, how did that change the way you thought about your process? Yeah, the agriculture is such a big, big component in cider and in wine. You're dealing with a fruit that has all the water in it already, right? You have to take care of that plant, that tree, that vine, whatever it is. You have to take care of that through the season. Optimal health, make sure it can produce the best possible fruit because it contains all the water and all the flavor profile in it.
Speaker 1:When you're dealing with spirits and you're dealing with beers and things like that, I'm not saying that the agriculture doesn't matter. The agriculture definitely matters, especially with like hops and beer. But it's a little bit different on the bulk of the product where you're adding the water. We're taking a dry product, you know, from agriculture and you're adding the water and you're taking a lot more steps down the road to essentially decide its trajectory of flavor profile. But in the wine industry and cider industry you're just leaning so much more heavily on the natural quality of that natural product, that product, agricultural product coming from the earth. So it just plays such a bigger role.
Speaker 1:You know, and it's just um, you know they say they say the best wines are made in the field. You know, not in the winery, they're made in the field and there's there's some truth to that. It depends on what you're making, but there is some truth to that and that was the big eye-opener for this venture was agriculture plays a much bigger role here. Yeah, and maybe a question for both of you, but like's someone who you know whether they're a cider enthusiast or looking for something else. I mean, what do you think separates your product from everything else that they could sip on? Yeah, so we took a very intentional focus on this company to use traditional winemaking methods. There's a lot of times I'll say, you know, and for those out there that you know, like, love a sweet, simple beer, like cider. I'm sorry I might offend you here for a second, but just nothing's aired for everyone.
Speaker 2:Bear with me, I don't know if it's aired for everyone.
Speaker 1:Yes, just bear with me, but I like to say a lot of times that in some ways America has done the cider industry, the cider product, a true disservice over the past 100 years. And look at the mainstream ciders that got developed over the past century or so. They look at the mainstream ciders that got developed, you know, over the past century or so. They tended to be more kind of like a simple, sweeter kind of apple flavored fizzy beverage to compete with beer or be like a beer alternative.
Speaker 1:But when you look internationally, you look at where cider grew up, you know, like in spain and the uk and other parts of the world, it's much more akin to like a fine wine it's like. It's basically like a low alcohol, sparkling wine, and it can take on forms that are way more wine like than any other products out there. And so we're focused on that here. We're focused on accentuating the wine like qualities that you can receive from a well-made, clean, beautiful, complex cider that takes time right, you don't crank it out, you can't crank it out as fast as a beer. To do what we're doing. It takes, you know, a better part of a year to to get to the type of cider that we're making. So we really focus on the wine methods to drive that complexity and showcase the fruit beautiful. I mean cut it and make it a commercial, as we're done here I would also add on to that.
Speaker 2:I mean, we're making this life like bernadina, a sparkling wine style cider. So a lot of times, especially with like high-end sparkling wines or champagnes, they can be kind of like dripping in tradition and like intimidating to buy and like you're not sure if you're supposed to spend that much money on that product, or getting cheated or is there value there? Um and so for us, we wanted to create a sparkling wine style cider that's accessible to everyone. That's like less about the dripping and heritage and tradition and more like just have fun with it. Like that's why our label is kind of like playful, youthful, and that's how our aesthetic is going to be going forward. It's just we want everyone to be able to enjoy it. It's not something that you have to have a champagne flute in order to, you know, pour it into a crystal glass or something like that. This is just like pop it and have fun yeah, and it's not one of those.
Speaker 1:If you can't name all of the notes, then why are you even drinking it? And oh, it's a 400 dollar bottle. Like it, whether you're in a backyard or friends camping trip, a nice dinner, I mean any. Any way, shape and form, it seems like it's something that can be enjoyed in that moment, to be shared with people, because, again, that's what alcohol is for is to bring people together, loosen everybody up so we can actually all be present and enjoy people's presence, and so something that can fit that mold of wherever it finds itself, to create that experience. Sign me up, because even some of the nicest bottles of wines I've had, in this situation I'm kind of like I'm not having fun or you feel like you're supposed to be enjoying it more than you are.
Speaker 2:You're like, yep, this tastes like a red wine, like you know, and it's like if you're not noticing the nuances of it and so, no, just just enjoy it. Like, enjoy where you are. Like're saying enjoy the presence that you're in. And that's really where we're focusing for our distribution. Like we want to make sure that we're in our favorite bars and restaurants Not all bars and restaurants, but like the places that we like to go, because we want someone to be able to walk in there, have a great meal with family and friends. And that's where you should be experiencing a new brand. Not just like, oh, it's on a liquor shop, it's got a cool label, like, let's see if I like it.
Speaker 1:Like no, why you got to call me out like that the amount of time, because I do have preferences in wines. But then there's sometimes like, oh, you try something new. It's like, hmm, that's cool, that's cool. The vino says it served in. Because again, you could, I mean, have an email list of every buyer and for every restaurant group at every restaurant and see where it goes.
Speaker 1:But we want, we want you to be part of like the first part of this journey, and I know that there's also a lot of plans for the property in general, where now I mean if people come up there's, I mean the R&D farm or like that first block that you have in general, where now I mean if people come up there's, I mean the R&D farm or like that first block that you have. We have, I mean where we're sitting in right now in the manufacturing area, but I mean tasting room coming more block to have. I mean, walk me through a little bit of that process and the timeline behind that. Yeah, absolutely so, to see the whole vision that we're doing here and we're trying to put together here. We need that on-site experience, right, that's so important.
Speaker 1:It's just like how we want to be on great menus around Park City and Salt Lake, we want to have our own great menu right here on the property, with the manufacturing, with the agriculture next to it, and so we're planning a tasting room that'll sit right in the middle of the agriculture, right in central block, planting there, and the idea is to have that proximity, you know, to have that closeness of the agriculture right to the product so you can be enjoying a wonderful glass of sparkling cider, enjoying a nice meal, and just literally just get out of receipt, walk right into a row, you know in in orchard, and just really touch some trees and enjoy it, like see, enjoy the product sitting right where it came from, from the agriculture, right to the glass, and so that's just like carly said, you can walk by and get the fruit of high fun satellite give me length eggs good talk to him.
Speaker 1:It's cool, let me hang out every day. Um, that'll sit right in the middle of the estate. We're looking to hopefully break ground on that in the springtime spring of 26 and so that would be opening in 27. So you know, a little bit out. But, like we said, great things take time, um, so we're we're focused on that for for the the real experience part of of the estate, we'll have full kitchen, full bar. Uh, opportunity. It's meant to be just kind of like a relaxed kind of lounge vibe. Right, come do an event there if you like. You can come on a daily tasting, have a small meal if you like. I mean it's meant to be cozy, it's meant to be relaxed. It's not white table pot, that's not the point at all. Beautiful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we're excited for more people to experience the Camas Valley. I feel like we were talking earlier about how a lot of people drive through on their way into the Uintas. Right, and there's not a lot of. I mean, there are some rate vendors around here, but it'll be fun to give people another reason to stop and enjoy the valley before you head out into the Uintas or when you're coming out with the Uintas, because there are just so many rate producers around here. I mean the views that we have from this property Timpanogos right over there and then up to Hawaii Peak over here yeah, it'll just be fun to bring people here and have them understand more specifically the land number.
Speaker 1:Go. Stop by Ken's Cache. Go.
Speaker 1:Stop by the Chevron Go buy the petting zoo yeah, all sorts of fun things. Let's pop pork. Go, stop by the Chevron, go buy the petting zoo. Ah, yeah, all sorts of fun things. Yeah, let's pop pork. We should pop pork.
Speaker 1:I just, I'm sitting here, I'm like, looking at this glass opening, I'm like that's empty and we could be drinking it while we're talking about it. And the day I say no to somebody, I'm like we should probably listen. Let's think about this for a minute. No, I'm always a fan. Yeah, because what's the name of the pizza place I always forget? Oh, the Summit. Yeah, yeah, summit Pizza. Right there, they do some good stuff. That was always one of yeah, it's iconic Garlic Nuts. So walk us through the bottle a little bit and let you decide on, as far as I mean, everything from I mean a bottle itself to the, the branding and logo, I would. Yeah, so, absolutely so. I'm holding in my hands right now 750 mil cork and cage bottle.
Speaker 1:We, with the level of carbonation that's in the product, it's very similar to like a prosecco or a champagne. So you need to have, you know, a thicker glass. You know, to handle that. We could never do something like this in a can. It just exploded. Basically it's. It's just too many bubbles inside, yeah, so we had a nice kind of a modern, kind of edgy-looking label with a Great Basin Rattlesnake on the front.
Speaker 1:We made a decision to kind of feature. We love our location here. You know we're a high-elevation orchard state orchard you like to say that we're agriculture on the fringe up here because we're such a high location, and so we like to kind of show off and talk about the natural world around us, and so you'll see the labels take on, but kind of feature, you know, some kind of cool artwork with some natural elements of the world around us up here in our location, same time, kind of be like, you know, talk about modern, edgy, take on it. We don't want to be boring, we don't want to be cursed. You know it's more youthful. Yeah, I'll get this song out here. I'll get this song as close to the mic off as I can. Love it. It's durable though these things have been through a lot. If they could talk, they would. They get their own episode. Perfect, I'll listen to that.
Speaker 1:So, um, color we're kind of like a uh, almost like a dark kind of straw color, similar to a champagne or verseca. Big time bubbles. Bone dry, zero grams residual sugar. In here. It all gets fermented during a carbonation process just like a verseco and a little bit tropical notes, some minerality in the background on, but some nice popping city, nice mouth-watering, vibrant, bright Sidney, because honestly we're kind of like designing a product. We just love to drink. We love dry, ultra-dry wines and ciders and some nice elevated acidity Because it gives you brightness and pop in product and that just really shows his decency.
Speaker 1:When I was introduced to cider we talked about this before but I was in DC interning and I think I was like 24. Having a great time in DC and someone's like oh, do you want a cider? And I'm thinking I don't really want Martinelli's right now, but thank you, they're like no, no, no. And so they obviously had me like a strong bow of cider. I'm like interesting, because I'm a very speed palate, always love palate, always a little sweet treat, and I was like this makes sense. And then, as I've matured and appreciate other things, it's fun to again like find that dynamicness of cider and the whole breadth of the palate that can happen, and so excited to try some yeah, I used to miss it.
Speaker 2:That really came from cheers, cheers, cheers, cheers here's for that.
Speaker 1:Get over here autumn you're part of this, cheers. Thank you so much for coming out. Ooh, yeah, I. I can envision myself on my patio in my Aeron deck chairs and just yeah. Yep, in the shade sunny day from the shady spot in my Aeron deck chairs, and just yeah.
Speaker 2:Yep, in the shade sunny day, find a shady spot you know great for, like a Tuesday on your patio or, like you know, graduation ceremony or your next wedding. I can just spend all of the occasions.
Speaker 1:Or if you're an accountant that just went month end or quarter end and you just need to take the edge off, then that works too. But no, I do want it is bone dry and I enjoy that a lot. Yeah, absolutely, that's a. That's the idea here. I mean, I think that you just get um, a lot more complexity. You see, like benuel and says that the fermentation you weren't in plexi thing product, when you have that bone dry, elevated acidity, I mean, and there's a place, you know, for like sweet ciders out there, just like there's a place for sweet wines right, like reserve wines, things like that, I think there's definitely a place for them.
Speaker 1:This, to us, is more of that kind of daily drinker that pairs so well with so many different occasions in life and on different dishes. You know, come on, continue. Um, yeah, even again, part of the complexity. You know you usually taste fruit, especially the apple. I mean, the sugar is what dominates a lot of that front, of that flavor, but with this you taste so much more of the other parts of the apple than just that punch in the throat of that sugary apple right.
Speaker 2:yeah, we've had a few sommeliers come in and do pre-tastings with us and they're like this is a scarp length out long, basically, like it'd be people would be hard pressed if you just line this is a scarf-laying South Blanc, basically Like people would be hard-pressed if you just line this up a bunch of scarf-laying lines to say that this wing is the Sire. So it's pretty exciting to see people's minds change about what a Sire has for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like I've been watching the most recent season of the Bear, when they're always very cognizant of people like magazines, newspapers, critics coming in, which can be stressful, I can't imagine all right, cool, you have a Malaya coming in. It's time to finally see what someone else thinks of this, because obviously you guys have your own various opinions, but someone else can be like ooh, touche. You're like, oh, thank you. It's been a while and if you said anything else I'd probably be a little bit shadowed, but thank you so much.
Speaker 2:I pulled my breath.
Speaker 1:Thanks, you know, carlos, stipping smelling salt. Yeah, it's fun though you kind of take, oftentimes you're taking them to a place they had avoided, right, and it's like it has a lot of characteristics and it shares similar component, like same attributes, as certain types of wine, but it's still different. Right, we're still doing an apple, so a different lager profile, but there's more similarities and differences, and so you kind of meet in the middle with a lot of professionals that have good experience, whether it's on the manufacturing side, like an actual producer or like Sam. You know who's meant to evaluate and have great knowledge of the product. You know who's he's meant to evaluate and then have great knowledge of the product. And do you feel like with science, like here's my own ignorance coming in, but like because with greeks and wine, I mean the history of wine goes back further than I mean, I mean even someone's gonna hate me for this comparison, but jesus christ, showing up to the wedding and getting the party started when everybody runs out, um, but, and like all the way to the point of like here's, I mean the typical griggs old wine first, I mean old vines versus new vines and, and so much thought and intention like that's gone into it. But I feel like with cider, there's a little bit more room for creativity and expansion, um, and just in general, like the fruit itself, that there is more opportunity for, like again, a creative mind like yours to really have fun and play with it. Or maybe it's just my other head is thinking it's that much different than a great. No, no, no, I think. I think you're, I think you're spot on.
Speaker 1:Like the, the history that you have on the wine side of the industry, you know it. Sometimes it can be kind of shatman, right. It's like, especially like 20 years ago and certainly, like you know, 50 or 100 years ago, where it was kind of needed to taste like this or this. Here's the, here's the small box that it needs to fit into, and it develops within that small box over a century or two or three centuries. You don't like necessarily have that with cider, so you don't, you're not trying to fulfill uh, you know traditions, so to speak. You have more space to play, you have more white space, because think about this like cider.
Speaker 1:In the beginning it was really in most parts of the world where I grew up, excuse me, it was more of a working man's drink, right, it was like a laborer's drink. Right, they'd make cider, uh, to drink in the fields. You know, if they're done working or maybe during a while they're working with fields, it was more about a blue collar kind of laborer's drink in many parts of the world where I grew up. Uh, over time, you know, you started had it become more of like a fine wine in certain key areas, but in the states you never had that. Right, we're so new, right, the united states is so new in history culture that we just didn't have that. When it came to the us, it kind of came in this more kind of you know, for lack of a better word like alka-pop kind of uh formation a long time ago. And so you, you know, we're not shackled by tradition, we're not trying to prove something from 200 years ago. We can play with it and take it a different direction that people aren't used to, which is pretty cool, yeah, because, like, even uh, marcio buffalo is saying something similar where we know what west approached him about joining there. He's those tighter.
Speaker 1:I don't know what cider is, but then he kind of put together that. That's what his family would drink in brazil and especially the kids would drink because it's kind of like it's mine, but it's like cheap wine and that's kind of what we have is like a replacement, and so again, like so many of the things that at one point start is like let's, oh, great example kale. Kale used to be again. The biggest buyer of kale back in the day was pizza hut, because that was what they would use to put everything on top of them to frame their like pizza bar. And then now it turned into this like oh, you want your kale Caesar salad, which I do, and so it's fun to see how, like some of these things that were once termed as something less fine, less, I mean, I don't know what word to use but then to come back and be like oh, actually we can make something pretty great out of this. We just need to rethink it and kind of give it the love that it needs. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolute win. So it's an eye-opener for people for sure.
Speaker 1:I mean you look at this product here today and obviously it has that color of a nice white wine. There's a touch of haze coming through the product. That actually increases the viscosity of the mouthfeel, kind of that palate heaviness of the product. It changes the clear profile of the wood and so we kind of like that. We like having a little touch of haze in there. So that's perfectly normal.
Speaker 1:But this one is really. This first launch is really meant to show people that sparkling wine and sparkling cider are completely in Sanfen, completely related. They're right next to each other. It's one's kind of offshoot variation of the other. Now we'll do more adventurous stuff in the future. You know different varietals of apple and get way more adventurous, higher tannin. You know like way more challenging with other stuff. The cider world was huge. Right, you can do a body, interesting, fun stuff. But for our first release it's like wanting to bring everyone together. Right, come from the beer world, come from the wine world, come from whatever you're familiar with, come to the cider world here, meet us here and see how close this is to our team. Nice, smart, yeah, and all you got to do is go drop into Camas, have a pretty drive, enjoy this pretty space and how are your peppers?
Speaker 2:I expect my own. Yeah, and it's also this product that we just released is 8.5% alcohol, so it's lower alcohol than your typical wine, which is under your full. I can be 12 to the 14% average. So, yeah, a little easier to drink, easier the next day, and this is really warm.
Speaker 1:Touche, six years in the making, well longer than that, but as far as, like this, one year, this after this, no, but thank you to me, thank you both for bringing something so great to to the area. I mean it's something that I mean even just the thought of, like, having an orchard to this extent up in canvas is one thing, and then to create such an amazing cidery, and I mean everything that you guys have planned is, I mean I mean like touche, who can pass you? Looking forward to seeing you guys. I'm excited for the future of our building. I appreciate that, thank you, thank you very much.
Speaker 2:Matt, thanks for helping us take the word out.
Speaker 1:At least I can do. I don't do anything, I just talk to people. I get to ask people questions. Everybody else does the cool stuff. Anything else you guys want to make sure we're?
Speaker 2:And you can follow us on Instagram at Dunderga State. We also have a newsletter you can sign up for on the website and we'll be coming out with a new website here in just about two weeks. So keep an eye out for that and, yeah, really excited to share it with everyone. Like you mentioned, you can get bottles here on site on Fridays and Saturdays from noon to six and as we expand our inventory, we'll help you expand those hours and days. And then keep an eye out for us, for Dunderick Estate, on your favorite menus around Parsity and Salt Lake. You can get to our accounts here in the next few weeks.
Speaker 1:So, whether you're headed up to the UNC to go to camp, you're coming to the rodeo on the Pioneer Day, try to think of all the other reasons people swim by Jordan. Yeah, reasons people swim by Air Jordan. Yeah, come, swim by All of these things. Could, yes, a way outside or far from the water? Come up by Slate Creek Trail in the Uintas, swim by. On that Friday or Saturday you got a bottle.
Speaker 2:Yeah, bring music and keel on Fridays Scrap.
Speaker 1:Steal I want to end with. I usually end with two questions, but you stole my thunder on the second question. It would have worked if I were information to share, but if you guys could have someone on the Small Lake City podcast and hear more about them and their story, would you want to hear it? Oh, that's a really good question.
Speaker 1:This is usually why I have to cut out the most white noise. Do you give a little Cheese shakes? I'm kind of thinking like on cheese side of things. Like you know, fernando, over at Gold Creek Farms. No, cut Just down the road you got Gold Creek Farms.
Speaker 1:It's a small cheesemaking facility right on the edge of the Uint Farms. It's a small cheese making facility right on the edge of the Uintas. It's on the south side of the Canterbury Valley. It's up in Woodford and Gold Creek Farms. He does some amazing cheese there. And call Fernando, I'll hook you up. Okay, deal, I'll connect you. It'd be the cheesiest episode I'll ever do. Well, carly Brandon, I'm so excited to see the rest of the story because if this were a book, we're in chapter like four, we'll give it five of twenty, and so excited to see everything that happens. Yeah, excited to see you along the way and I will be back, and if I see it on the menu I sure as hell will be ordering it. So awesome, thank you. Thank you, appreciate it, cheers. I love a good story that has all of the good stories A little love story, a little bit of creativity.
Speaker 2:Look at that guy.
Speaker 1:What's up, brother? How are you Scooter?
Speaker 2:I was going to say it's kept him, just give him a hug. It's like I heard my name. I heard my name being Just.
