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Distiller’s Perspective: Winning with Brandy at Willow Creek
Founded a little more than a decade ago by Opolo Vineyards in Paso Robles, California, Willow Creek Distillery has a reputation for its award-winning brandies. Here, U.S. Marine turned head distiller Kevin Coulton explains their approach to high-quality fruit-based spirits—from sourcing fruit to making use of saignée. As told to Ryan Pachmayer.
Founded a little more than a decade ago by Opolo Vineyards in Paso Robles, California, Willow Creek Distillery has a reputation for its award-winning brandies. Here, U.S. Marine turned head distiller Kevin Coulton explains their approach to high-quality fruit-based spirits—from sourcing fruit to making use of saignée. As told to Ryan Pachmayer. <a href="https://spiritsanddistilling.com/distiller-s-perspective-winning-with-brandy-at-willow-creek/">Continue reading.</a>
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The distillery started making brandy right from the start—pear brandy, grappa, and nocino started in 2013. I came on in 2016, working my way up to lead distiller. Then, in 2019, I became the head distiller.
The main inspiration is from Rick Quinn, the owner of Opolo. He’s of Serbian heritage, and there’s a lot of cultural tie-in. There’s a very large brandy presence in that region: grappa, other eaux de vie such as apricot brandy, cherry brandy, and slivovitz—a Slavic word for plum brandy.
There are a surprising number of Serbians and other Europeans from that region who come through the distillery. They come in and have a heavy accent, and they go, “Oh, you make slivovitz?” And they try it, and it takes them back—it’s nostalgic. You hear a lot of stories about them drinking with their grandpa in the old country. It’s a really cool cultural tie-in. It’s familial.
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