Unique pairing of beer and wine at Hopland winery
Image via Winebusiness.com
By James Lanaras
February 18, 2008
A unique and flavorful pairing of beer and wine is in store
for those who attend the daylong "Mardi MAS" in Hopland
on Friday.
It's wine in a beer keg!
The MAS Wine Company, which brews its super premium red and white
wines, MAS Vino and MAS Vino Blanco at the Jepson Winery in Hopland,
has invited 200 managers and sales people from 11 beer distribution
companies from throughout Northern California to the event at
the winery.
MAS Wine Company distributes nearly all its wines in something
near and dear to the beer brewers' and lovers' hearts - stainless
steel kegs, a far cry from cork and bottle and screw tops in the
wine domain.
The goal of the gathering at the Jepson Winery in Mendocino County
is to introduce the denizens of the beer world to a working winery
and help the beer distributors become more comfortable with the
wine the MAS Wine Company is asking them to sell.
"Through our colleagues in the beer industry, we've placed
our red and white kegs in stores and restaurants in all of the
Bay Area's nine counties, Eureka, Mendocino and Sacramento County.
We're off to a great start," said Andy Woehl, president of
MAS Wine Company.
MAS Wine Company is an 18-month-old start-up with officers and
investors based in San Francisco, Sacramento and Sonoma County.
The company has a Web site and a mailing address in Cloverdale
where its winemaker and production chief live.
"No bricks and mortar. Just wine," Woehl says.
The company comes together for blending new wines at Jepson Winery
in Hopland.
The company's airtight, 15-liter kegs hold 20 bottles of wine
and keep wine fresh for 60 days. The company is also introducing
11-liter kegs that hold 15 bottles of wine.
The kegs are manufactured in Germany and reduce energy consumption
and waste associated with packaging, delivering and storing glass
bottles. The kegs are delivered in a just-in-time distribution
system. The wines are blended with grapes grown in Napa, Sonoma
and Mendocino counties.
"We went to the beer industry because they are the people
who know all there is to know about selling beverages in kegs
to a large customer base," Woehl said.
The company's main product is wine by the glass from kegs directed
at a target audience of young professionals 25-40 years old who
are educated, interested in wine and eat out several times a week.
The kegs are at two-dozen restaurants, hotels and other eating
and drinking establishments in the Bay Area.
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