The saga of Salvaged Spirits had begun. Salvaged Spirits has two meanings here – both the Brandy and the Spirit of Terry and Frances Leighton!

 

When Woody and I first trucked on down to the Bel Marin Keys Storage unit we were a little overwhelmed! Here was 150 great looking wine barrels all on racks. Not only were they good looking but maybe ½ of them were ½ full of wine. 

As we began rolling out the empties I decided to call upon Head Winemaker Justin Seidenfeld of Rodney Strong and then I called Dr Stillwater himself, my friend and master distiller of Young & Yonder Tim Welch. 

The prevailing sense was it just would not be any good. What we did not know was that Terence Leighton and his wife Frances were Microbiologist Graduates from University of British Columbia and Professors of same at UC Berkeley. 

When they ventured into wine making they decided to do it the old way! They Barrel aged many wines up to 20 years including Chardonnays. They call most modern winemaking “industrial,” arguing that it minimizes the chances of something going wrong but strips wine of its soul. 

Their Biochemist purview and their credo “Produce No Wine With Less Character Than Yourself” gained them notoriety in the world of wine.

 

In the 1980s, Kalin Cellars throve, patronized by a celebrity clientele and served by the glass at the likes of Wolfgang Puck’s chic Michelin-starred Spago in Los Angeles. Kalin won lavish praise from Robert Parker, then in his heyday, who dubbed Terry an “eccentric genius” and lauded his Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Semillon, and Sauvignon Blanc as among the best produced in North America.

 

After shipping 750 gallons of product to the Distillery I went to Rodney Strong to pick up two beautiful fresh French wine barrels that had just been emptied of their Cabernet. I met Christophe Hensley Davis, Cellarmaster at Rodney Strong. As we walked through the winery to photograph our huge tables in the Cellar Room he asked me what I was using the Barrels for and when I began telling him the story he stopped in his tracks and said – 

 

“I know all about Terry Leighton and Kalin Cellars. My senior year at UC Berkeley, as a student of Ancient History, Archeology and Classics, I almost took a fermentation microbiology class for making beer, bread, cheese and wine, which included Terry Leighton as the enology professor, but opted to take the lazy route instead, a decision that I regret to this day. A couple years later as a wine salesman in SF, I briefly sold Kalin Cellars wine for a small distributor called Northpoint Cellars. The wines of Kalin Cellars enjoyed cult status at the time. Terry was known for his enological diligence, including isolating yeasts particular to the different varietals, as well as making wine the ‘old way’, more difficult and requiring much more attention to detail in each stage of the winemaking to create the best expression of terroir in the finished wines.”

 

After I put 120 gallons of 110 proof in two of the Barrels I had like 40 gallons of 152 proof so I decided I wanted to do an infusion. I told my good friend Raine Howe the story she said “would you please try to make something with Chocolate and Cherries in it”? Voila – Rainy Day Brandy with organic Ecuadorian Cacao from “Chocolates for Peace”, organic Tart Cherry Juice and organic Honey. 

I felt like wee Willie Wonka at the Chocolate Distillery once we started blending the ingredients at Young and Yonder!