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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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
What is up everybody and welcome back to another
episode of the Small Lake CityPodcast.
I'm your host, eric Nilsson,and this week's guests are Carly
and Brendan Coyle.
Now, carly and Brendan both gottheir careers started at High
West Distillery, where Brendaneventually became the head
distiller and Carly was themastermind behind a lot of the
operations and finance there.

(00:20):
But Brendan had an idea on theback of his head that he always
wanted to accomplish of owninghis own cidery and owning
everything around it, includingwhere they grew the fruit, and
wanted to do it.
Based in Utah, and after buyingthe property a few years ago,
they were finally able to openthis year and release their
first bottle with DendrickEstate.

(00:41):
Now the property is based up inCamas, utah, actually not too
far away from High West itself,and they just barely launched
their first bottle.
They're building out their owntasting room and building out
the rest of their orchard aswell.
It's a great story.
I'm so excited for it to bebased here Two great people that
really want to build and createsomething amazing for the Utah

(01:02):
community and was grateful to beable to sit down with them on
the property, get a tour of itand excited to share this with
you, so let's jump into it.
I'm excited for you all to hearfrom Brendan and Carly, but
yeah, let's hear more about howthey started Dendrick Estate.
Brendan and Carly Coyle, I'mexcited about this one because,
like, the way I met both of youwas fun, because I actually just

(01:24):
drove past it on the way up atthe new Grand Hyatt at Mayflower
I don't know what to call thatDeer Valley, east Mayflower, off
Jordan L, where they were onceupon 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 toour ever expanding empire, but
that was never the plan at thebeginning.

(01:44):
Right, wait, wait.
And so go to this huge likebecause, like, there's events I
go to where I'm like, oh, likecool, like fun, like I know
people.
This is great.
Like because, like, my socialanxiety is weird where, if I
walk into a room where I knoweverybody, nothing gives me more
energy in my life.
I love saying hi to my favoritepeople, catching up up having a

(02:05):
great conversation, but if Iwalk into a room I know nobody,
I'm like, let's just go into thecorner a little bit.
Or if I find like my emotionalsupport 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?
But then I think it was Carly atfirst, because I was writing
actually I'm writing this intext impact and you're like, oh
my gosh, like you had theepisode with Isaac, uh, winter,

(02:27):
more like we were starting thecidery up in Camas.
I'm like that sounds amazing.
Uh, excited, like congrats,what a huge accomplishment.
Like let's touch base once itstarts to become more reality.
We'd love to have you want totalk about it.
And then you've got a littlepristagraph, as I'm part of her
email distro for all of her PRannouncements.
I see the PR announcement andI'm like it's time and so it's

(02:49):
fun, especially your record inthe place itself, the orchard
right in front of us, wherewe've done, since you bought it
six years ago now, that much R&Dinto the fruit and the growing
and everything into now, whereall the machinery that you
bought at one point be like wewill use this to make me excited
.
And now it's gone through itsprocesses and it's a lot.

(03:10):
So, hey, congrats, what anaccomplishment.
We're so much done.
Yeah, it's here, it's finallytangible right.
We got a product to crack openand taste.
We got equipment that's beenbroken 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'sa nine month process and this
is a six year process, so Icouldn't have that much patience

(03:33):
.
After like a year I'd be likeall right, come on, like where's
the cider already?
Like give me, give me the out.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
Trust me, I thought that several times.
I'm like wait, how long is thisprocess going to take?
But you know, to make a goodproduct you got to have that
patience and you got to let itdo its thing and we're super
proud of the product that wejust came out with.

Speaker 1 (03:51):
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 accordingto plan, every last thing, as it
always does, that any anyproject at all man never.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
Yeah, definitely some hiccups pretty much every,
every phase of the project.
But, um, that's one thing thatit's really great to have a
partner especially like yourspouse involved is that whenever
I'm like I want to destroy thismachine, brendan can be like
let's take a breath, let's gofor a walk in the orchards or
coffee, let's touch some treesand figure this out, and so,

(04:35):
yeah, we switch back and forthand that support's really
important.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
And I love those marital slash business
partnerships because I mean I'verecorded with enough people and
entrepreneurs at this pointlike so many of them started
with, oh, me and my partner ayear later bought out my partner
because it just didn't work forone way shape or form.
And then you have the peoplewho have like a marital
partnership on top of it becausethey're like, listen, we have

(04:58):
to make this work, um, or elseother things might happen, and
so so it's about even thinkingabout, I mean the most recent
one, like Manoli Catenavis, withManoli's and Perea, just
hearing about how strong theirrelationship is.
Their partnership is, I mean,obviously similar to, I'm sure
both of you experience wherethere's times you want to pull
your hair out, there's times youwant to pull his hair out, but

(05:26):
at the end of the day it comestogether well, and so I'm sure
it's been.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
There's been great memories, bad memories, all the
memories, but, yeah, everythingin between I mean the.
The great thing about thispartnership that we started here
is we've already workedtogether.
So when we both joined highwest I mean bernie joins, but
2007, yeah, um, and I was 2009,and for the first few years
there we were working likeliterally how we're seated right
now.
So we worked shoulder toshoulder for the first five

(05:49):
years of that company and lovedworking together and that's
obviously where our relationshipcame from.
So we already knew before westarted this that we loved
working together.
And when we moved to differentpositions with High West and
then I moved out of High Westand we missed working together,
so coming back together for thisproject has been really
exciting.

Speaker 1 (06:09):
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 Icould not do that with.
I call like the Jim and Pamdynamic from the office.
Like I can't imagine havinglike hey, we wake up, the kids
wake up, we get them ready forbreakfast, we drop them off at

(06:29):
daycare, we go to work together.
We work the entire day.
We leave together, we go pickup the kids together, we go make
dinner together, we go to bedtogether.
We wake up again.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
Like it's a different type of relationship.

Speaker 1 (06:38):
I don't like.
I'm someone who means my alonetime and I love people talking
and social interaction, butthere's times when I go listen.
I'm gonna go walk as far as Ican that way don't follow me.
But on a missing person report,if it's been 36 hours.

Speaker 2 (06:52):
I mean, that's why we have 20 acres here.
I can walk in the straight linefor a very long time how much
space do we need?

Speaker 1 (06:59):
20 acres.
How did you get to that number?
Do you want to know the answers?

Speaker 2 (07:03):
I was like to walk, but I mean let's.
Do you want to know the?

Speaker 1 (07:04):
answers as far as I need to walk.
But I mean, let's set thecontext of like I mean before I
mean high west, before the bothof you, because I know I mean
obviously high west since 2007,since 2009, in your various
capacities.
But we can start with Brandonand go from like I mean, how did
you end up in Utah itself?
Yeah, absolutely so.

(07:25):
I came from Minnesota,originally born and raised just
west of Minneapolis, a placecalled Wayzata, minnetonka.
It's kind of near some lakesand stuff.
Does she?
Do you know?
Looks like you know Minnesota,she's from Minnesota.
So she, we were actually therea couple of weeks ago.
I flew into Fargo and got a twoand a half hour weather delay
because of tornado warnings, butthen so her family's all in
Minnesota and we went to thelakes, which is the whole state.

(07:46):
So we went to the lakes.
So now anybody says Minnesota,I'm like I already know
something, and then they sayanything else besides, like the
small areas, and I'm like justkidding.

Speaker 2 (07:56):
All you need to know is it's near a lake.

Speaker 1 (07:58):
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 highschool and I was like, all
right, cool, I'm graduating fromhigh school, I'm going to go
get a college degree and I'mgoing to keep mountain biking.
Those are my two goals comingout of high school.
It's like I want to keepmountain biking, get a college
degree.
And so I came to University ofUtah on Salt Lake City, because

(08:18):
Park City then, and kind of nowtoo, it's still like this mecca
of cross-country mountain biking, you know.
And so that's what brought mehere originally.
And it wasn't long.
I was here for like maybe a yearand a half and my neighbor
during college gave me ahomebrewing kit.
And he's like I'm out of here,I got to go, I got these other
obligations elsewhere, I'mpurging a whole bunch of my
belongings.
Had you ever thought of ahomebrewing in your life?

(08:40):
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 thinglike okay, we're going to serve
this.
We're going to donate and we'llgive this away.
But to look, you'd be likehere's a home and I started

(09:02):
brewing beer in the kitchen.
Right, I really got into it.
So I started kind of changingmy degree.
I started doing my own studies,I started really pouring all my
time and extra money intohomebrewing and I was like you
know what, if I'm going to pourall my extra time and money into
this, I should probably thinkof it as an actual direction to
go.
So it was great, I started homebrewing.
I got landed an apprenticeshipat Red Rock Brewing Company back

(09:24):
in the day, back when KevinTemplin was there.
Templin brought me in, taughtme a whole bunch of stuff and
just really gave me my break inthe industry really.
And so I was with Red Rock forfive or six years.

(09:45):
I eventually went to Scotland,did a master's in brewing
distilling sciences at harrietwatt, which is wild like,
because now I know of like fouror five people that have done
that, which is way too manypeople for how small and
specific that thing it is, butit's fun to see how many people
have been like okay, like, thisis something I want to do,
something I want to be worryingabout.
Go do it, which is like a verylike strong.
However, I want to say it likededication to the craft, the

(10:05):
process, whatever I call it, andbe like all right of all the
because, like that can also bean inflection point of saying,
okay, I now I have thisworldwide perspective of the
distilling process.
Oh, I want to go to anywhere inthe world, but I mean,
especially in your case, we'relike, listen, nobody has as good
as mountain biking, as bar city, so if you, if you want to make
an offer, maybe an offer, butthis better be in the offer,

(10:27):
because, if not, kick rocks,yeah, right, right, exactly, um,
so, yeah, uh, I came back andthen when I came back, I just
again, it's kind of like like somany things in life are just
tiny, right like where you areat that time, and I got hooked
up with high west distilleryfrom day one.
So, um, where david Perkins wasstarting the company, he needed
a master distiller and so I wasjust really hot off the degree.

(10:48):
Only like six months back in theStates, I was consulting a
little bit, doing some work inthe industry, but jumped on with
High West from day one and thatwas a wild ride.
For like 20, almost 20 yearsnow.
We built the company up and weeventually sold it to
Constellation Brands and then Itook a global role for
Constellation Brands right afterthat.
Yeah, so I was master distilleracross their Global Spirits

(11:08):
portfolio.
Again, a wild time, right Sixor seven years traveling around
the world and just an amazingopportunity and I learned a ton.
But I also learned somethingvery 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 Iwas like you know what?

(11:29):
It just I'm not done buildingfrom the ground up.
You know, I want to buildsomething again and this idea
was in our heads for a long timeand it was like backburnered
for a while.
You know, it was such a bigproject that took so much
resources and time andeverything that you kind of
backburner it backburn, but it'sstill scratch, but it's still,
yes, it owns up every no waybecause, like, I mean, even I
mean again, like, let's justtalk about, like the distilling
or I mean outback industry ingeneral.
Like I mean, how many peoplewould kill to be like, oh,

(11:50):
you're the master brewmaster atwhat's the title?
Master distiller, masterdistiller, master brewmaster
runs off the top there, butwe'll, I'll workshop it with
them.
Uh, master distiller, for Imean one of the largest
portfolio of, I mean, outbackbeverages.
Like people kill.
Like people kill for that.
But at the same time, they'relike, listen, it's great, don't
get me wrong, but there'ssomething else that I need to.
Yeah, doing it.
It's not this.

(12:10):
Yeah, exactly, I saw it as like, yeah, great opportunity and a
great education.
So there's so many things thatyou can learn at a really big
company.
You can't very valuable stuff,but when you get both sides of
the experience, it really showsyou what you really vow, what
you want that next 10 years,that next chapter, to be.

(12:30):
And it was this.
It was building something fromthe ground up again.
And the key thing about thisthat really kept scratching,
like you were saying I justcould not let go of it was that
agriculture element To puttogether another brand, a
high-end.
You know, essentially we're awinery here.
We're a mountain-y, the statewinery.
We make cider, but we'reregulated, we're thought of as

(12:53):
just like a winery in the eyesof the federal government.
And to bring the agriculturelike to a mountain winery
because we love to live in themountains right, we love to ski,
love the mountain bike, we loveour life in the mountains and
to bring like the passion tobuild something from the ground
up to where you want to be therest of your life in the
mountains, like that's justunstoppable, like you couldn't
ignore it.
Which is such like a commontrend when I look at I mean,

(13:16):
it's called Utah, it's calledSalt Lake, broader Salt Lake
area is there's so many thingsthat I mean has inspired people
to be here since the mid 1800sand before then.
But then a lot of people bringwhat they want with them like oh
well, I want this here, butit's not here.
And it's one of those like Icall it the harry potter and the

(13:37):
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, maybeyou'll get it.
But there's the point at theend 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 apatronus right there, he's the
one that's gonna do it.
And then it gets to the pointhe's like shit, it was me, I
have to be the one to do this.

(14:00):
And so you have this momentwhere you're like or someone
else is going to make thisworld-class whiskey shop, or
someone else is going to bringall 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 inyour experience, because you
have this great career of beinglike okay, I get this beer kit,

(14:21):
this is fun, I like this.
I think I'm gonna take thismore seriously to then walking
into Red Rock and seeing goodold Kevin Templin and he's like
yo, I got an idea for a thingcalled LFI.
Now, let's do those To.
Then going to Scotland, comingback, getting the great
experience at High West, gettingthe inspiration at
Constellation I mean, what weresome of those key learnings?

(14:42):
This, for me, a big part of it,was balancing that like that
business, that professionalmindset, right To make things
work because you know you'regoverned by.
You know you don't havelimitless money.
You don't have like limitlesstime in like you have to like be
wise about the decisions andthe actions that you take.
You know you have to be likesmart business, smart about it,
but you also don't want to losethe craft or the art behind it.

(15:04):
You know you want to lose thecraft or the art behind it.
You know you want to experiment, you want to innovate

(15:30):
no-transcript of cider over thepast hundred years, but this
really is like another style ofinteresting wine.
So see that aha moment, youknow, but still put it together
in like a good, like you know,responsible company, like that's
the fun part, right, that's thebalance of the challenge.
Yeah, it reminds me of theconversation with isaac winter,

(15:51):
because I mean he started at redrock.
They went to uinta where I meanthey just gotten private equity
money and there's time to likedo whatever the hell you want,
go make all the beers that youwant, and so there wasn't this
kind of like business consciouspart of it.
They had to enter his brain andthen, as he took over more
there and then went up to highwest like.
One of the biggest learningsfor him was oh, like, because
again you have this let's callit artistic, creative side of

(16:12):
things, which is the distilling,the brewing, like the art of
creating an amazing, amazingbeverage that you want to share
with people, but then also theboard that you go through this
process and rise up inleadership and responsibility.
More of this business side comesin.
It's like, oh, you do have apnl now, you do have a budget,
you do have stakeholders, let'ssee what the board meeting.
You do have to be responsiblefor all these decisions and all

(16:33):
of a sudden, like, I mean,you'll want this plague of
business logic to come in andimpact the creative side of
things.
But at the end of the day, theyhave to become harmony or else,
right, if you spend too muchtime 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 handand that's the real learning and
challenge.
But you can do it.

(16:53):
You know it's totally doable.
It's harder work when it'sdoable, cool.
So I mean, there is, let's goback to the taffra with you.
How did you end up in thisinteresting state to find
yourself in?

Speaker 2 (17:10):
Yeah, I grew up on the East Coast and lived abroad
for a bit, first in England andthen in New.
Zealand.

Speaker 1 (17:17):
What took you there?

Speaker 2 (17:22):
England.
I was there for middle schooland high school with my family
and then New I just you know,quote unquote studied abroad for
a year there, did a lot oftraveling, did I've had a lot of
fun.
And then came back to thestates and kind of kept working
my way west and ended up inYellowstone National Park for a
season, which was a super funyear, and grew up skiing.

(17:45):
So I knew that I wanted to bein a ski town.
My idea was just that I wasgoing to balk around ski towns
and live that ski bone life andbe a ski patroller.
And I came to Park City.
I thought that I would justspend a season here.
I'm like the you know,quintessential Park City person
where I came for one season andnow, 14 years later, is still
here.

Speaker 1 (18:07):
I always loved that because, like when I was growing
up I mean I grew up skiing allthe time.
I mean every Saturday, if itwas in the summer, my grandpa
would be towing a boat, pickingus up, throwing us back in the
truck.
We were water skiing In thewinters.
Throw your skis in the back ofthe truck, we're doing skiing.
And like I I mean as a kid, Imean I never talked to anybody
on a ski lift.
I was like I'm about to drop.
He told me to just buy a joketo get off and we go.

(18:27):
And then, but then it was funny.
I mean, coming back from mymission where I mean call it
trauma, I call it just two yearsof doing the same thing.
But like I just got so used toif someone was next to me like
to start talking to him, like tothe 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 likeall these people are like the

(18:49):
hell is wrong with you.
But like sure, I'm married.
But then ski season starts.
So I got back and of course I'msitting in the line next to
someone on a trailer, I starttalking.
And it wasn't from here.
I just assumed that if we're inthe same place and this is how
I got here that we all got here.
And then, even more so, when Iwent in college, I was one of
the first lyft drivers and itwas fun to just hear people's

(19:12):
stories like yeah, I came herefor a wedding and never left,
and, and so it's fun to see howI mean people get so locked into
this.
And I'm also always jealous ofpeople that did like the ski bum
experience, because, like I, Imean I can do whatever I want to
, but it's a lot harder now thanit would have been then.
But also, I mean just from thatperspective, being what made
you choose Park City compared toI mean even from like a let's

(19:32):
do an eight hour diameter,there's 15 to 20 other options
that could have checked a lot ofthose same boxes yeah, great
question.

Speaker 2 (19:39):
So when I was in college at Wisconsin, studying
abroad in New Zealand, my familyfamily actually named Derek
Pierce, my two younger siblingsto Park City and so when I was
like ready, when I was done inNew Zealand, ready to come home,
they sent me a plane ticket andit was into Salt Lake and I was
like why am I flying into SaltLake One?

Speaker 1 (19:57):
meal mistake.

Speaker 2 (20:00):
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 justthought that I would kind of
pass the year after a season.
So I did a volunteer ski patrolon year at our season at uh
canyons.
Before it was a person demons.
Um, I had a fantastic timethere.

(20:21):
I got a part-time job at HighWest Distillery and met Brendan
I guess two weeks after movingto Park City, and that was kind
of it for me.

Speaker 1 (20:32):
So it is like a little Jim and Pam moment here.
I interrupted her interview.
I was setting up the distilleryat the saloon, right Like the
High West on Main Street or onPark Avenue in Park City.
I was setting up, you know,getting fermenters commissioned
in the basement and getting intothe go and stuff and and then
the you know but the restaurantand finance I, and then, without

(20:54):
the business was getting spunup and and they were hiring and
I walked in you know the office.
I totally interrupted right inyour dinner.
I'm just like who the hell isthis interviewing in the office
right now and like from thatit's over.
Hey, sorry, sorry to interrupt.
Uh, what are you for dinnertonight?
Just curious.
No, no real reason.
Here's just some new questionsin this interview.

(21:15):
Here it's the second part ofthe interview.
Don't tell everybody about this.
This is between us and you knowhow long into that experience,
because you were there in 2007.
She joined in 2009.
I mean, was it like a taylorswift song from the beginning,
or did it take time, or you justdidn't find yourselves getting
married?
I guess let's start with thedata.
But what date did you guys getmarried?
And then we can work back fromthere, 2014.

(21:37):
Okay, so see, there's a bigcourtship in there.
It's not fast.
It's kind of funny because youknow, at the time we're opening
high west and like opening abusiness, especially like
hospitality, food, membersbusiness, that's like tied to
the manifest, like everythingopening 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

(21:58):
the place.
We're also going out partying,you know, at night and stuff
together.
It's like you just you'reburning the candle all the time,
yes, and then you trip and youfall and you kiss her.

Speaker 2 (22:05):
You're like, oh, what the fuck is that?
We were talking earlier abouthow small of a community the
alcohol beverage scene is inUtah, and just to drive home
that point.
So Mark Radura, who is theowner of Global Crossing Brewing
, he was with Chi West, with usfrom the very beginning.
So Mark Brendan and myself werekind of like this little sharia
that would just work all dayand then go party in park city

(22:27):
at night.
Um, and just this, um, just youknow, put up the best friends
and then uh mark ended up beingour officiant at our wedding too
.
So it's, like you know, ontogoes out into all of the
beverage apple beverage industryhere you guys are always
sending philadelphia fans.

Speaker 1 (22:46):
But there's and it's also a meme of like it's one of
those boards where it's like allthe pictures, the yarns drawn
to, the pictures of all theinvestigative and he's like
going crazy, like I want to dothat with, just like the outbap
scene in utah bag.
All right, of course we got timkendall, we helped all of these
things and places and how itbrings everybody together and
everybody knows each other.
Like it's funny to think ofthrowing like let's call it a
founder room master who's kindof like heads of all of the

(23:08):
places.
There's no way anyone arewalking like oh sure, no way.
If anything would probably turninto a pretty great part pretty
quickly.
Everybody brings us their ownrespective six-pack bottle,
whatever, and then like the best.
Oh yes, let's call it a potluckof all time.
Yeah, sure Might need a hotelroom.

Speaker 2 (23:31):
Yeah, someone's going to need to bring food.

Speaker 1 (23:33):
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 getmore 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 partof the, some part of the process
of ideation and execution.
Uh, I mean, did you havesomething like were you there to

(23:55):
support him in his dream?
Did you have anything else thatyou want to do on top of this?
Or yeah.

Speaker 2 (23:59):
So when, when he first started talking about this
, I mean he's like I had aglobal spirits, I fortune 500
cone film like you're doingpretty good like this, this kind
of you know, it's kind of goodpath for you, um, but the more
we talked about it and the moreyou know we talked about how
much we love starting up highwest and how much we loved
living here and we just reallywanted to, uh, be more of a part

(24:22):
of the community in the kiamisvalley, um, and dig in deeper.
So uh, yeah, just the more wetalked about it and I was like,
okay, okay, we could do this, wecould do this, um, and I'm more
on the finance side of things,accounting, um, and like brand
management, and so of course, myhead is immediately like, like
how would this work?
by cleaning all the numbers, um,blood pressure spike eggs, oh,

(24:45):
totally just make a greatproduct that people will love.

Speaker 1 (24:48):
You're like yeah, yeah, mr, make a Great Product
that's going to solve everything.

Speaker 2 (24:51):
It's like all right, I mean, I know you can make a
good product, so we'll see whathappens.

Speaker 1 (24:56):
Like I trust you, I trust you, I trust you and
you're not even saying that tohim.
That's just at the bathroom.
There was a time when I kind oflike forced is probably the
wrong word I kind of sealed thedeal when we acquired this.
So, carly, talking to theprocess of like how you because
I'm sure this isn't the onlyproperty you toured we were

(25:17):
looking for the property for awhile, right, so it had been 2-3
years and like Carly was likeshe was like on board, but she
wasn't on board.
I was still convincing her so Ithought it was a good idea, but
she didn't work convincing, butit 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, Iwant to go by 20 acres, start
our own cider brand in canvas.
Utah, we're gonna do somethingI'm in.
You know, someone's got a youknow double chair I think it's

(25:41):
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 bringboth.
Yes, absolutely.
So we were shopping aroundrather too casually for like two
or three years.
And then I'm driving to thedistillery one morning and
they're literally hammering inthe for sale sign on this
property and I'm like exactlyexactly what happened, slam on
the brakes, whip it over, callthe number, and I'm like just do

(26:01):
some hasty research over thenext several days.
And it was kind of a weirdsituation where it was kind of
like a silent bid, kind of aproperty sale, which I think
kind of scared some people off.
But you know, we did all theresearch and we're like you know
what?
Yeah, there's a little unknownin there, but I think this is
going to line up pretty well.
Carly had to leave.
She flew out of the countrywhen she was working at
Backcountry.
Oh, you're going to do this.

(26:22):
I'm going to go back to NewZealand for a second.
I need to go to GoPres, so sheheads to was it Journey.

Speaker 2 (26:31):
I was in Germany, for I was with Backcountrycom at
the time on their bike team andwas over in Germany for Eurobike
and, yeah, brenda came over.
We decided to extend that intoa vacation in Switzerland and do
part of the Hope Route.

Speaker 1 (26:42):
So I pretty much like convince her over the phone.
I'm like, hey, let's put bid onthis property.
And she was kind of like, eh,and I'm like worst case scenario
if this goes under just sell it.
It's like it's land it's notgoing to go down in value.
So I take a video of, likemyself submitting this envelope,
this packet, which is like thebidding packet will land,

(27:07):
submitting it into a mailbox atSalt Lake City International
Airport, right before I'mgetting onto a plane to come to
Germany to meet her, to like gohike half the Haute Route after
her business trip and stuff, youknow.
And like, well, there we go,just like, slide it into the
mailbox and I love boarding whathappens, yeah, so you know, and
then had a great trip, hikedhalf the Haute Route, incredible
time, like practically forgetabout the bid that we submitted.
And we Like practically forgetabout the bid that we submitted,

(27:27):
the note sale service, justlike, all right, say it all out
to hands, we're literally inZermatt.
But yeah, we're having ourfinal dinner in Zermatt, and
great place.
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 wonderfuldinner, and then my phone rings
on the table and it's ourrealtor who was like, and I'm
like, no, forget it, I flip itover, I'm not answering that,
this is going to be a beautifuldinner.
I'm not going to interrupt itwith a phone call and then he

(27:49):
goes back a minute later and shesees it and she's like you
probably shouldn't answer that.
And so I pick it up and he'slike, well, you won the bid.
So that turned into acelebration dinner of acquiring
the land.
I was like let's get anotherbottle and I was like I need
another carly's brains justgoing through all of what's
about to happen, I would ask for, in starting, yeah, because I

(28:12):
know.
And then waku, so I mean,obviously you, you get the
property, you come back fromgermany and that, what year was
that through?
That's 2019.
You purchased it, yeah, I mean.
And then what was like the nextstep, because I imagine you had
at least done some research ofbeing like, okay, so we have, we
have it, we need to startplanting, we need to start
putting up all of theinfrastructure of everything.
We need to walk you through thenext steps.
After that, with the agriculture, we obviously knew the

(28:34):
agriculture would take the mosttime.
It just takes time to developand mature.
So we wanted to get that in theground right away and start
experimenting.
Just start answering all thosequestions, because we are not
farms in case anyone out thereis listening, we are not farmers
.
Okay, I don't have the degreein it, you know, it expires at
art farmers.
So that was the learning curveright there.

(28:54):
So we taught ourselves, youknow, uh, how to do this up at
this elevation.
There's no playbook up here forthis, right, but we're doing
high density cider fruit ontrellis, like.
So we figured it out over thenext three or four years.
Covid helped.
We kind of got sidelined.
It was the first time I'd heardthat phrase.
I don't know if there's any usefor that phrase.
Usually it's like in it almostwent bankrupt because of COVID,
or almost unalive myself.

(29:16):
We were forced extra researchand development time because of
COVID.

Speaker 2 (29:22):
We dubbed it our COVID sanity project Go ahead
and I will project because we goahead 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 oflike google education going on.
But this whole valley is likeyou know.
It has that agriculture umheritage to it.
So we were leaning on you know,neighbors, other orchardists,
and it was like a group effortfor us to be like we bought this

(29:46):
property, this is what we wantto do.
Who can help us?
out so I'm running, says we.

Speaker 1 (29:49):
It was an extended well and it's nice, because I
mean this area.
I mean for those who aren'tfamiliar with, I mean canvas and
oakley, I mean a.
There's a lot of people whobreak horses, a lot of cattle,
but there's also a ton of hayfarming.
So well, I mean shocker animalsand hay are different, uh, but
I'm sure there's at least you'vebeen.
Like I can help you withsomething, like I can help you
start from somewhere, and I meaneven in general, just like utah

(30:13):
.
I mean very collaborativepeople.
People always want to help eachother, 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 herlast name from Hans Kombucha.
Like her printing line wasn'tworking, she couldn't get it
ready to go, she had to bottleall this Kombucha and like I

(30:34):
can't remember if she liketexted or called Kevin and like
he didn't answer or respond andthe next thing she knows he's
like walking in the back, he'slike alright, let's get this
figured out, uh type thing.
So it's, it's nice to have acommunity and like what a like,
cause there's different waysthey could approach it.
Right, cause, like there's likea lot of the sentiment,
especially in kind of like themore rural areas of Utah, like
outside, like the next layer,outside of kind of more
developed places.

(30:54):
We're like oh, I thinkoutsiders are coming in like
blah, blah, blah I don't knowwhy I used this accent, but
we're going to do it so it couldeasily just instantly turn
their nose at you, look theother way.
But instead they're like allright, how can we help?
Yeah, I mean what ties it alltogether is that it was

(31:14):
agriculture.
Right, it's like it doesn't.
They're excited that we'redoing something that involves
agriculture, even howeverdifferent it might be from what
they're used to and what'snormal for this valley.
We're doing something differentthat involves agriculture and
so everyone's been so supportiveof that.
So, so supportive of that,because eastern summit county
it's great for you know, we haveopen space, we have agriculture

(31:35):
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 canpromote 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 ofresearch before you buy the
property of like, oh, here's thefruit, here's the difference in

(31:55):
it all, here's like, I meankind of like thinking about that
next step, but that's a verydifferent thing than again, like
, we're planting this here rightnow.
Because of this reason, I mean,walk us through a little bit of
that deductive process of howyou decided on what fruit and
why.
Yeah, I mean, it's really justa lot of reference and research

(32:21):
towards what's being done inthose key areas where they grow
different types of apples.
So, basically, you look to ahandful 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 dosome pretty damn good research
on modern high-density perennialtree fruit and things like that
stone fruit, and so I was justdigging up everything I possibly
could and trying to find theclosest match to our climate
here and, oddly enough, if youlook through all the

(32:49):
temperatures, you know like thetemperature graphs, you know the
frost models and everythinglike that across the entire
United States.
What comes pretty close to thecanvas valley is the Bitterroot
Valley in Montana, and that'swhere I kind of really cloned in
and we actually took a trip upthere.
We drove up there to visit thevalley, meet with orchardists
and understand.
You know how they're doing whatthey're doing up there, because
that was the closest you knowclimate.
We could pull for the canvasvalley, and so that was part of
it.
And just a lot of reference, alot of research, and then, of
course, you're going to be wrongin a lot of things you do right

(33:11):
.
It's like there's so much trialand error.
It can only take you so closebecause 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 thisorchard organic to date and
we're pretty excited to keep itthat way.
Yeah, I mean, like I've talkedabout, everything goes to choreo

(33:34):
plan.
Obviously there's no wrenchesor kickouts or speed bumps, but
you just have to learn to rollwith the punches and Kyle,
obviously this has been so muchof his vision and like he
latches onto it.
But what have been some of yourfavorite parts of the things
that you've learned the most init, being kind of brought in
from the guy that you legallyand emotionally decided to
attach your life to?

Speaker 2 (33:55):
Yeah, yeah, it's been really exciting for me because
I've been able to branch outinto like every aspect of the
business.
So usually when you have like afull time job and you've got
your silo, you've got your youknow punch list for the week
with with a startup business asit was with high West as well
but you really get to like jumpinto every aspect.
So everything for me it'severything from you know

(34:16):
accounting, payroll, hr stuff to, as I say, hr.
It's just me and my husband.

Speaker 1 (34:24):
I've talked to HR about this.

Speaker 2 (34:26):
I've got a complaint to make.
But yeah, so it's everythingfrom you know accounting,
finance, all of that which is mybackground to you know social
media and like newsletters andpress releases, and then to like
go out into the orchard andlike plant a whole bunch of
trees and be like well, I hopeyou survive here and like say

(34:47):
sting yappy I try and give themall high fives in the morning,
but yeah, it's.
It's been really fun just to tobe a part of every aspect of
the business, from the startup,and I mean even even the parts
that suck, like licensing andpermits, which we could fill an
entire wall in here, of all thepermits and licenses that you
have to get.
I'm sure every brewer anddistiller and cider maker knows

(35:09):
what we're talking about.
But yeah, even those less funparts are still like challenging
and exciting and it's all onyou and it's stressful, but we
get there.

Speaker 1 (35:21):
And so, brandon, when you think about I mean again,
like your career up to thispoint, it starts with beer.
I think your neighbor givingyou beer to make in your garage
with his own beer maker kit ashe 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 forConstellation Brands.
I mean, how did this change theway that you thought about, I

(35:42):
mean the creation process, thecreative process, because it's
very different than anythingthat you had done before.
But what were some of thosethings that you had to learn and
take into account to createthat great product that you knew
you could make?
Yeah, I mean we're veryfortunate right now the Alkwev
community and like everyone whoparticipates in it as a consumer
or manufacturer, and on thefood side, we're super fortunate

(36:03):
right now that everyone outthere seems to want more
information, better sourcing,better intelligence, more
quality, more transparencyaround everything they're
putting in their body from foodand drink, and they want to know
the process, they want tounderstand it better.
And the consumer is as smart asthey've ever been nowadays and
I think a lot of big companiesdon't give them credit.
They're pretty damn smart andthey want to know more, they

(36:25):
want the intellectual capital,and so one of the things that I
really appreciated over theyears was that I call it
cross-pollinationcross-pollination through the
industry, right.
And so things that I learned inthe brewing industry, things I
learned in the distillingindustry, applying that towards
the wine industry you know, thecider and the wine industry and
vice versa along the way is,when it comes from techniques to

(36:46):
yeast strains, to the oak hembehind it, that's like there's a
lot of things you can useoutside of this very narrow band
that they were developed forover the last two centuries of.
You know how the modernindustry really developed.
You can do things and applythings in different ways.
On the other side of the coin,you know from from spirits to
wine and it can give you aunique outcome, and the consumer

(37:06):
right now is like, so ready forthose types of you know from
spirits to wine and it can giveyou a unique outcome and the
consumer right now is like, soready for those types of things.
You know, I feel like over thelast call it century you've had
very defined lanes that you knowthese 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, youhave natural wines.
You have the consumers so muchmore open with their palate,

(37:26):
they're willing to try things.
They're not super rigid, likeit has to drink like this, it
has to look like this, it has to, you know, and so it allows us,
as manufacturers and producersand artists, to like, really do
different things, challenge theconsumer and see what they like
and don't like and say, justopen your eye, open your you,
you know perception of what thiscan be and that's what I really

(37:47):
love doing over the years isthat cross-pollination of
sciences, uh, across theindustries.
It's super fun.
Yeah, and especially like, thebiggest difference of creating
cider, of other things we'vecreated in the past, is you have
a fruit where, before you havea grain, you have water.
Uh, I mean, how did that changethe way you thought about your
process?
Yeah, the agriculture is such abig, big component in cider and

(38:10):
in wine.
You're dealing with a fruitthat has all the water in it
already, right?
You have to take care of thatplant, that tree, that vine,
whatever it is.
You have to take care of thatthrough the season.
Optimal health, make sure itcan produce the best possible
fruit because it contains allthe water and all the flavor
profile in it.
When you're dealing with spiritsand you're dealing with beers
and things like that, I'm notsaying that the agriculture

(38:31):
doesn't matter.
The agriculture definitelymatters, especially with like
hops and beer.
But it's a little bit differenton the bulk of the product
where you're adding the water.
We're taking a dry product, youknow, from agriculture and
you're adding the water andyou're taking a lot more steps
down the road to essentiallydecide its trajectory of flavor
profile.
But in the wine industry andcider industry you're just
leaning so much more heavily onthe natural quality of that

(38:53):
natural product, that product,agricultural product coming from
the earth.
So it just plays such a biggerrole.
You know, and it's just um, youknow 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 tothat.
It depends on what you'remaking, but there is some truth
to that and that was the bigeye-opener for this venture was
agriculture plays a much biggerrole here.

(39:15):
Yeah, and maybe a question forboth of you, but like's someone
who you know whether they're acider enthusiast or looking for
something else.
I mean, what do you thinkseparates your product from
everything else that they couldsip on?
Yeah, so we took a veryintentional focus on this
company to use traditionalwinemaking methods.
There's a lot of times I'll say, you know, and for those out

(39:36):
there that you know, like, lovea sweet, simple beer, like cider
.
I'm sorry I might offend youhere for a second, but just
nothing's aired for everyone.

Speaker 2 (39:43):
Bear with me, I don't know if it's aired for everyone
.

Speaker 1 (39:44):
Yes, just bear with me, but I like to say a lot of
times that in some ways Americahas done the cider industry, the
cider product, a truedisservice over the past 100
years.
And look at the mainstreamciders that got developed over
the past century or so.
They look at the mainstreamciders that got developed, you
know, over the past century orso.
They tended to be more kind oflike a simple, sweeter kind of
apple flavored fizzy beverage tocompete with beer or be like a

(40:04):
beer alternative.
But when you lookinternationally, you look at
where cider grew up, you know,like in spain and the uk and
other parts of the world, it'smuch more akin to like a fine
wine it's like.
It's basically like a lowalcohol, sparkling wine, and it
can take on forms that are waymore wine like than any other
products out there.
And so we're focused on thathere.
We're focused on accentuatingthe wine like qualities that you

(40:28):
can receive from a well-made,clean, beautiful, complex cider
that takes time right, you don'tcrank it out, you can't crank
it out as fast as a beer.
To do what we're doing.
It takes, you know, a betterpart of a year to to get to the
type of cider that we're making.
So we really focus on the winemethods to drive that complexity
and showcase the fruitbeautiful.

(40:48):
I mean cut it and make it acommercial, as we're done here I
would also add on to that.

Speaker 2 (40:55):
I mean, we're making this life like bernadina, a
sparkling wine style cider.
So a lot of times, especiallywith like high-end sparkling
wines or champagnes, they can bekind of like dripping in
tradition and like intimidatingto buy and like you're not sure
if you're supposed to spend thatmuch money on that product, or
getting cheated or is therevalue there?

(41:16):
Um and so for us, we wanted tocreate a sparkling wine style
cider that's accessible toeveryone.
That's like less about thedripping and heritage and
tradition and more like justhave fun with it.
Like that's why our label iskind of like playful, youthful,
and that's how our aesthetic isgoing to be going forward.
It's just we want everyone tobe able to enjoy it.

(41:37):
It's not something that youhave to have a champagne flute
in order to, you know, pour itinto a crystal glass or
something like that.
This is just like pop it andhave fun yeah, and it's not one
of those.

Speaker 1 (41:47):
If you can't name all of the notes, then why are you
even drinking it?
And oh, it's a 400 dollarbottle.
Like it, whether you're in abackyard or friends camping trip
, a nice dinner, I mean any.
Any way, shape and form, itseems like it's something that
can be enjoyed in that moment,to be shared with people,
because, again, that's whatalcohol is for is to bring
people together, looseneverybody up so we can actually

(42:07):
all be present and enjoypeople's presence, and so
something that can fit that moldof wherever it finds itself, to
create that experience.
Sign me up, because even someof the nicest bottles of wines
I've had, in this situation I'mkind of like I'm not having fun
or you feel like you're supposedto be enjoying it more than you

(42:28):
are.

Speaker 2 (42:29):
You're like, yep, this tastes like a red wine,
like you know, and it's like ifyou're not noticing the nuances
of it and so, no, just justenjoy it.
Like, enjoy where you are.
Like're saying enjoy thepresence that you're in.
And that's really where we'refocusing for our distribution.
Like we want to make sure thatwe're in our favorite bars and
restaurants Not all bars andrestaurants, but like the places

(42:50):
that we like to go, because wewant someone to be able to walk
in there, have a great meal withfamily and friends.
And that's where you should beexperiencing a new brand.
Not just like, oh, it's on aliquor shop, it's got a cool
label, like, let's see if I likeit.

Speaker 1 (43:02):
Like no, why you got to call me out like that the
amount of time, because I dohave 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, Imean, have an email list of

(43:24):
every buyer and for everyrestaurant group at every
restaurant and see where it goes.
But we want, we want you to bepart of like the first part of
this journey, and I know thatthere's also a lot of plans for
the property in general, wherenow I mean if people come up
there's, I mean the R&D farm orlike that first block that you
have in general, where now Imean if people come up there's,
I mean the R&D farm or like thatfirst block that you have.
We have, I mean where we'resitting in right now in the
manufacturing area, but I meantasting room coming more block

(43:46):
to have.
I mean, walk me through alittle bit of that process and
the timeline behind that.
Yeah, absolutely so, to see thewhole vision that we're doing
here and we're trying to puttogether here.
We need that on-site experience, right, that's so important.
It's just like how we want to beon great menus around Park City
and Salt Lake, we want to haveour own great menu right here on
the property, with themanufacturing, with the
agriculture next to it, and sowe're planning a tasting room

(44:07):
that'll sit right in the middleof the agriculture, right in
central block, planting there,and the idea is to have that
proximity, you know, to havethat closeness of the
agriculture right to the productso you can be enjoying a
wonderful glass of sparklingcider, enjoying a nice meal, and
just literally just get out ofreceipt, walk right into a row,
you know in in orchard, and justreally touch some trees and
enjoy it, like see, enjoy theproduct sitting right where it

(44:30):
came from, from the agriculture,right to the glass, and so
that's just like carly said, youcan walk by and get the fruit
of high fun satellite give melength eggs good talk to him.
It's cool, let me hang out everyday.
Um, that'll sit right in themiddle of the estate.
We're looking to hopefullybreak ground on that in the
springtime spring of 26 and sothat would be opening in 27.
So you know, a little bit out.
But, like we said, great thingstake time, um, so we're we're

(44:52):
focused on that for for the thereal experience part of of the
estate, we'll have full kitchen,full bar.
Uh, opportunity.
It's meant to be just kind oflike a relaxed kind of lounge
vibe.
Right, come do an event thereif 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 (45:13):
Yeah, and we're excited for more people to
experience the Camas Valley.
I feel like we were talkingearlier about how a lot of
people drive through on theirway into the Uintas.
Right, and there's not a lot of.
I mean, there are some ratevendors around here, but it'll
be fun to give people anotherreason to stop and enjoy the
valley before you head out intothe Uintas or when you're coming

(45:34):
out with the Uintas, becausethere are just so many rate
producers around here.
I mean the views that we havefrom this property Timpanogos
right over there and then up toHawaii Peak over here yeah,
it'll just be fun to bringpeople here and have them
understand more specifically theland number.

Speaker 1 (45:54):
Go.
Stop by Ken's Cache.
Go.
Stop by the Chevron Go buy thepetting zoo yeah, all sorts of
fun things.
Let's pop pork.
Go, stop by the Chevron, go buythe petting zoo.
Ah, yeah, all sorts of funthings.
Yeah, let's pop pork.
We should pop pork.
I just, I'm sitting here, I'mlike, looking at this glass
opening, I'm like that's emptyand we could be drinking it
while we're talking about it.
And the day I say no tosomebody, I'm like we should

(46:16):
probably listen.
Let's think about this for aminute.
No, I'm always a fan.
Yeah, because what's the nameof the pizza place I always
forget?
Oh, the Summit.
Yeah, yeah, summit Pizza.
Right there, they do some goodstuff.
That was always one of yeah,it's iconic Garlic Nuts.
So walk us through the bottle alittle bit and let you decide

(46:36):
on, as far as I mean, everythingfrom I mean a bottle itself to
the, the branding and logo, Iwould.
Yeah, so, absolutely so.
I'm holding in my hands rightnow 750 mil cork and cage bottle
.
We, with the level ofcarbonation that's in the
product, it's very similar tolike a prosecco or a champagne.
So you need to have, you know,a thicker glass.
You know, to handle that.
We could never do somethinglike this in a can.

(46:57):
It just exploded.
Basically it's.
It's just too many bubblesinside, yeah, so we had a nice
kind of a modern, kind ofedgy-looking label with a Great
Basin Rattlesnake on the front.
We made a decision to kind offeature.
We love our location here.
You know we're a high-elevationorchard state orchard you like
to say that we're agriculture onthe fringe up here because
we're such a high location, andso we like to kind of show off

(47:19):
and talk about the natural worldaround us, and so you'll see
the labels take on, but kind offeature, you know, some kind of
cool artwork with some naturalelements of the world around us
up here in our location, sametime, kind of be like, you know,
talk about modern, edgy, takeon it.
We don't want to be boring, wedon't want to be cursed.
You know it's more youthful.

(47:41):
Yeah, I'll get this song outhere.
I'll get this song as close tothe mic off as I can.
Love it.
It's durable though thesethings have been through a lot.
If they could talk, they would.
They get their own episode.
Perfect, I'll listen to that.
So, um, color we're kind of likea uh, almost like a dark kind
of straw color, similar to achampagne or verseca.
Big time bubbles.

(48:02):
Bone dry, zero grams residualsugar.
In here.
It all gets fermented during acarbonation process just like a
verseco and a little bittropical notes, some minerality
in the background on, but somenice popping city, nice
mouth-watering, vibrant, brightSidney, because honestly we're
kind of like designing a product.

(48:22):
We just love to drink.
We love dry, ultra-dry winesand ciders and some nice
elevated acidity Because itgives you brightness and pop in
product and that just reallyshows his decency.
When I was introduced to ciderwe talked about this before but
I was in DC interning and Ithink I was like 24.
Having a great time in DC andsomeone's like oh, do you want a

(48:45):
cider?
And I'm thinking I don't reallywant Martinelli's right now,
but thank you, they're like no,no, no.
And so they obviously had melike a strong bow of cider.
I'm like interesting, becauseI'm a very speed palate, always
love palate, always a littlesweet treat, and I was like this
makes sense.
And then, as I've matured andappreciate other things, it's
fun to again like find thatdynamicness of cider and the

(49:06):
whole breadth of the palate thatcan happen, and so excited to
try some yeah, I used to miss it.

Speaker 2 (49:12):
That really came from cheers, cheers, cheers, cheers
here's for that.

Speaker 1 (49:19):
Get over here autumn you're part of this, cheers.
Thank you so much for comingout.
Ooh, yeah, I.
I can envision myself on mypatio in my Aeron deck chairs
and just yeah.

(49:40):
Yep, in the shade sunny dayfrom the shady spot in my Aeron
deck chairs, and just yeah.

Speaker 2 (49:44):
Yep, in the shade sunny day, find a shady spot you
know great for, like a Tuesdayon your patio or, like you know,
graduation ceremony or yournext wedding.
I can just spend all of theoccasions.

Speaker 1 (49:54):
Or if you're an accountant that just went month
end or quarter end and you justneed to take the edge off, then
that works too.
But no, I do want it is bonedry and I enjoy that a lot.
Yeah, absolutely, that's a.
That's the idea here.
I mean, I think that you justget um, a lot more complexity.
You see, like benuel and saysthat the fermentation you
weren't in plexi thing product,when you have that bone dry,

(50:16):
elevated acidity, I mean, andthere's a place, you know, for
like sweet ciders out there,just like there's a place for
sweet wines right, like reservewines, things like that, I think
there's definitely a place forthem.
This, to us, is more of thatkind of daily drinker that pairs
so well with so many differentoccasions in life and on
different dishes.
You know, come on, continue.
Um, yeah, even again, part ofthe complexity.
You know you usually tastefruit, especially the apple.

(50:39):
I mean, the sugar is whatdominates a lot of that front,
of that flavor, but with thisyou taste so much more of the
other parts of the apple thanjust that punch in the throat of
that sugary apple right.

Speaker 2 (50:51):
yeah, we've had a few sommeliers come in and do
pre-tastings with us and they'relike this is a scarp length out
long, basically, like it'd bepeople would be hard pressed if
you just line this is ascarf-laying South Blanc,
basically Like people would behard-pressed if you just line
this up a bunch of scarf-layinglines to say that this wing is
the Sire.
So it's pretty exciting to seepeople's minds change about what
a Sire has for you.

Speaker 1 (51:10):
Yeah, like I've been watching the most recent season
of the Bear, when they're alwaysvery cognizant of people like
magazines, newspapers, criticscoming in, which can be
stressful, I can't imagine allright, cool, you have a Malaya
coming in.
It's time to finally see whatsomeone else thinks of this,
because obviously you guys haveyour own various opinions, but

(51:32):
someone else can be like ooh,touche.
You're like, oh, thank you.
It's been a while and if yousaid anything else I'd probably
be a little bit shadowed, butthank you so much.

Speaker 2 (51:42):
I pulled my breath.

Speaker 1 (51:44):
Thanks, you know, carlos, stipping smelling salt.
Yeah, it's fun though you kindof take, oftentimes you're
taking them to a place they hadavoided, right, and it's like it
has a lot of characteristicsand it shares similar component,
like same attributes, ascertain types of wine, but it's
still different.
Right, we're still doing anapple, so a different lager

(52:05):
profile, but there's moresimilarities and differences,
and so you kind of meet in themiddle with a lot of
professionals that have goodexperience, whether it's on the
manufacturing side, like anactual producer or like Sam.
You know who's meant toevaluate and have great
knowledge of the product.
You know who's he's meant toevaluate and then have great
knowledge of the product.
And do you feel like withscience, like here's my own
ignorance coming in, but likebecause with greeks and wine, I
mean the history of wine goesback further than I mean, I mean

(52:28):
even someone's gonna hate mefor this comparison, but jesus
christ, showing up to thewedding and getting the party
started when everybody runs out,um, but, and like all the way
to the point of like here's, Imean the typical griggs old wine
first, I mean old vines versusnew vines and, and so much
thought and intention likethat's gone into it.
But I feel like with cider,there's a little bit more room

(52:49):
for creativity and expansion, um, and just in general, like the
fruit itself, that there is moreopportunity for, like again, a
creative mind like yours toreally have fun and play with it
.
Or maybe it's just my otherhead is thinking it's that much
different than a great.
No, no, no, I think.
I think you're, I think you'respot on.
Like the, the history that youhave on the wine side of the
industry, you know it.

(53:10):
Sometimes it can be kind ofshatman, right.
It's like, especially like 20years 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 smallbox that it needs to fit into,
and it develops within thatsmall box over a century or two
or three centuries.
You don't like necessarily havethat with cider, so you don't,
you're not trying to fulfill uh,you know traditions, so to

(53:33):
speak.
You have more space to play,you have more white space,
because think about this likecider.
In the beginning it was reallyin most parts of the world where
I grew up, excuse me, it wasmore of a working man's drink,
right, it was like a laborer'sdrink.
Right, they'd make cider, uh,to drink in the fields.
You know, if they're doneworking or maybe during a while
they're working with fields, itwas more about a blue collar
kind of laborer's drink in manyparts of the world where I grew

(53:55):
up.
Uh, over time, you know, youstarted had it become more of
like a fine wine in certain keyareas, but in the states you
never had that.
Right, we're so new, right, theunited states is so new in
history culture that we justdidn't have that.
When it came to the us, it kindof came in this more kind of
you know, for lack of a betterword like alka-pop kind of uh
formation a long time ago.

(54:16):
And so you, you know, we're notshackled by tradition, we're
not trying to prove somethingfrom 200 years ago.
We can play with it and take ita different direction that
people aren't used to, which ispretty cool, yeah, because, like
, even uh, marcio buffalo issaying something similar where
we know what west approached himabout joining there.
He's those tighter.
I don't know what cider is, butthen he kind of put together

(54:36):
that.
That's what his family woulddrink in brazil and especially
the kids would drink becauseit's kind of like it's mine, but
it's like cheap wine and that'skind of what we have is like a
replacement, and so again, likeso 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 backin the day was pizza hut,

(54:57):
because that was what they woulduse to put everything on top of
them to frame their like pizzabar.
And then now it turned intothis like oh, you want your kale
Caesar salad, which I do, andso it's fun to see how, like
some of these things that wereonce termed as something less
fine, less, I mean, I don't knowwhat word to use but then to

(55:17):
come back and be like oh,actually we can make something
pretty great out of this.
We just need to rethink it andkind of give it the love that it
needs.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolute win.
So it's an eye-opener forpeople for sure.
I mean you look at this producthere today and obviously it has
that color of a nice white wine.
There's a touch of haze comingthrough the product.

(55:38):
That actually increases theviscosity of the mouthfeel, kind
of that palate heaviness of theproduct.
It changes the clear profile ofthe wood and so we kind of like
that.
We like having a little touchof haze in there.
So that's perfectly normal.
But this one is really.
This first launch is reallymeant to show people that
sparkling wine and sparklingcider are completely in Sanfen,
completely related.

(55:59):
They're right next to eachother.
It's one's kind of offshootvariation of the other.
Now we'll do more adventurousstuff in the future.
You know different varietals ofapple and get way more
adventurous, higher tannin.
You know like way morechallenging with other stuff.
The cider world was huge.
Right, you can do a body,interesting, fun stuff.
But for our first release it'slike wanting to bring everyone
together.
Right, come from the beer world, come from the wine world, come

(56:21):
from whatever you're familiarwith, come to the cider world
here, meet us here and see howclose this is to our team.
Nice, smart, yeah, and all yougot to do is go drop into Camas,
have a pretty drive, enjoy thispretty space and how are your
peppers?

Speaker 2 (56:35):
I expect my own.
Yeah, and it's also thisproduct that we just released is
8.5% alcohol, so it's loweralcohol than your typical wine,
which is under your full.
I can be 12 to the 14% average.
So, yeah, a little easier todrink, easier the next day, and
this is really warm.

Speaker 1 (56:55):
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 youboth for bringing something so
great to to the area.
I mean it's something that Imean even just the thought of,
like, having an orchard to thisextent up in canvas is one thing
, and then to create such anamazing cidery, and I mean

(57:15):
everything that you guys haveplanned is, I mean I mean like
touche, who can pass you?
Looking forward to seeing youguys.
I'm excited for the future ofour building.
I appreciate that, thank you,thank you very much.

Speaker 2 (57:23):
Matt, thanks for helping us take the word out.

Speaker 1 (57:26):
At least I can do.
I don't do anything, I justtalk to people.
I get to ask people questions.
Everybody else does the coolstuff.
Anything else you guys want tomake sure we're?

Speaker 2 (57:36):
And you can follow us on Instagram at Dunderga State.
We also have a newsletter youcan sign up for on the website
and we'll be coming out with anew 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 getbottles here on site on Fridays
and Saturdays from noon to sixand as we expand our inventory,

(57:58):
we'll help you expand thosehours and days.
And then keep an eye out for us, for Dunderick Estate, on your
favorite menus around Parsityand Salt Lake.
You can get to our accountshere in the next few weeks.

Speaker 1 (58:12):
So, whether you're headed up to the UNC to go to
camp, you're coming to the rodeoon the Pioneer Day, try to
think of all the other reasonspeople swim by Jordan.
Yeah, reasons people swim byAir Jordan.
Yeah, come, swim by All ofthese things.
Could, yes, a way outside orfar from the water?
Come up by Slate Creek Trail inthe Uintas, swim by.
On that Friday or Saturday yougot a bottle.

Speaker 2 (58:29):
Yeah, bring music and keel on Fridays Scrap.

Speaker 1 (58:34):
Steal I want to end with.
I usually end with twoquestions, but you stole my
thunder on the second question.
It would have worked if I wereinformation to share, but if you
guys could have someone on theSmall Lake City podcast and hear
more about them and their story, would you want to hear it?
Oh, that's a really goodquestion.

(58:59):
This is usually why I have tocut out the most white noise.
Do you give a little Cheeseshakes?
I'm kind of thinking like oncheese side of things.
Like you know, fernando, overat Gold Creek Farms.
No, cut Just down the road yougot Gold Creek Farms.

(59:19):
It's a small cheesemakingfacility right on the edge of
the Uint Farms.
It's a small cheese makingfacility right on the edge of
the Uintas.
It's on the south side of theCanterbury Valley.
It's up in Woodford and GoldCreek Farms.
He does some amazing cheesethere.
And call Fernando, I'll hookyou up.
Okay, deal, I'll connect you.
It'd be the cheesiest episodeI'll ever do.
Well, carly Brandon, I'm soexcited to see the rest of the

(59:41):
story because if this were abook, 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 alongthe way and I will be back, and
if I see it on the menu I sureas hell will be ordering it.
So awesome, thank you.
Thank you, appreciate it,cheers.
I love a good story that hasall of the good stories A little

(01:00:03):
love story, a little bit ofcreativity.

Speaker 2 (01:00:07):
Look at that guy.

Speaker 1 (01:00:08):
What's up, brother?
How are you Scooter?

Speaker 2 (01:00:15):
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.