Two things typically happen to winery leftovers: pomace is sent for distillation or composting, while lees, though sometimes turned into tartaric acid, are often rinsed down the drain. For many producers, that is where the process ends.
Taiwan’s emerging wine industry decided it can do far more than that.
In a tribal village in the mountains of northeast Taiwan, an Atayal indigenous community called Bulau Bulau has been quietly reviving its millet wine tradition. What’s more, the leftover millet wine lees are upcycled and added to tanks of Taiwanese raw coffee beans during fermentation. The coffee carries a subtle boozy note, with rice and red-fruit character. It sells at a premium. Everything is local, and nothing is wasted.
Upcycling is nothing new. But in Taiwan, where one might still be told off by their grandparents for leaving food on the plate, putting leftovers to use comes naturally.
Before the island developed into a semiconductor superpower in the 1980s, life was not easy. For decades, people learnt to make the most of whatever the land produced — nothing was thrown away because nothing could be.
That instinct runs deep, and it turns out to be an unlikely advantage for a wine industry that only re-emerged in 2002, when an eighty-year alcohol monopoly was lifted.
Waste not
Vivian Yang, director at Weightstone, one of Taiwan’s most established wineries, is candid about where things began. “Initially we just threw things down the drain, but we hated it. It felt like such a waste.”
So they began to look for solutions. Weightstone now diverts its fine lees to Dida Creamery, a local cheesemaker that uses them to produce a distinctive washed-rind cheese. Surplus goes into cold storage for local chefs who have learnt to ask for it. The pomace, once destined entirely for compost, now takes a different route. Some of it ends up with Wilma Ku.
Ku is the founder of COFE, a premium Taiwanese artisan chocolate brand. She is also the project manager of Rewine, a collaborative initiative that has grown out of Buvons Nature, Taiwan’s annual natural wine fair.
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