NAPA, CA. – California wineries and vineyards are still in crisis as wildfires rage on through Napa and Sonoma County, destroying all in its path. Napa vintner, Andrew Cates of the Segassia Vineyard, and co-founder of The Wine RayZyn Company, is a survivor of the wildfires, dealing with the loss of his family’s winery.
The Segassia Vineyard —which produces high-end Cabernets—had plans for picking grapes right before the wildfires began to spread. Following the damage, Andrew says the vineyard may not be able to produce a 2017 vintage.
The Segassia Vineyard was also a main source of inspiration for Andrew’s family company, The Wine RayZyn Company, which produces new crunchy superfoods called Wine RayZyns. Wine RayZyns are hand-harvested wine grapes which require a unique patented drying process that naturally sweats out the water of the grape and uses the residual natural sugars to caramelize and toast the wine grape’s seed inside the fruit, thus creating a new crunchy superfood fruit called CabernayZyns, MerlayZyns and ChardonayZyns. By leaving the seeds inside the fruit, RayZyns provide 20% of one’s daily fiber in a single serving, more antioxidants than a glass of red wine, and a deliciously nutty crunch that will help fight hunger while delivering unprecedented nutrition. While a satisfying snack on their own, RayZyns are also a perfect addition to granola, yogurt, salads, and cereal.
The Wine RayZyn Company is working to partner with Food Recovery Network to help reduce food waste by repurposing the unharvested wine grapes from vineyards affected by the fire. According to wine industry insiders there are millions of dollars of unharvested wine grapes still hanging on the vine in Napa, Sonoma and Santa Rosa. Many winemakers and vineyard owners are still struggling to gain access to their properties to assess their crop and anticipated damage. It is feared that many wineries and vineyard’s fruit will no longer be suitable for wine making purposes, as the grapes shrivel and transform into wineraisins™.
Food Recovery Network’s Executive Director, Regina Northouse noted, “It’s inspiring to be able to collaborate with The Wine RayZyn Company to turn what was such a horrific event into a partnership that can ensure perfectly good food can still be used to feed people, and to fight food waste. It’s the kind of quick thinking and collaboration that will feed a lot of people.”
Food Recovery Network was founded in 2011 and is the largest student movement against food waste and hunger in America. The partnership will plan to create an avenue for affected vineyard owners and wineries to donate their wine grapes that can no longer be used to make wine to Food Recovery Network partnership. In conjunction, the Wine RayZyn Company will be able to repurpose those wine grapes into Wine RayZyns. The shelf-stable RayZyns carry a 2+ year shelf life and could then be used to help victims and relief efforts stemming from other natural disasters like the hurricane victims in Florida, Houston, Puerto Rico as well as the victims of the Northern California wildfires.
This project represents a key step towards helping to raise awareness around eliminating food waste, as well as, highlighting the ability to repurpose the fallout of one disaster in order to provide direct benefit to others who have suffered from other recent natural disasters. In addition, a portion of the proceeds from the sale of these special Fire Wine RayZyns could be used to directly benefit the Napa/Sonoma/Santa Rosa Fire efforts. This partnership will allow food distribution companies, retailers and wineries and vineyard owners, the opportunity to join forces and make a real and immediate impact to those victims who have recently been effected. For additional information on how you can help, please reach out to Regina Northouse, Executive Director, Food Recovery Network, regina.northouse@foodrecoverynetwork.org , or Andrew Cates, at info@rayzyn.com.
Also, in a separate effort to help, The Wine RayZyn Company will also donate 1 percent of online RayZyn sales at www.rayzyn.com for the month of October directly to Napa Valley Fire relief efforts. Wine RayZyn products are also available on Amazon.
For more info on The Wine RayZyn Company visit www.rayzyn.com, and follow on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
