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“We have risen to this challenge by refocusing our scheduled grape spirits production, and plan to deliver distillable wine to Stillwrights for further processing,” Charles Edwards, winemaker and general manager at Caesar Creek Vineyards, said in a release. “We expect the first quantity of hand sanitizers containing Caesar Creek Vineyards grape-based alcohol to be available from Stillwrights soon.”
Stillwrights has already been making hand sanitizer from a large batch of rum that it was going to bottle and sell under its own label. And its collaboration with Caesar Creeek is similar to an arrangement that The Winery at Versailles in Darke County entered into earlier this month with Belle of Dayton distillery in Dayton’s Oregon District to produce high-proof alcohol, the key ingredient in hand sanitizer.
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Walter Borda, co-founder of Caesar Creek Vineyards, told this news outlet that the winery had been gearing up to make sherry. “But we thought this opportunity to help Stillwrights, WPAFB and southwest Ohio health care was the better, more timely thing to do, and more supportive of the community,” Borda said.
Credit: Mark Fisher
Credit: Mark Fisher
Brad Measel, co-founder of Stillwrights, said this morning, Tuesday April 21, that he was preparing to take delivery this week of up to 200 gallons of red and white wines from Caesar Creek, which will be distilled into high-proof alcohol to be blended into hand sanitizer that the distillery is producing on-site.
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Caesar Creek Vineyards, 932 Long Road east of Xenia, has been operating as a winery since 2012, with an emphasis on estate-grown wines.
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