A Passion For Winemaking Led Brandon West To Create Wellington Wines

A curiosity about winemaking has grown into a local start-up company for Brandon West, CEO of Rich Oak Vineyards, Wines of Wellington.

The small-business owner and longtime Wellington resident started like many others with a curiosity that has grown into a passion, which grew into a business idea, and now it’s a finished product.

Originally, West thought he might want to learn about the process of brewing beer, but that faded. Instead, he found himself interested in a process not too far off his original path.

“I started Googling and YouTubing about how to actually make wine,” West said. “And then, that day, I took action and bought a wine-making kit.”

The rest is recent history, and West has made a mark for himself by introducing his Red Blend to the local community and beyond. His Red Blend is 70 percent cabernet, 20 percent zinfandel and 10 percent Syrah.

Where does a winemaker in Florida get his grapes and start the process for something like this?

“I work with Royal Caribbean, so I was able to travel to many areas of Europe and actually visited a lot of vineyards over there,” West said. “Also, I took some trips over to California. I found that I wanted to keep it in the United States as the first go-around. After a lot of research, I found an excellent vineyard in Lodi, Calif.”

West created a partnership with a vineyard there, and he picked the grapes he would use to create the Red Blend.

“I worked with them to get a blend, to get it all packaged, all labeled and shipped to a warehouse in Miami,” West said. “I got all the licenses and regulations, started up the business, and then started selling with retailers around Wellington.”

All of the grapes used in his blend come from Lodi, which West said rivals the vineyards from close neighbor Napa, Calif.

“I think Napa is a little overvalued,” West said. “It’s great wine, but there is also some great wine next door that doesn’t have that name to it. It’s still excellent wine. I think it’s probably number two in the California region… so it has a lot of quality, and the price is not as expensive as Napa, so it gets a lot of value in that aspect.”

Wines of Wellington is the foundation for West and the company. Rich Oak’s Red Blend, beyond the different grapes, offers a wine low in added sulfites, which are found to varying degrees in all wine. West noted that enjoying a glass of wine high in added sulfites may give the drinker an annoying headache.

“When you have these mainstream, mass-produced, cheaper wines, many

times those sulfites are 200 to 300 parts per million, which is really

high,” West said. “So, people who make homemade wine have very, very low parts per million, so you can drink wine without getting a headache. It’s down to about 20 to 30 parts per million, which is very low.”

When it’s all mixed together, West’s Red Blend offers something that he loves and finds to be unique. It can be served with red meat, chicken, pasta and sauce — even pizza. It also pairs well with Thai and other spicy foods.

The cabernet, zinfandel and Syrah work together to offer many different flavors, particularly the addition of the Syrah.

“It gives it a pretty well-rounded flavor, a hint of pepper, chocolate, cherry and a few other flavors,” West said. “For me, it’s something that I love. And so far, tasting it and sampling it with many other people, I’ve found that even many [non-wine] drinkers love this wine… They really liked this type of blend because it wasn’t too over powerful, and it wasn’t that watery. It’s a very neutral, well-rounded wine.”

West has received positive feedback from the community, and he continues to look for a way to spread his Wines of Wellington concept.

“I’ve been able to meet a lot of different business owners, which has been awesome. I’ve been able to communicate and find best practices and be able to grow as an individual, grow the business, and help other businesses grow,” West said. “Being able to know the business owners has been very valuable, to see how people are using different strategies in their businesses.”

West is not new to developing a product. He is a full-time information technology business analyst and product owner with Royal Caribbean.

“I help work on the new products, IT-related technical products on the ship, primarily in the guest services area, guest port services and housekeeping,” West said. “Really, the driving factor is problem-solving, and for me, problem-solving [is] basically making a situation better and enhancing the experience.”

As someone searching for solutions daily, West is still working on the logistics and hopes to establish his winery locally, solving the want and need for a space to bring people together.

“Having something like a winery or similar to that vibe or atmosphere, working on building a really nice facility that people could come together at, to bond and create events, and to share those experiences over a glass of wine [is something I hope for],” West said.

Wines of Wellington’s Red Blend can be found at Star Liquors’ locations in Wellington, as well as the Publix location in the Town Square and Courtyard Shops plazas, and it’s beginning to pop up in local restaurants as well.

“My goals right now are to get into 20 retail locations, launch two new varietals and to continue to grow, turn a profit and to give back more to the community,” West said. “We wanted to deliver a very rich wine for Wellington. It took us a long time to find, but we did find it.”

Visit www.richoakvineyards.com to learn more about Rich Oak Vineyards, Wines of Wellington.