Wine Flour was born out of the desire to make something from a co-stream that has been over-looked throughout the grape growing culture of the United States. Wine Flour comes from the wine pomace created after wineries press the grapes for their juice. We focus on the drying and grinding of the fermented skin in order to bring you a new superfood powder from the wine industry.However, that was not always the case. 

 

When our research began in 2010,  we planned on making bio-diesel out of grape-seed oil. Since we had yet to process grape seed oil ourselves, it came as no surprise that this bio-diesel, in the end, would cost upwards of $350 per gallon. Well, it’s much better for our skin, hair or food anyway, right? Yes. 

 

From here, we learned that grape-seeds are a smaller percentage of the wine pomace than the wine skins. Our passion for sustainability and research led to the realization that 100% of the wine pomace can be used for food or for fuel. This is when Wine Flour was born, and when the processing of grape-seed oil was put on the back burner. 

 

We designed food and fuel recovery systems for businesses and universities in Nebraska, Colorado, South Dakota & Iowa before returning from the mid-west to design and launch our own system under our business, Sustainable Viticulture Systems (SVS) in 2013. 

 

In 2014, we broke ground, and began our first commercial harvest season, one of the warmer harvests we have experienced since. In 2015, we launched our first two Wine Flours, Riesling and Cabernet Sauvignon. To this day, they have always been in the top three best sellers category.  A few months later, we went on to launch 5 more Wine Flours and began partnering with small stores. 

 

Up until 2017, SVS- Wine Flour was a completely family owned and operated business. Today, we have a team of people that help make our dream turn into an internationally recognized product. With over 10 varieties of Wine Flour, it certainly takes a village to nurture them into healthy superfood powders. 

 

With the help of our team, our communities, our past, present and future clients, Wine Flour is making it’s way into pastas, smoothie mixes, cheese, beer, charcuterie, breads, pizza crust, face masks, soaps and anything that this world can think up. Its versatility was unknown even to us when we first began. It seems that our only true direct competitor is the human imagination. “How adventurous are you”, we ask? 

 

Our operations are located in the heart of the Finger Lakes overlooking Seneca Lake. The processing centers are developed under joint standards of sustainable environment, economy and society to ensure that the highest quality food products are brought to market. After all, it’s harder to change your traditions without flavor, color and nutrition. 

 

About the Founder____________________

Hilary Niver-Johnson, founder and owner of SVS, is  an environmental scientist and chemist by education, with a passion for renewable energy. Today, Hilary is an entrepreneur who is grounded in the food science, viticulture and  the healthy food industry. In the Finger Lakes, there is an eclectic array of Finger Lakes artisanal products, Finger Lakes farm to table restaurants, numerous other food entrepreneurs, and retailers that make being a part of this community both rewarding and exciting. Hilary strives to celebrate all that is food, and believes that the best memories are those made around a table.