Making a
Perhaps it's no coincidence that Drew Bullard has found his way to the business of making red wine.
After six years in Tuscaloosa, the MBA
graduate certainly knows something
about crimson.
Bullard, 25, spent four years playing
football for Alabama. He joined the squad
as a preferred walk-on in 2007, having
turned down athletic scholarships from
places like Princeton. He played inside
linebacker and on special teams and
kept a 4.0 GPA in his major as he earned
a bachelor’s degree in mechanical
engineering.
But it was during a school break from
his graduate studies at the Culverhouse
College of Commerce that he began
thinking seriously about wine.
Bullard had gotten to know a
newcomer who had moved from the San
Francisco area to work as a tennis pro
in his hometown of Florence, Alabama.
One evening the friend invited Bullard to
try a wine that a childhood acquaintance
was making in California. This was no
mere cabernet sauvignon. It was a spicy
beverage, similar to a European mulled
wine but not as sweet and of much higher
quality.
“I really liked it,” Bullard says. “But
I really didn’t realize how much I liked
it until I got back to Tuscaloosa, and I
thought, ‘I’ve got to get some more of
that wine.’”
The product had been inspired by
a trip one of the founders had taken
to Europe. She loved the spiced wines
she found there and searched in vain
for something similar in the United
States. Finally, she concluded she would
have to make it herself and teamed up
with a friend to start a wine company,
Spicy Vines.
The beverage — a blend of zinfandel,
syrah, petite syrah and grenache — is
mixed with brandy, fruit and spices.
Some describe it as having a cinnamon-citrus taste and say the flavors remind
them of Christmas or Thanksgiving.
During a Christmas break, Bullard
again saw his friend, who had become a
Spicy Vines' investor. Bullard liked that
the wine could be consumed in a variety
of ways: cold during the summer or
while tailgating, room temperature with
a meal, or heated and sipped from a mug
during cooler months. It also can be used
to make cocktails.
This time Bullard arranged to get
several bottles, and asked about the
possibility of joining the fledgling
firm.
FORMER LINEBACKER USES HIS CULVERHOUSE BUSINESS SKILLS
TO DIVE INTO THE CALIFORNIA WINE WORLD
BY LARRY BLEIBERG
Splash