For the better part of 40 years, from Lake County to Napa, the Sierra Foothills to Paso Robles, wine has been a treasured element of the California lifestyle and a dependable contributor to the state’s GDP. Now things are changing.

Aging Baby Boomers are drinking less, and in younger households, cannabis is elbowing out cabernet as the relaxant of choice. Then there’s Gen Z, which is passing up a glass of red or white for something with a twist or a swizzle stick. Not since the Roaring ‘20s has America had such a thirst for cocktails. Add in the COVID hangover factor: As bars closed and depression set in courtesy of the pandemic, many Americans doubled down on wine purchases and are now realizing, a couple of years out, that the pantry or booze cabinets are still overstocked. So why buy more?

What’s a winery owner to do? If they can, sell. Conglomerates are still buying the big dogs in Napa and Paso, but the prices are lower. As of June 2025, the for sale signs are up at more than a dozen wineries. Several large vineyards are on the block as well. In some cases, like Napa transplant Turley, things didn’t pan out. It closed its Amador tasting room in March. Foothill favorite C.G. di Arie is available, perhaps because founder and winemaker Chaim Gur Arieh has more than exceeded his grape expectations. He’s 91. Others are just hoping to cash out before they tap out.

Some wineries across America, from the California coast to Maine, have expanded from traditional wine making into the distilling process, using their grapes to make high octane spirits. In San Luis Obispo, for example, there’s Autry Cellars, a vintner that also sells brandy and grappa; Napa has Domaine Charbay, a winery and distillery which claims to be home to one of the oldest brandies in California (distilled in 1983).

The trend has yet to proliferate among Capital Region wineries, though some Central Valley farmers are growing agave, the drought-tolerant source of tequila and mezcal, in response to both climate change and the slowing demand for wine. But one local winery has recently begun making brandy in the foothills.

Setting up the winery

At Amador’s Iron Hub Winery, a robust wine club, a portfolio of premium wines and a breathtaking view of the Sierra Nevada are helping owners Tom and Beth Jones navigate the wine industry’s current downturn. They’re also into diversification, starting with three big steps.

Step 2: Tom and Beth Jones moved on to Amador, purchasing the old Amador Foothill Winery, building a new tasting room and patio and expanding their varietal variety to include a port style dessert wine, Sojourn. As the business expanded, Tom continued to tinker with the still while researching what else he could do with it.

Step 3: Tom’s handed over the day-to-day winemaking chores to his 31-year-old son Spencer, a UC Davis wine program grad whose first vintage now graces the Iron Hub tasting menu.

“Spencer’s moving into full-time winemaking opened more time for me to expand into spirits,” Tom says. That led to Amador County’s first estate grown, distilled and bottled brandy: Iron Hub Brandy.

Making the brandy

Now for a primer on cognac and brandy. Unlike cognac, which is made under strict supervision in one region of France, distilled from one of four white grapes — usually trebbiano — and aged for many years, brandy can be made from most any fruit.

Most cognac fans, like this writer, would rather water the lawn with brandy than drink it. Most American brandy, your E & J, Christian Brothers or Korbel, are mass-produced like jug wines. They are either sweet like candy, too fruity or one dimensional.

Four years in the making, Iron Hub Brandy rolled into the tasting room over the winter. Beth Jones says the reviews have been gratifying.

“I think the smoothness catches everyone by surprise. People say it’s so soft, it’s like velvet, and so very different from any experience they’ve had with brandy or even cognac.”

Iron Hub Brandy is priced at about $50 for a .375 liter bottle.

“It’s selling really well. We can’t ship out of state,” Jones says, “but we have the distilled spirits license allowing us to ship across California and to offer it in our tasting room.”

Younger customers, the segment more into spirits, are most likely to sample and to buy. Tom Jones says his still — now 16 feet high — allows him options in the distilling process, to reduce the so-called alcohol burn in the brandy. Right now, Tom Jones has a few hundred cases of Iron Hub Brandy aging in barrels. Tom thinks a surplus of red wine from Amador’s “zinyards” will make great brandy and that this Dr. Frankenstein of the Foothills says gin and vodka will soon be joining the Iron Hub Portfolio of Wine and Spirits. All made or distilled entirely from grapes.

But Iron Hub doesn’t show signs of turning its back on wine any time soon. Though distilling offers new opportunities, wine is still the one.

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