{"id":403140,"date":"2026-07-18T04:14:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T04:14:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/403140\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T04:14:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T04:14:22","slug":"american-made-california-women-turn-wine-byproduct-into-dark-chocolate-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/403140\/","title":{"rendered":"American Made: California women turn wine byproduct into dark chocolate"},"content":{"rendered":"

SONOMA COUNTY, Calif. (NewsNation<\/a>) \u2014 California’s wine country has long been known for what comes out of the bottle. Now, two women are betting on what gets left behind.<\/p>\n

Vine to Bar, co-founded by longtime friends Peggy Furth and Barbara Banke, is transforming a byproduct of the Chardonnay winemaking process into a superfood ingredient for dark chocolate \u2014 one that researchers say doesn’t just add health benefits, but actually makes the chocolate taste better.<\/p>\n

The ingredient is a powder called Wellvine, derived from the skins, pulp, stems and seeds left over after Chardonnay grapes are pressed.<\/p>\n

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Chardonnay has been California’s most widely grown grape varietal since the 1800s, meaning the raw material has always been there \u2014 largely overlooked.<\/p>\n

“All this \u2014 the skins, the remainder of the pulp, the stems, the seeds \u2014 it was all leftover and it’s all fresh produce,” Banke said. “It had a better use.”<\/p>\n

With the help of Dr. Harold Schmitz, chief science officer at UC Davis, the founders discovered that those leftovers were packed with beneficial compounds.<\/p>\n

“We discovered that the Chardonnay material was filled with really interesting fibers, including things called oligosaccharides, which are found in human breast milk and are essential for newborn babies,” Schmitz said.<\/p>\n

The eureka moment, he said, came when researchers found that adding Wellvine to dark chocolate didn’t mask its flavor \u2014 it enhanced it.<\/p>\n

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“Instead of the chocolate covering up a negative taste, the Chardonnay material actually made the chocolate taste even better,” Schmitz said. “This is a pioneering sort of pathway to chocolate making that the world has never seen before.”<\/p>\n

For Furth, the motivation goes beyond flavor.<\/p>\n

“We’ve looked at the increase in obesity and other metabolic disorders, and it’s become unacceptable to not have healthy alternatives,” she said. “It’s fundamentally essential going forward to find food that can contribute to good health \u2014 and that’s what we want for all Americans.”<\/p>\n

Scott Forsberg, Vine to Bar’s retail and sales manager, frames it as a return to basics.<\/p>\n

“It’s real food,” he said. “Over the last 60-70 years, our diet has become increasingly made up of things that aren’t food. What we make is food, and there is no question about it.”<\/p>\n

The innovation is already making its way into professional kitchens.<\/p>\n

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Chef Dustin Valette is incorporating Wellvine into the menu at The Matheson, his acclaimed restaurant in Sonoma County.<\/p>\n

“The antioxidants are cool,” Valette said, “but my favorite part is the flavor.”<\/p>\n

Banke, who also serves as chairman of Jackson Family Wines, said the product represents something the storied chocolate traditions of Europe never attempted.<\/p>\n

“Swiss chocolate, French chocolate \u2014 it’s all wonderful,” she said. “But they didn’t do this.”<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

\u00a0For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NewsNation.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SONOMA COUNTY, Calif. (NewsNation) \u2014 California’s wine country has long been known for what comes out of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[161704,7,9,8,110850,161705,161706],"class_list":["post-403140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-barbara-banke","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-dark-chocolate","tag-harold-schmitz","tag-peggy-furth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}