Featured in The Tasting Panel | May/June 2022

“Go ahead, dip your hand in.” I was working as a harvest intern at Bargetto Winery in Santa Cruz, and the assistant winemaker was urging me to stick my hands into a recently emptied wine tank, where a thick substance had pooled at the base like a fruit smoothie. As directed, I put my hand in, and the substance squished between my fingers like purple mud. But it wasn’t mud—it was lees, a byproduct of the fermentation process that settles out of solution over time. Without a towel handy, I wiped the lees on my arm and carried on with my day. It wasn’t until later that evening that they finally got my full attention: The skin where the lees had dried was far brighter and far softer than that surrounding it.

The results prompted me to eagerly begin experimenting with lees in my personal skin care routine, applying them to my face and limbs, letting them dry, and washing them off. Come January 2021, I realized my discovery deserved to be looked at through a legitimate scientific lens. So I turned to my biochemist fiancé, Matthew De Silva, with a challenge: Could this natural byproduct be turned into a viable skincare product?

After many months of research and testing, the data was clear. Wine lees have incredible health properties. From their high concentration of antioxidant to their rich diversity of amino and organic acid groups, lees are essentially a multivitamin for your skin. Again and again, our findings pointed to one clear fact: We had uncovered an amazing product.

Matthew and I began building The Lees Cellar in March 2021 before bringing in two additional partners, Ian Loustalot and Jeanne Baldzikowski. Finally, after an exciting but grueling year of product research, lab testing, legal establishment, infrastructure layout, and the development of proprietary processes, The Lees Cellar officially launched in March 2022.

We are beyond excited to be offering our premier product: an all-natural face mask made from 100% wine lees. Our face mask is plastic-free and water-conscious, since harvesting lees prevents water from being wasted during the winemaking process. Our mission is to offer a unique skin care line built entirely on all-natural, sustainable, and environmentally friendly products derived from wine lees. Your skin and the environment are at the forefront of our platform!

You can find us on Instagram @theleescellar and online at theleescellar.com.