Glen Fiona and Its Co-founder: Love and Hate Relationship – As a wine lover, you might have heard about Glen Fiona. This wine is quite famous, and it is nominated as one the United States premium wines. Thanks to the founder and co-founder, Glen Fiona can be as successful as today. However, the co-founder, Berle Figgins, Jr. left this business and pursued other careers in 2002.

1. Glen Fiona and Berle Figgins
While is one of the most popular online games sites, Berle Figgins or known as Rusty is one of the famous winemakers in the world of wine. The name become famous since he co-founded the premium winery, Glen Fiona, in 1994. Rusty already has an interest for winery while he was working in Australia. He also helped his brother, Gray Figgins, in his winery, Leonetti Cellar.

However, Rusty didn’t want to work for his brother for a long time and decided to pave his way to the world of wine by co-founding Glen Fiona, which is based in Walla Walla. The winery, then, becomes famous thanks to the Syrah produced in this region. The Glen Fiona co-founder didn’t seem to feel content with his work and decided to leave the winery in 2002 and pursue other careers in Bordeaux-style wines.

2. Berle Figgins’ Current Career
After leaving Glen Fiona, he decided to join Stimson Lane, but before that, he needed to leave his one-third interest of his Glen Fiona. He stated that he and his partner decided to sell the winery and they had received different offers for that, and he left everything for his partner to decide. He then joined Stimson Lane and worked for its new Northstar winery in Walla Walla in 2002. With Northstar, he wanted to experiment with blending other Bordeaux varieties. He wanted to create Pomerol style wine not with Cabernet Franc, but Cab Franc and Carmenere. But in 2004, he voiced his interest in distilling, and he built his distillation equipment. In 2007, he and his partner established The Ellensburg Distillery and created the first batches of whisky with unfermented beer. The business is still going and nowadays, he crafts two whiskies; Wildcat White Moonshine for $28 and Gold Buckle Club Frontier-Style Malt Whiskey for $110, and El Chalan Peruvian-style grape brandy that is sold for $50.

Although the co-founder of this infamous wine had left the winery business, Glen Fiona can still survive on the industry. Meanwhile, the co-founder has made his way to become a successful craft distiller and brings his second business as one of the successful companies in the US.