The Sweet Spot

COURTNEY GILLESPIE ’12

About five years ago at a trade show in Las Vegas, Courtney Gillespie ’12 got a lesson in the power of semantics. She was trying to provide samples from her family’s raisin business. “Would you like to try some raisins?” she called out to a stream of passersby, who either gave her the sorry wave or ignored her entirely. Then she tried something a little more descriptive: “Would you like to try a vine-dried grape?” People stopped, turned to look, shrugged, and replied, “Sure.”

So much promise in that short word. In Gillespie’s experience, once people get a taste of the plump, juicy, sweet dried grape, they know they’re not eating an ordinary raisin.

Gillespie is the president and chief operating officer of Life’s Grape, a retail offshoot of her family’s wholesale business, River Ranch Raisins. She runs the venture out of Reno with her mom, who serves as chief executive officer. In true startup fashion, the motherdaughter duo is involved in all aspects of the business, from product development to packaging to sales and marketing.

Launched in October 2018, Life’s Grape began selling its products on Amazon and through its website. In July of this year, Life’s Grape products were picked up by Raley’s, a chain of grocery stores in Northern California and Nevada. To Gillespie’s surprise, Life’s Grape is being shelved in the healthy snacks section, far from the iconic red boxes of Sun-Maid raisins, the industry leader. “We don’t want to compete with them, so that’s a huge win for us,” Gillespie remarks.

What makes vine-dried grapes so special? For generations, the most popular variety grown for raisins has been the Thompson Seedless. Typically, the harvested grapes are placed on trays and left to dry in the sun on the ground. Because the crop is harvested by hand, the process is labor intensive. Consequently, the variety has become harder to farm amid rising labor costs. In 2001, UC Davis introduced a new kind of grape called the Selma Pete, labeled as “dry on the vine,” or DOV in industry lingo. These grapes ripen earlier, giving them more time to accumulate the desired amount of sugar while they dry in place, hanging from the vine. They are then machine-harvested directly into bins. The process not only reduces labor costs but also keeps the grapes off the ground.

The big promise of Selma Petes, besides the sweeter flavor, was sustainability: farmers would be able to grow twice as many grapes for the same amount of water. That promise is what initially led Gillespie’s parents to plant their first Selma Petes on their Madera County, California, farm in 2007. Gillespie explains: “The Selma Pete turned out to be exactly what it was supposed to be. It was a game-changer for the industry.” The family started bringing their vine-dried grapes home to friends, who were impressed by the flavor. Their purchase of a processing facility in 2015 gave them the opportunity they needed to start selling directly to consumers.

Gillespie—who graduated from Cal Poly with a bachelor of science degree in wine and viticulture and soon after earned an MBA in general management—said they identified a gap in the market: millennials. Life’s Grape ticks a lot of the boxes that matter to this generation: authenticity, sustainability, and an all-natural, healthy product (raisins are a good source of fiber, iron, and antioxidants). It’s just a matter of removing the stigma of raisins as a shriveled piece of fruit. The Life’s Grape slogan is “Raisins Revamped.”

As she continues to nurture the business from her home office, Gillespie finds herself thinking of Santa Catalina’s Study Hall. A favorite gathering place during free periods, Study Hall can get a little raucous at times, and Gillespie learned how to stay focused amid all the revelry. Working alone carries its own set of distractions, and being able to concentrate and avoid procrastinating has served her well, she says. Another lasting effect of Santa Catalina was something she wasn’t aware of until friends started pointing it out to her. Gillespie, who came to Santa Catalina as a boarding student from Incline Valley, Nevada, explains: “Friends I grew up with as a kid started telling me they admired my independence. They told me, ‘You aren’t afraid to take a chance and do what you want to do.’ It’s something I’m grateful for. That’s not common at our age. Usually it takes us longer to find our way.”

Gillespie’s father calls the family “accidental farmers”; her grandparents bought the first vineyard about 35 years ago as a hobby. But it’s no accident that Gillespie is right where she wants to be. She sums it up: “I feel like I’m the crazy grape lady. I love feeling so passionate about something.”