Branch farmer turns rice into vodka

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From kernels of rice, to barrels and bottles of spirits, Michael Frugé is working to create a new industry in Branch that also pays homage to his great-great uncle.
Frugé spoke to Eunice Rotarians on Wednesday about distilling JT Meleck, an award-winning vodka and the namesake of his great-great uncle who started the farm.
The vodka, which is in Louisiana stores, is to be followed by whiskey and bourbon.
The spirits are being distilled at the Frugé family farm at Branch and created from the farm’s rice.
The Frugé family has been farming where he is distilling vodka out of rice on the same land his family has been growing rice on since 1896.
Michael said he and his brother, Mark, were pioneers in rotating crawfish and rice crops.
The farm operation expanded into a crawfish and seafood distribution company in Texas, he said.
But there was more in the future.
“We just always wanted to build a brand,” he said.
“Everything we do is a commodity. You grow a crop of rice. It’s a commodity. You grow crawfish. It is a commodity,” he said.
Brainstorming one day led to vodka.
“Long story short, we learned about the process,” he said of distilling.
“I went to a distiller showing (American Distilling Institute) in 2017 to learn more, and never dreamed that three years later I would win three top medals,” he said.
And, he says the JT Meleck vodka makes an incredible martini.
“It is very difficult to make a consistently good product. It is easy to make a product. Anybody can ferment and make beer and distill it. You can do that in your kitchen,” he said. “Not legally,” he added.
“We kept putting it together. Testing it a lot,” he said.
“We probably took about a year and half before we actually brought the bottle to market,” he said.
JT Meleck vodka was launched in September 2018. Production was interrupted by COVID-19 when the new distiller paused vodka production to produce hand sanitizer for 12 weeks.
But they returned to distilling and bottling vodka. According to a company news release, each bottle is filled, labeled and numbered by hand.
JT Meleck vodka is now distributed throughout Louisiana, he said.
The vodka is unique in being produced from rice and promoted as “farm to bottle.”
But with fields of rice, Frugé has another goal to produce whiskey from rice.
“No one has ever made a rice whiskey,” he said.
Some of the reason behind rice being ignored for spirit production is the country’s history. Corn and other grains have been the traditional sources of grain for distillers, he said.
Frugé has white oak barrels full of whiskey at the Branch distillery that he expects will mature in three to five years.
The caramel smell is amazing, he said of the yet-to-be marketed whiskey.
The public may get an opportunity to buy the rice whiskey in 2022. He also making a bourbon, which is at least 51% corn, by 2024.