Marine Launches Winery Helping Fellow Veterans

Marine Launches Winery Helping Fellow Veterans
CBS Sacramento
August 26, 2012

LIVERMORE (CBS13) – From fighting for our country to fighting to find work, it’s a battle many veterans face when they return home.

After getting out of the military, several men and woman say it’s hard to find a job, but now a group of veterans have found a way to help other vets, with wine.

Like a lot of veterans, when Josh Laine was discharged from the military, he wasn’t quite sure what to do.

He was dating a girl who worked in the wine industry and thought, ‘hey I can do this.’

The thing is, he didn’t know anything about making wine. So, he turned to the same place you turn to for silly cat videos, YouTube.

“We are known as the YouTube winery, a lot of studying YouTube, studying online, reading books,” said Laine.

He took that knowledge plus $1,500, and he and 10 of his marine buddies created Livermore’s Valor Winery.
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When Marine Sergeant Josh Laine returned from fighting in Iraq to his native Livermore, California, he couldn't find a job anywhere. When a girlfriend got him into wine, he decided to take a crack at winemaking and Lavish Laines Winery was born. The winery has since become a place where any returning veteran can find a job, camaraderie, and a sense of purpose. The film follows Josh and his fellow vets as they try to take the winery from a garage startup to a fully-fledged operation, and in the process explores the challenges vets face in transitioning back to civilian life.

In addition to screening in the Documentary Short Film program, No Wine Left Behind will be featured in a program of films honoring Veterans Day at the Lincoln Theater, Friday Nov 11 at 11am. Winemaking vets from Lavish Laines will be in attendance and offering their wine for tasting! This is part of a FREE program for everyone in the festival community.