Episode Details

Sponsored by The Mountain Air | Sponsored by Benny’s Pizza | SLOFreeParking

Josh Baker and Jason Fullmer of Mercenary Premier join Adam for a bigger-than-wine conversation about where the beverage business is headed and how two Central Coast operators are building for what comes next. Mercenary Premier recently acquired the old DAOU facility in Edna Valley, the former Baileyana Winery facility you may have read about in the paper, and they’re turning it into a full production home for winemakers and beverage brands looking for custom crush, vinification, packaging, canning, bottling, storage, and support heading into Harvest 2026.

This episode gets into the real back-of-house world most wine drinkers never see: tanks, trucks, timing, packaging pressure, bottling day chaos, and the trust it takes to hand someone your vintage. Josh brings decades of winemaking and custom crush leadership, while Jason built Mercenary from a mobile canning operation into a serious packaging partner across California. Together, they talk about taking a big swing, the changing consumer, RTDs, wine cocktails, bag-in-box, smaller formats, lighter packaging, and why this moment in wine might be less about panic and more about reinvention.

For winemakers, beverage producers, entrepreneurs, or anyone with an idea that needs help getting from concept to shelf, Mercenary Premier is building a place for that conversation.

• Learn more about Mercenary Premier: mercenarypremier.com

• Connect with Mercenary Premier for production, packaging, custom crush, and Harvest 2026 services: mercenarypremier.com

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