Alex Watson: Co-Founder & CEO of Renais

Episode 655

On this episode of The Kara Goldin Show, we’re joined by Alex Watson, Co-Founder and CEO of Renais. Alongside his sister, Emma Watson, Alex launched Renais as a luxury gin brand inspired by their family’s deep-rooted winemaking heritage in France. Renais is distilled from upcycled French wine-pressed grapes, blending sustainability with craftsmanship to create something truly unique in the world of spirits.
During our conversation, Alex shares how he and Emma built Renais, the challenges of launching an ultra-premium gin, and what sets their brand apart in a crowded market. We dive into the opportunities in the spirits industry, the role of sustainability in distilling, and how their family’s legacy in winemaking influenced their vision. Alex also opens up about working with Emma, the impact of her global influence, and what’s next for Renais as they continue to grow.
Whether you're a gin enthusiast, an entrepreneur, or someone passionate about craftsmanship and brand-building, this episode is packed with insights and inspiration. Tune in to hear Alex’s incredible journey and learn why Renais is redefining the gin industry. Now on The Kara Goldin Show.

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Transcript

Kara Goldin 0:00
I am unwilling to give up that I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be. I want to be you. Just want to make sure you will get knocked down. But just make sure you don’t get knocked out, knocked out. So your only choice should be go focus on what you can control. Control. Hi everyone, and welcome to the Kara Goldin show. Join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world’s greatest leaders. We’ll talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs and really, some of the most interesting people of our time. Can’t wait to get started. Let’s go. Let’s go. Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Kara Goldin show. Super, super excited to have our next guest here. Today, we’re diving into the world of spirits, entrepreneurship and innovation with our entrepreneur and founder, Alex Watson, who is the co founder and CEO ofRenais, and if you have not tried this incredible, incredible gin, definitely, definitely, you must, you must, must, must. So the gin brand was inspired by their families, wine making heritage in France. His co founder is a sibling of his, who is also a wonderful actress, Emma Watson, so lots of fun that the two brothers, or the brother and sister, got together to create this incredible, incredible product, blending sustainability with craftsmanship to redefine what Premium gin can be and with over a decade in drinks prior to this, Alex was with Diageo reserve portfolio and has a deep knowledge of spirits overall. I cannot wait to get into everything about his journey. He’s actually joining us today from London, but the product,Renais is all over the world, and most of our listeners are here in the US, but it is happily avail available in many, many states. So really, really excited that you are here with us today. So welcome Alex.

Alex Watson 2:22
Well, thank you, Kara, what a lovely introduction and a wonderful summary of all sorts of things. I couldn’t have said it better myself. I love it. Yeah And yes, we’re available now in the US, predominantly online, on our website, but if you’re in California or New York and just about to be Florida, where we’re there physically too. So hopefully some of your readers will sorry, your listeners will be in some of those places and able to get their hands on us.

Kara Goldin 2:49
I love it. SoRenais Jen, how would you describe it? What is it for those who haven’t had a chance to try it, or maybe somebody has had a chance to try it, loves it, and just wasn’t exactly sure what they were tasting.

Alex Watson 3:03
Yeah. So, I mean, the way I would describe the flavor is is very different. It’s very original and very unique product. A lot of that comes down to our production process. I mean, fundamentally, it’s a gin, and all gins have to taste predominantly of juniper berries. That’s the kind of loose definition of what makes something a gin. But what sets us apart then, really is an attempt to replicate a lot of the foundational flavors that you find in Burgundy wines and shabli wines, which is where mine and Emma’s family has been making wine for these last kind of 30 years. So the way I would describe it is a very kind of modern and innovative take on on a gin. So

Kara Goldin 3:54
gin, you and I were briefly talking before we hit record, but gin is I love gin, but it’s not as big as many of the other spirits that are out there. Why is that?

Alex Watson 4:08
Well, it’s interesting. I mean, here in the UK, gin is kind of the dominant category. Really. We have more than 300 gin distilleries in the UK right now, which is extraordinary. I think we have more gin distilleries per capita than anywhere else on the world. I mean, we have a huge amount of distilleries, full stop, including, you know, whiskey distilleries and and so on. In Scotland, I think the UK and other parts of Europe have had quite a long history with gin. I mean, the Dutch, kind of originally created it, or the predecessor of gin, this drink called ginepe. And then in the UK, when we were at war with the French, the King of England at the time, massively incentivised people in the UK to start distilling their own gins. And that led to something. Called bathtub gin, which was where people were literally distilling it in their in their houses, in bathtubs, I guess, a bit like moonshine in the US, or something like that. And then there came a long period of heavy regulation in the UK, where only a handful of producers were allowed to make it. And then in the last 10 or 15 years, there’s been what people have called the craft gin boom, or the craft gin movement, which kind of started in the UK, but has echoed out across Europe. And I think really just now at the moment, that kind of next wave of gin from the craft gin movement is starting to hit in the US, and it’s really beginning to build in momentum and popularity. I think, you know, if any of your listeners take a look at the news at the moment, what they’ll see a lot of is people talking about, you know, massive volume decreases across spirits broadly, which is true. You know, people are drinking a lot less in terms of hard liquor and spirits, but interestingly, people are really premiumizing their choices. They’re kind of saying, if I’m going to have a drink, I’m going to have something really special. And that means that gin, which has been under represented, let’s say, in terms of luxury or premiumness, is really beginning to build momentum in the US, and is one of the few spirit segments that’s in massive growth, which is exciting,

Kara Goldin 6:26
very, very cool. So you and your very famous sister Emma decided to embark on this company together. How did that come about? Were you Is there some great story that you were just sitting around one day and decided, let’s go do this.

Alex Watson 6:42
Yeah, well, I think, I think, as our dad is, is a winemaker, and Emma and I were actually born in France and grew up very much around French wine making culture. You know, Emma’s always had quite a big kind of sustainability lens on the things that she does. And my background, as you alluded to, has kind of always been in the drinks industry. We kind of put our heads together and found out that there was a way to recycle the byproducts from the winemaking industry, which is effectively these, these grape skins, once the juice has been extracted, along with kind of the seeds and the stems and all of the stuff that doesn’t get used in the wine making, but actually has enough sugar in it to ferment and produce a really beautiful, high quality spirit. And when I kind of went on that journey and started putting some of that stuff together, and then me and Emma got together and said, Well, how do we contribute to our family’s kind of wine making legacy? And, you know, is there a way to do it sustainably? And so on, and kind of just started pulling at the threads together, and then ended up saying, Hey, this is, this is a really good idea. We should give this a go.

Kara Goldin 7:55
What is the name of your your family’s wine for those listening unimaginatively,

Alex Watson 8:02
it’s just called domain Watson, so it’s kind of more of just a passion project for my dad, to be honest. You can, you know, it’s mainly just for family and friends, and he sells it his old University College and stuff like that. But it’s, it’s not a big commercial enterprise, but it had a big impact on me in terms of my decision to work in drinks and hospitality. I think wine and wine making is such a cool example of a way that a product can reflect an environment that it’s from, and kind of a story that it can tell with, with the flavor and the liquid and who makes it, and where it comes from, and so on. And I kind of came away from an upbringing in wine making, really wanting to carry that philosophy into spirit making.

Kara Goldin 8:57
Definitely, I feel like the story for wine making brands has really carried over into a lot of categories, not just alcoholic categories, but also non alcoholic categories. And consumers love the story just as much as the taste, and you guys have done such a great job of that on your website. For those who haven’t seen it, you can definitely check that out too. How did you kind of think about that when you were creating the story? And it sounded like Emma was very involved in that side of helping to craft the story as well. Yeah. Well,

Alex Watson 9:39
I suppose I mean this in terms of how we express the story. You know, Emma did a great job at directing a little kind of feature that’s that’s on the website at the moment, and she put on her Instagram a little while ago last year, which kind of tells the story in. Beautiful, beautifully directed kind of video format, and she’s great at that. In terms of creating the story, I suppose it kind of created itself over the last, you know, 30 or so years. I think, you know, it has the merit of just being a true story, in terms of, my dad was a, you know, was a lawyer in Paris, but fell in with a group of wine makers in Chablis, in Burgundy, and just kind of fell in love with this little village, and, you know, started planting vineyards, and then started winning some awards, and has been doing it ever since. And, and, you know, and then how that reflects in the product is, you know, it’s very uncommon to distill a gin the way that we do it, but it’s, it’s both sustainable, but also, you know, in the world of distilling spirits, what you distill from has a huge impact on the character and the quality of the liquid. So, you know, not only is it a great story, but more importantly, it’s, it’s an incredibly high, high quality product that’s that’s also very differentiated. So, you know, it all just kind of came together nicely.

Kara Goldin 11:16
Would you mind sharing exactly the process of creating the gin as well,

Alex Watson 11:22
yeah, for sure, like the production process of the gin, the production

Kara Goldin 11:26
process of it, and not just gin, but alsoRenais, of course. Yeah,

Alex Watson 11:31
absolutely so. So all gin begins its life as vodka. Oddly, for some people who may not know that, and vodka really is any organic material which is rectified up to 96% ABV. It just has to be a kind of, you know, colorless, odorless kind of liquid, is the definition of vodka. So for that reason, you’ll see vodka distilled from anything from, you know, grass to potatoes to wheat to pasta, whatever. So that’s how we managed to, you know, find a way to do it with grapes, in this case. So the way thatRenais is made is we collect, in English, what’s called the pomace, along with something called the lees, which is, which is a kind of yeast byproduct that you, you get from the fermentation tanks used in wine. And we take that and ferment it and distill it up to 96% in France. We actually work with two different distilleries in France in order to produce this beautiful, high quality grape spirit. And then we import that back to the UK, where we do the gin distillation part, which really, you know, the backbone of gin is botanicals. You’ll hear the word botanicals a lot in reference to gin, and that really just means, you know, the essences or the flavors that go into it. And what we’ve selected forRenais is a series of botanicals which reflect French wine making terroir. So you’ll see grape juice, like chardonnay grape juice, which is the grape varietal of Burgundy limestone from from the region, and a few other beautiful local kind of botanicals that really give you a sense of place for the product. So it’s a very unique and differentiated production process for forRenais. Basically, it’s not, not the simplest way to make a gin, but I think, yeah, to your point, having a, you know, a good story and a differentiated product is is important in a competitive landscape.

Kara Goldin 13:46
So you worked at Diageo before launchingRenais, and obviously also had this family business in the wine industry where you watched your father, probably maybe not scale it to the level of Diageo brand, but But definitely, I would imagine him trucking around the the bottles to some of his favorite restaurants over time. So what did you learn from your experience at Diageo or or from your family, from your dad, that you’ve taken with you in really building this brand out.

Alex Watson 14:32
Yeah, I think for my dad’s passion, like seeing the way that he went about doing things, and to your point, doing a lot of it by hand himself, like we would go, go down and do harvests every year, and the way that he planted the vineyards, the amount of time he took to do everything, the legacy that he was trying to build, the focus on quality he’s. He’s a deeply passionate guy, whether it be wine making or he loves fly fishing or languages. He speaks like six or seven languages. He’s just like a really interesting guy who I admire very much. And I think that focus on almost that obsessive focus on quality and doing something well, is what I took from, from him, from Diageo. It was a great education in the fundamentals of how the world of spirits works and how to build a brand. And, you know, how does it work to have a, you know, relationship with, you know, Pops, bars and restaurants, which was predominantly my job, so that the reserve portfolio in Diageo is kind of the luxury end of the spirits portfolio. And my job was to help sell in some of those products into into high end bars and restaurants. What I learned from them, specifically as well, was, you know, bartenders are the brand builders of the drinks world. If you can get a product which bartenders enjoy, you know, telling the story of or selling into customers or so on, then you know, they can really help build your brand for you. And you know, it requires a patient approach, but that’s, that’s what we’re going for.

Kara Goldin 16:24
What’s been the most difficult part about launching and scalingRenais so far?

Alex Watson 16:31
Oh, boy. Well, I think there’s a there’s been a couple of things. I think one is, you know, it’s a time when the industry is facing a lot of headwinds. You know, anything that you read about the drinks industry at the moment is Doom and is doom and gloom. You know, younger generations are, you know, drinking less and less. And I think the Surgeon General was talking about putting the sort of health warnings that you see on cigarettes and so on, on spirits, bottles and all sorts of, I suppose, headwinds that face the industry more broadly. What, as I was alluding to, what’s been nice for us is that the sorts of challenges that those brands are facing, kind of is whereRenais is well positioned to avoid some of those things in terms of premiumness and sustainability and and so on, specifically for running the company and trying to scale it, I would say alcohol is a very heavily regulated industry per market, specifically and in the US, even by state or even by city. I should say, I think different cities required different compliance labels. We had long conversations with the FDA while we were trying to get the recipe approved, because they were like, how are you? Why are you using limestone in your gin, and so on and so forth. So I would say for a brand that has quickly become a global brand, you can find us in currently, in more than 14 countries, the regulations and compliance piece for fast moving companies is challenging.

Kara Goldin 18:20
Yeah, definitely. Do you find that the opportunities are kind of endless, right? Like, I think that that’s probably the biggest challenge for any entrepreneur, is that you know, you get a phone call and you’re trying to determine, or an email trying to determine, is this the right thing to do? And how do you figure that out? Right? Like, how do you sit there and decide what is it that I need to really jump on? And if I jump on that, then maybe I can’t do what’s really important. How do you stay focused on what’s really, really important?

Alex Watson 18:56
Yeah, exactly that, that has been a big challenge for us, because exactly the whole world is kind of there to get after. And I think pulling, you know, picking your punches, sorry, is really important because we’re also a startup, and we have really limited amount of resource, and we’ve got to demonstrate the things and get the learnings that we need quick enough. So we have to be really specific about our strategy. And, yeah, it’s really easy to just try and chase after everything or chase our own tails and get nowhere. And I think our mantra for this year, I mean, we turn two in May of this year, so we’re still a very young, young company. And I think the mantra for for year two to three is just going to be like less, less but better, and just really focus on what our key objectives are, you know, and specifically from a global perspective like you know, which are the absolutely fundamental markets that we need to work in and so on. Yeah, but yeah, that’s a massive challenge for us all the time.

Kara Goldin 20:04
What’s the one thing about the spirits industry overall that maybe you didn’t realize going in? You had had a lot of experience with the spirits industry, but you had never been running your own company, right? And I think you know, it’s, it’s, it’s interesting when I think of, I have four kids, and, you know, two entrepreneur parents, and I think my kids, my son, almost launched a beverage and then decided to do something else, but there were things that he just never really realized until he was starting to really write the business plan and have the conversations and things like that. But was there anything that just really surprised you?

Alex Watson 20:49
Yeah, I think, I think you almost said it yourself, which is that, you know, although I’d worked in drinks for a while, and, you know, especially for big corporate company, as soon as you’re running your own company, it’s a whole different thing, like just so much experience that you don’t have that you need to get quickly, you know. And equally, a lot of the experience I had was probably on a bigger sort of corporate level, and not immediately applicable for to a startup either. So it was useful, but there’s been a huge amount of learning to be done very quickly, doing doing it like this. I think the thing that has surprised me about spirits pleasantly is that it continues to be a relationship based business. I think maybe that’s a truism of all businesses, but at the very least in still in this world, which is connected to hospitality, you know, spirits and drinks and hospitality, I suppose, go, go hand in hand. And a lot of that industry is still done through, you know, relationships from, you know, people passionate about their craft and providing great experiences and so on, and, and that’s a big part of you know why I love working in in this industry and, and that one before,

Kara Goldin 22:10
yeah, definitely. And I do think it’s, it’s a big relationship industry. I think that the challenge is, again, like you’re going to have people reaching out to you and saying, Hey, I know somebody at Costco, for example, you guys should go and do small individual cans of your product, right? All these things that people mean well, right? But that’s just another package, right? Another, you know, production line to deal with, and another way of doing things. And so it’s really trying to, frankly, build the brand. I get it. I get it. I could talk all day on this topic, because I think it’s such a something that entrepreneurs understand, but really don’t necessarily understand it

Alex Watson 23:01
exactly. I mean everything, everything comes with an opportunity cost. If I’m spending my time and my resource on this thing, it means I’m not spending it on something else. And really like, what are the, what are the, absolutely, the things that we need to do to win, I suppose. So, yeah, it’s, that’s a that’s a daily challenge. I would say,

Kara Goldin 23:21
do you think you would ever not be an entrepreneur at this point, knowing what you know today? I, I’ve had people i I’ve had people who have said, who have tried entrepreneurship and then said, I’m done. But other people are like, I’ll never, I’ll never leave it. Yeah, I

Alex Watson 23:42
mean, I do you know what? I love it. There’s so many parts about it that I love. I think it’s so energizing and motivating. And when you win, you win, you feel like you win personally. And also getting to do this with my family is is awesome. And I know some people say that that can be very complicated, but there are many parts to this particular piece of entrepreneurship which I find very meaningful and very rewarding, but I also really enjoyed working in a big corporate environment as well. So I would probably never say never again to either, but either way, I think, yeah, incredibly grateful for the experience I’m getting to have with with withRenais now, and that journey. We’ll see what happens at the end of it. If I, if I can go again for another round, we’ll see.

Kara Goldin 24:40
So you’re going on, going on two years, right? Coming up?

Alex Watson 24:46
Yeah, yeah, exactly to return to in May, yeah, going on

Kara Goldin 24:51
two years. So when you were first starting people, you’re, I would imagine that you shared this. Story with maybe some friends and family that you were going to go launch, and they thought you were crazy, right? Or What world are you doing, Alex, but you know, obviously, hopefully loved what you were doing. But also, I always say that friends and family are sometimes the best, sometimes the worst, because they really put the doubts in your your own head that you have, like, what am I doing here by doing this? And when you have those tough days, you sort of remember those, those conversations, but maybe there was one time where you thought, Okay, I’m gonna, I’m gonna do this. Like, this is really gonna make it. And what was there a point when maybe you got a distributor, a bar that you never thought, like it was just such a reach that you thought, Okay, now we’re like, we’re off to the races.

Alex Watson 26:00
Yeah, I think that there’s a couple of bits to unpack in there. That one is that actually, funnily enough, my dad said, you know, don’t do this. You worked really hard to get that job at diagio. I spent years trying to get in there, and then had finally landed this great job, and I was loving it, and so on and and he was really, I think your parents kind of always sort of want to wrap you up in cotton wool and fear the worst for you and so on. So he gave me that talk. And oddly, the one that really motivated me to try and green light it, and then, you know, for us to do it together was Emma. She was like, you have to stop talking about you. Either have to do this idea or stop talking about it with me, and let’s do it, you know. So that was kind of how the sorts of pep talks I got from my family, in terms of a moment that felt like we’d made it and done it, there’s been a few really special moments we launched, and within a month, went into judging season at some spirits competitions in in the UK, and won a gold medal at the spirits masters for Best Contemporary gin. Which to have that kind of review straight off the bat, was was fantastic, and filled us with with a lot of confidence. And then the amount of international distributors that got hold of us, especially being offered a national distribution contract in the US from a from one of the largest distributors out there, called rndc, was another big, like light bulb moment for us, where we were like, Oh, wow. People really want this, this thing, and that’s great. And, you know, we thought it was a great idea, and there was a gap in the market for it, but to see that other people agree to is is very special. And probably on a more personal note, a very gratifying moment for me was the back end of last year, my dad belongs to a sort of, I’m trying to figure out a way to explain this to people without being confusing. Like a sort of, like a guild of wine makers in Burgundy, who are responsible for kind of safeguarding the interests of the winemakers and that kind of stuff. And it’s like it’s a voluntary role, and he’s done it for sort of 20 odd years and so on. And every year, the mayor of Chablis, which is where we where we make the wine, and grew up in that kind of stuff, gets to pick one person to become recognized by the winemaking community for having done something in service of the region. And this October, I was the pick for for shabli, because ofRenais, because of the kind of celebration of the winemaking industry. And although that’s not a sort of commercial milestone or anything else for me personally, if everything else was to go horrifically wrong with the brand or the product or whatever, I for me personally, that was a big moment for for me,

Kara Goldin 29:15
I love it. Well, Alex, you’ve created an incredible, incredible brand. Thank you so much for the amazing conversation. You and Emma have done a great job. Tell her we said hello and very, very excited for you guys to grow more in the US as well. And next time you get out here to the Bay Area, please let me know, because I would love to introduce your brand to even more people here too. Everybody needs to tryRenais gin. We’ll have all the info in the show notes as well. But thank you for tuning in, and thanks for sharing a lot more of your journey with us too, and until next time on the Kara Goldin show, thank you again. Alex, my pleasure. Thank you. Thanks again for listening to the Kara Goldin show. If you would please give us a review and feel free to share this podcast with others who would benefit. And of course, feel free to subscribe so you don’t miss a single episode of our podcast. Just a reminder that I can be found on all platforms at Kara Goldin, I would love to hear from you too. So feel free to DM me, and if you want to hear more about my journey, I hope you will have a listen or pick up a copy of my Wall Street Journal, best selling book, undaunted, where I share more about my journey, including founding and building hint we are here every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Thanks for listening, and goodbye for now you.

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