A Brief Interview

Brian had a chance to answer some questions from Mandy Stark at The Wine Cellar, in Portland. The mini interview was included in Mandy’s newsletter back in early December. The questions were good, and the answers are straightforward, so I thought I’d share it for the benefit of all six or seven of you who happen to be reading this. -Jango

Mandy: I read in one of your newsletters that you are an experiment of progressive agriculture. Can you tell us what’s different in your farming from others in the wine industry?

Brian: Well, to begin, we don’t see ourselves as being in the wine industry first.  I believe that’s an important part of turning back the dial on modern agriculture—doing lots of things at once.  (Here “turning back” acknowledges that “progressive” is so often a rearward-facing perspective in farming.)  Wine is just one way of preserving the harvest of one of the many crops we tend.  Some experiments are explicit—can we build a stable trellis and safely graze sheep beneath vines, even in the summer?—but others are implicit, with long horizons and slow reveals.  How can we adjust our approach to stay in business and make this plot richer with every year, even as the climate slides off the table, even as the body grows old and cranky?  Can we ever be worthy of this gift, and how widely can we spread it—by truly supporting those who work it, and through its production?  Not easy, and not assured.  

Mandy: How many different varietals do you grow on the estate? Are you planning on planting any new varietals soon?

Brian: At last count, we’ve got 24 varieties out there in the rows. Three of these are new varieties planted last year, all French-American hybrids… interesting in the glass, but especially in the field where their disease resistance and cold tolerance reduce risk and the consequent urge to intervene (particularly with chemical applications).

Mandy: You have a lot of Italian varietals - are they a personal favorite or do these grapes grow well in the region?

Brian: A personal mission, for sure—the emotions on that can be readily traced back to a single glorious meal, long ago.  But Italy is a diverse place with so much DNA; with such a range of well-acclimated varieties (including a glorious mess of obscure and unobtainable cultivars), we are hopeful that we’ve made a good match with our selections.  Of course, the prospect of surprise is fun, too.  (Usually.)

Mandy: What do you think you are best known for right now? And what is something you wish more people knew about you?

Brian: I really don’t know what people think.  We’ve been reticent in our communications for much of our history, so word has moved slowly.  The full answer to this question is long, but what I value about us is our stubborn loyalty to the vines, to the act of translation rather than any claims to “creation” in the cellar.  The fact (a very privileged one) that we labor in service of this very particular bit of ground, year after year, with all the feedback loops that such an intimate arrangement implies.  Botanically and microbiologically.  The work is fundamentally humble, and I like that we keep that in mind here.

Mandy: You don’t just grow grapes on the farm. What other things do you grow? 

Brian: Oh, gosh.  Lots of food.  We picked some medlars yesterday—that’s a storied fruit!  I’m a little crazy with my quince collection.  Cherries, pears and apples occupy lots of area here, and have for many years (most of the cherries are around a hundred years old.)  Lots of varieties of each—that’s mostly curiosity (delight-driven agriculture), but it provides stability to production too, across the years.  There are vegetables, which supply the tasting room as well as the farmers’s market in the Dalles.  And we’ve planted a lot of aromatic plants recently, fragrant if sometimes bitter plants with a range of applications. 

Mandy: If you could only have one varietal for the rest of your life what would it be?

Brian: Palomino, unquestionably.