My favorite wine is what goes best with the moment, the company, and most importantly the food. My favorite wine to make is Pinot noir; its delicacy and nuance make it a beautiful challenge. I have traveled the world making diverse and delicious wines, but I knew I wanted to settle down and make Pinot in the Willamette Valley.

Custom Crush is a term we use when a brand pays rent to have their wine made in a facility. This is a great way for a brand to develop without the immense overhead required to build a winery. There are many styles of custom crush out there and most of them also offer additional consulting or access to a Consultant Winemaker. This is because the facility is not responsible for making critical and stylistic choices for the individual brands. Some facilities include production labor while others do not.

There is also something called Alternating Proprietor where the brand just rents space and is responsible for their own labor, equipment, and Bonded legal status.

As a professional craftsman, I am adept at making many styles of wine and can figure out what works best for a given situation. Your wine style and brand identity are important to develop early on. The most important factor is always the quality of the grapes and where they are grown. Once you have good grapes, I prefer a gentle hand in guiding it into wine.

While I am familiar with many of the tricks and tools available, I prefer to only do what is necessary for each wine, a low-intervention style. So called “natural” winemaking is no-intervention and is risky but can be rewarding. Whereas, “conventional” winemaking is safe and secure but may lose nuance.