VertdeVin

Brick House Vineyards

Meeting with one of the most emblematic Oregon Biodynamic vigneron

- Thank you to Doug and Savannah for the friendly hospitalit­y - J.C.C.

Brick House Vineyards & Wine Company is an Oregon family-owned and operated winery located in the heart of the Willamette Valley in Ribbon Ridge viticultur­al area. The domain was founded in 1990 by Doug Tunnell and his family.

”Originally our idea was just to grow organic grapes then with 40 acres (16 hectares) we started to plantclone­s of Pinot Noir from Pommard in 1990. In 1992 we planter the first block of both Gamay Noir and Chardonnay.”

Today the family grows and produces all their grapes, doesn’t sell grapes and makes every year around 400 cases of wines, mainly from Pinot Noir. They also have a small production of Chardonnay and Gamay Noir.

Let’s go to meet the fascinatin­g people who manage this winery, Doug Tunnell (founder & Winemaker) and Savannah Mills, Assistant Winemaker and niece of Doug)

Why do you make wine?

Doug Tunnell: I grew up not far from our farm.

There were no vineyards or wineries in this area when I was a kid. But by the time I returned to Oregon in 1990 there were several vineyards on Ribbon Ridge and a rapidly growing wine industry in the area. I was a TV news correspond­ent (at CBS) for 18 years. I was based in Paris for four years and during that time I fell in love with the wines of Burgundy, Rhône and Beaujolais. In 1987 I read an article from New York Times Magazine about a family from Burgundy buying land and planting a vineyard in Oregon’s north Willamette Valley, the zone where my relatives live. That family was the Drouhin family of Beaune. Given their generation­al knowledge and global world view I knew that if they were committed to buying land in Oregon for Pinot Noir the prospects for successful winegrowin­g were good. So I called my relatives in Oregon and asked them to begin searching for a farm that would be suitable for growing wine grapes in the region.

Could you describe in a few words what wine means to you ? D.T.: It’s very hard to answer just in a few words. I mean, Wine it’s my world! It’s what I do from the morning to the night.

Living here, in my estate, in my farm… in this biodynamic world, the farm is to be living organism and we are part of that organism.The first vineyard block was certified organic in 1990.

How do you recognize your wines you make in a blind taste condition ?

Savannah Mills: We strive for get a sufficient acidity in all the wines to complement food. I always look for that in a blind taste. I don’t care to produce wine overly powerful in the sense of size but powerful in the sense of taste. The terroir where we produce has a very hard surface and deep soil. There are many variations but overall there is a low ph and high acidity, the opposite of Burgondy zone. We are more like Beaujolais: the soil has sedimentar­y clay and marin sediments.

D.T.: For their structure, especially for chardonnay. Indeed we pick up the grapes at 3.2 ph to preserve the natural acids. All of our wines have a well structure and the texture change every year because of the different climate trend. I can fell distinctly the flavors in every wines. We have also our laboratory to understand the proper features, our aromatic complexity are the best markers we have. Upon all in pinot noir the silky tannins and the spices we may say are typical of from ribbon ridge area.

We decided to plant Gamay Noir since the beginning in 1992 for it sense of lightness, it’s easy going drinkabili­ty, just the opposite of Burgundy style. The Pinot noir grape is very importante but we need something to be different. Consider that this area is quite similar to Beaujolais we thought it was a change to plant it here.

How do you manage vineyards? Are you certified?

D.T.: We have the Demeter certificat­ion since 2005, we spread two biodynamic preparatio­ns (horn-manure) and other 6 in the compost. We use to follow the lunar calendar in a practical sense , keeping an eye on it without be slave of it. We tailor the system on our vineyards needs following the cycle of the seasons.It was natural for me to produce in organic practice.

Biodynamic schedule was not our first way. However when I realized that all things your are doing with is extracting, extracting, extracting from the land, from the terroir, I changed my way of mind. What I loved with biodynamic is to giving back being apart of that all organisms.

• Brick House Vineyards

18200 NE Lewis Rogers Ln, Newberg, Oregon 97132 (USA) www.brickhouse­wines.com

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