February 11, 2026 • 47 mins
At Penner-Ash located in the Northern Willamette Valley’s Yamhill-Carlton AVA, Winemaker Kate Ayres crafts several expressions of single estate Pinot Noir as well as Chardonnay, Viognier and Riesling. Penner Ash was established in 1998 by Lynn and Ron Penner-Ash with a vision to producer lush, layered Pinot Noir. In 2016, the winery joined the Jackson Family Wines portfolio. The same year, Oregon native Kate Ayres joined the winemaking team at Penner-Ash; she was appointed winemaker in 2018.
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The Connected Table is broadcast live Wednesdays at 2PM ET and Music on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com).
The Connected Table Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(00:20):
choosing W FOURCY Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Hello and welcome to the Connected Table Live where your
hosts Melanie Young and David Ransom. You're insatiably curious culinary couple.
We like to travel the world and today the US
virtually to bring you the places we meet and people
we meet, and the wines we like to drink and
foods we like to eat, because we want you to
get out there and eat, drink, being inspired and explore
(01:05):
with us. So today we're going to Oregon. Now, I'll
be honest, I've only been to Oregon once and that
was to the Columbia River Gorge. So this is going
to be an exploration of a place I want to go,
which is the Willamette Valley. Do you hear that Oregon Wineboard?
And when I think of Oregon, I think of two things, David,
And you tell me what you think. I think of
(01:25):
amazing pino noir wines amazing and mushrooms and how great
they go together.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
What about you, David, Well, definitely pino noir, willam At
Valley and Portland and the beautiful coast as well.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
I've been.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
There's lots going on there.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
James Beard, he's from Oregon, he was from Organ.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
James Beard is from Oregon. But today we're going to
talk about what we are.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
So we're setting it up because Oregon is a beautiful
place in the Northwest that everybody should visit, and it's
got a lot of diversity to it, and a lot
of my friends who have gone and lived there love
it for vacationing, but of course everybody really likes to
also go to explore wines. And we're taking you to
one of the most renowned regions of Oregon's Ava's the
(02:10):
Willamette Valley. It's actually very large region running north to south.
And we're going to talk with Kate Ayres, who is
the winemaker for Penner Ash which was established in nineteen
ninety eight by Lynn and Ron penner Ash in the
northern Willamett Valley in the Yamhill Carlton Ava. That makes
(02:31):
Lynn one of the early pioneers, along with some other
amazing women who helped create the Oregon wine movement. They
have since become part of the Jackson family wine portfolio.
I think that was in twenty sixteen. And you had
the opportunity to sit down with Kate when she made
(02:51):
a market visit to New Orleans for dinner. I sadly
had to miss it.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
We had a lovely hedonistic meal.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Yeah, and our next stop will be going to Pennorash
to visit. But if you look, there he is and
we bring the Wyemaker for Penarash on our show. Now,
Kate Airs, welcome.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
Thank you, thank you for having me, good morning.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
And that's the beautiful inside of Pennarash.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
Yes.
Speaker 5 (03:20):
So this is our pavilion where you can do a
private seated tasting.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Yes, which we're going to talk about the first We
always like to talk about you. Hey, you were born
and raised in Oregon. What was that like? What's it
like to be born and raised in Oregon? What are
some of your childhood memories and what you like to
eat and drink and paw'd you like to play?
Speaker 5 (03:38):
Yeah, I'm a rare fifth generation Oregonian. So the Aris
Broadway families have been here for quite some time, and
I grew up on the North Coast. My dad is
an avid fisherman. We did a lot of mushroom hunting,
speaking to mushrooms. So I spent a lot of time
on the water, whether that was playing fishing, crabbing, clamming,
(04:02):
but we also spend a lot of time like water skiing,
and I had family over the mountains and the Bend area,
so the Cascade Lakes are near and dear to me.
I mean, I think of it as my child as
being pretty picturesque and also like very coastal organ It
was a tiny little town. I graduated with nineties students.
My teachers in high school knew me from the day
(04:23):
I was born. So it's a very very tight knit
community in a very very different world than what I
ended up, you know, when I finally went off to college.
But it was magical. The coast was amazing. It was
really spectacular.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
The pictures I used to see that in some of
the James spired books. The very high look like cliffs
and dunes just incredible.
Speaker 5 (04:47):
The coasts, it's so gorgeous, and it changes so much
from the southern coast all the way up to the
northern coast. And even now, you know, I'm twenty years
out of graduating and the coastline has changed so dramatically.
I mean, it's really phenomenal watching those weather patterns.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
So originally, what were you planning to do with your
wife before you decided to go into wine or did you? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (05:14):
I did not.
Speaker 5 (05:14):
Wine was not like a huge thing. I mean, my
parents drank wine as like a casual beverage, but it
was not something that was focused or talked about in
my family. I wanted to be a vet My dad
was like, really, we always had dogs, and he was really,
for whatever reason, anytime we went to the pet story,
frequently came back with an additional animal. And we had
(05:38):
chickens and I had a goose, we had a duck,
and I just wanted to be a veterinarian. I mean,
from the time I was three years old, that's what
I remembered that I wanted to do. My aunt was
a vetech. She took me around working on large animals.
So it was like my mission to go through high
school and do what I needed to do to get
into UC Davis. Right, that was the place to go. Oh,
(06:00):
it was the thing I wanted to do. I'd never
thought about another career. I never really looked at any
other university like that was the spot to go. When
I landed there and I started taking my classes and probably,
like a lot of kids that think they want to
be a vet, you realize there's a lot of terrible
(06:21):
things about being a vet. And I really just want
to like nurture and foster my edibals at home, and
I love doing that. I've always had a dog. But
I did not want to go down that career path.
And it was, you know, it's a long pre vet
and then vet school, you know, for the next four years,
and I needed a career change, and I literally stumbled
(06:45):
into wine making. I was looking through the course book,
you know, I was an out of state kid paying
a lot of tuition, and I was like, oh, UC
Davis is really really well known for this like viticulture
and anology program. Who knew that that was a possible
job opportunity. And I took my first course, and I
never turned back. I was like, Holy moly, I can
(07:09):
travel the world. I can eat and I can drink,
and I can see all these other cultures and meet
all these other people. I mean, it's just like the
whole world opened up. You're talking about this like small
town girl. I'd been to the Czech Republic and that
was about the only place I'd ever been.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
We've never been to the Czech Yeah, as I've learned
from the Olympics, like where's Chechia? I just saw marching
in the parade.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
It was a beautiful country.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
So long, a long, long way from veterinary to did
a culture.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
It starts with the letter, is it. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:47):
Unfortunately it starts with the same coursework, so it was
an easy transition to make.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
That's good. So tell us about your tell us about
your job trajectory then, because I think you've worked in
California obviously because's where you went to school. You also
did some time overseas and then came back and worked
in Oregon. So yeah, yeah, trajectory. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (08:08):
I took the fall quarder of my junior year off
from Davis, and I worked for cake bread sellers. I
really just wanted to solidify that this was the course
that I wanted to take with my life. And thank
goodness I did, because, oh my god, I just fell
in love with the people I worked for and fell
in love with the job. I was so excited to
go back and finish.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
My coursework at Davis.
Speaker 5 (08:30):
So I worked for cake Bread in six and eight
while I was going to school, and then when I
graduated in two thousand and eight, I what did I do?
I went to New Zealand and I worked in the
South Island of New Zealand doing some pretty big production
stuff there. But we had a astro lab and Jules
Taylor were making wine in the same facility, so I
(08:53):
was able to really focus on the pinot from those companies.
And I knew at that point that I wanted to
do peanut. Oh that was definitely a focus of mine.
So that was great.
Speaker 4 (09:03):
And then.
Speaker 5 (09:05):
The fall of two thousand and nine, I went to
Portugal and I worked in the Alanasia region of Portugal.
I had met, I'd worked with some you know, this
is how the wine world works, right, I'd worked with
some other fellow Portuguese, stayed in contact and went and
worked there. That was just an incredible experience because you're
working in a completely totally different ballgame. Right You're going
(09:27):
from cake Bread Cellars, who was very well funded and
elaborate and beautiful and making these beautiful, gorgeous cabernets, and
then you go to Portugal where you don't necessarily have
heating and cooling and other systems in place, so you
learn making wine differently.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
Which is a difficulty in alent Taju in the summertime when.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
It's one hundred degrees that is exactly the case.
Speaker 5 (09:50):
And then after Portugal, I came back and I worked
for Bethel Heights here in Oregon, and after that I
went to the Barossa in Australa. Yeah, and after Australia,
I was pretty much done living out of a backpack
and realized I needed to kind of buckle down and
maybe find a real job and look for health benefits.
(10:13):
And I was really hoping to be here in Oregon,
but it was twenty eleven at that point and there
were not a lot of job opportunities, and so I
found the analogeous position at the Hess Collection and I
started with them in the fall of twenty eleven, and
by the summer of twenty twelve, I moved up to
associate winemaker and was running one of their facilities, and
(10:36):
then I just kind of bided my time. I had
a really great time. I loved working for Dave Guffey,
he was so wonderful. But I really had my eyes
up in Oregon and I had stayed in contact with
Ben Castiel over at Bethel Heights, and I got the
phone call that Lynn Penarash was quietly looking for an
assistant winemaker, and so I submitted my resume and here
(10:58):
I am today.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
So so Lynn was the wine is was the wine maker.
Is she evolved still or are they.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
She is not?
Speaker 5 (11:07):
No, So they sold in twenty sixteen, and I came
on as associate winemaker at that point. In twenty eighteen,
I got promoted up to winemaker as Lynn slowly started
tapering back her time at the winery, and by yeah,
it was a beautiful transition. She was there for support,
but she was not there. She allowed me to blossom
(11:31):
on my own and take over this facility by myself,
and by harvest of twenty twenty one was the last
harvest that she, you know, was kind of there in
the periphery if and when I needed her.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Well, it's interesting, you know, obviously as a founder it's
hard to let go, but she was also an opportunity
to mentor and share wisdom. What did you learn from her?
What were some things you learned knowing that you were
happily back working predominantly with Pino no Mair, which you
said you wanted to do.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
Absolutely.
Speaker 5 (12:02):
Yeah, you know, it was such a When I was
hired by Lynn, I knew that this was the future path,
right if everything went according to plan, And of course
the first Harvest I walked in, it was just a
complete whirlwind. And she's driving me all over the valley
and we have eighteen different sites that we're working with
and we're chatting during that time, and it was a lot.
(12:25):
But she just took me through it step by step
and worked with me and at the end of the day,
over the five years that we got to work together,
I think the biggest takeaways from her was she let
me become my own person. She was very to let
go of a brand that has your name on it
and give that off to somebody else is a that's
(12:48):
got to be a huge act, and it was big
shoes to fill. But she never made me feel like
she didn't have all of the faith in the entire
world in me to take over this project, and she
allowed me the breath to make it my own. You know,
I slowly started changing barrel programs. I have a lot
(13:08):
of my wine making is true to Linn, but she
gave me the ability to have my own voice. And
she also taught me to like really like believe my
gut instinct when I'm tasting. My palate got infant. It was.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
It's so much.
Speaker 5 (13:24):
Bigger and broader, and my knowledge is so much greater
on the back of lind But she gave me that
ability to have that own like, you know, I have
that confidence in myself.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
That's really terrifict. So you know, you became promoted to
main wine maker. Other like with the kitchen, there's like
level levels, you know, yes from you know, intern and
stars to call me to this and that and similar
in one So I'm curious again, I've never been to
(13:56):
the Well Meant Valley, but this is a big area.
I'm looking at the map. You've got a lot of
different venyard for people who've never been. Let's kind of
set up the geographical aspects of what is this specific
area because there's a lot going on, a lot of
sub abvs, and it's like many growing areas is north
(14:19):
to south, so there's going to be a lot of
microclimates in there. It is west of the Cascades, correct.
Speaker 5 (14:27):
It is west of the Cascades, yes, Yeah, which is
important for Oregon.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Penorash is in the northern area in yeahmil Carlton Aba
and you have it looks like eighteen you said vineyards.
How are they all different from a microclimate standpoint? And
then we'll obviously talk about the wines and how that
they shape themselves because they express the Pino NOI really
expresses itself based on this.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (14:53):
So all of our vineyards are in the far northern
tip of the Williamte Valley, which is where the bulk
of the wineries are nestled. And when I think about
each of our sub abas and the vineyards within them,
it's really interesting about Oregon. Or there's these so many
aspects and rolling hills you're not you know, I think
(15:15):
about Napa and you have that very clear. You have
Highway twenty nine and you have the Silverado Trail to
run north and south. Right right, you got hills on
either side and a bunch of bench land. And here
there are so many different hills. So I am on
you know, one tip of the Yamhill Carlton, it's like
a horseshoe, and we're on the eastern side of that
(15:37):
versus the western side, which butts up against the coastal mountains.
So my portion of Yamhill Carlton is very very warm.
We tend to be earlier ripening, earlier bud break. We
lean pretty hard into those sort of like darker fruits, bigger,
firmer tannins. And the ribbon ridge Ava is right next
(16:00):
to me, nestled within the Shahala Mountains, and those also
tend to really leans. It's protected, and they tend to
lean into those darker, bigger tannins, boulder wines. But you know,
from my tasing room, I'm looking at the Dundee Hills
and it is an extremely protected hilltop, very very early ripening.
(16:22):
It's always my first fruit that I pull off. But
then you are getting the red, earthy notes, right, You're
getting all of that like jewelry soil. So those are
the spiced red fruits that are coming out of those
vineyard sites. McMinnville is the coldest of our abas. It's
the closest to the coastline. For me, those are my
(16:45):
later sites. They tend to have lower pH, higher acidity.
I get those like white pepper, you know, different spiced notes.
And then you go down to Eolamite and even though
it's the southern you have that Vandoozer corridor coming in,
so there's so many winds. So that's a very late
sight for me. It's one of my last picks. The
skins are tougher because of all those wind events. I
(17:07):
tend to retain acid quite well. And then you get
those lovely like blue fruited floral notes and all of
these vineyards. You know, you're only talking about forty five
minutes between each of these zones. We're we're not super
far distances, but they do make a pretty big difference
in your weather patterns. And the Shehala Mountains in the
(17:29):
same way, like there is a certain exposure to these
and when Lynn was originally you know, building our Willamotte
Valley program, it was really really important that we had
all of these different sub avas, and we haven't had
weather patterns like you know, historically but there have been
years where you know, the Dundee Hills will be wiped
out from a hailstorm, right, and we have that, like
(17:53):
we have these other vineyards that we're working from that
maybe we're protected just because of how the weather patterns
work up here in organ It's.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Kind of like having a financial portfolio.
Speaker 4 (18:02):
Yeah, exactly, diversified.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
Diversify, I mean it really is quite diversified, and and
and and and the wines are uh a state wines,
very vinyard driven. Yeah, which is is that singular to
pentaraster or typical of the producers in Oregon.
Speaker 5 (18:26):
And we're a rarity with how big our portfolio is
with single vineyards. There's a couple of other brands that
do a similar model, but it's not yet.
Speaker 4 (18:38):
It's an exception, it's certainly not the rule.
Speaker 5 (18:40):
And yeah, I would say actually quite a few producers,
you know, there's a lot of producers that own their
own land and then they'll make different bottlings out of
their their own holdings. So we are, yeah, we are abnormal,
and that we don't Actually we only have a fifteen
acre Penerash originally only had the fifteen acre parcel that
(19:02):
our winery sits on and everything else was purchased fruit
that of course changed with the addition of Jackson.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Family, so everything that was a state.
Speaker 5 (19:12):
No, we still buy about half of our fruit. But
we had historically made a Xena Crown wine see and
it's always been part of our portfolio, and Barbara Banky
purchased that in twenty thirteen. So then when we joined
in twenty sixteen, I got quite a bit more access
to that vineyard, which is great.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
What's interesting because I think, I think why this is
important is that it's I call it the blind Men
and the Elephant theory of business and life. So if
somebody goes out and borders a pan or ash peanut
and water state wine, that wine may be different to
them than say the pen or Ash zena crap or
(19:56):
the pan which we're going to get into, or the
pen or Ash lava, which we lucky because you send
them all to us. And it's not just you know,
it's like everything in life. If somebody says, oh, I'm
not a big fan of work and pino and r well,
which one did you try? And from what aba? And
you know what vintage is it? So again, as we
always say, open up your eyes and your mind, your
(20:17):
palate because the wine you tasted last week at dinner
that you were like, it's okay, I don't know, try
another one, because you may just go, wow, this is
great from another area, right, And I think that's important
to understand that they're all nuanced. Which brings me to
Pino and War. You liked working with Pino and War.
How is it different from working with say Cabernet.
Speaker 5 (20:39):
Yeah, I mean, you know, I feel like this is
a story that everybody who makes pino says, but.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
It really doesn't.
Speaker 5 (20:50):
You can't hide anything from growing it in the vineyard
all the way through the wine making process. Right, you
have to be so on top of what you're doing,
especially organ with your vineyard practices. We are we have
a finite season, we have rain, we have mildew, we
have betritis, we have all the yummy good things.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
And when you have.
Speaker 5 (21:13):
Those things, you also need to be cautious of it
when you're bringing into the winery.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Right.
Speaker 5 (21:17):
So for me, I think if Pino noir is just like, yes,
it's a finicky grape. It's a grape that you have
to sort of coddle all the way through. But if
you're really really careful with it, and you're very mindful
and your practices are good, it will yield these incredible,
beautiful results. And it makes a big difference where it
is grown, a huge difference of where it's coming from.
(21:40):
And that's not to say that cabernet is like a
piece of cake, and of course cabernet is very different
depending on where you're growing it. But you can also
kind of beat cab up and still walk out at
the end with this excellent product. Right, it can just
it can take so much more. You know, nobody wants
(22:01):
a bunch of oxygen on their wine, but you definitely
can't be exposing pino noir to any any amount of
O two. Right, it will completely adjust your wine. So
I think for me, like from the moment I saw it,
We're working at cake Bread. It was a very small
pino wire production at the time, but all of a sudden,
I'm looking over there and I'm like, there's these tiny,
little open top fer mentors that seem to be treated
(22:24):
differently than these much bigger, closed top for mentors that
are just kind of getting pumpovers five times a day. Right,
you're just manipulating it so much.
Speaker 4 (22:34):
So I like that.
Speaker 5 (22:35):
I think it really like tests me as a winemaker.
It tests my team, like we have to be so
diligent at what we're doing and the nuances of a pino.
I love that. That's the art form, right, That's that's
what brings me joy when I'm making it.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
Great explanation, it really is really nice.
Speaker 5 (22:53):
You know.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
One of the things I was we talked about at
dinner was you talk about the different climates and the
different zones and whatnot, but also the geography comes into
play a lot, and the soil types come into play
a lot, because all those different regions vineyard sites that
you have, they're all they all have different geography, and
they have different soil types that they that they that
the grapes grow, and so those bring in different characters
(23:16):
to the wine when it's made as well.
Speaker 5 (23:18):
Absolutely, I mean I think of shay basically like envelops.
The Panarasha State Vineyard and our State Vineyard is largely sedimentary,
but we have this giant volcanic strip running through it,
and this is this volcanic matter that came from the
Cascades so many millions years ago. Shavinyard doesn't have that
it is largely sedimentary, and so the fruit profile is
(23:40):
off of these two vineyards for a multitude of reasons,
but that's certainly one of them.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Well, you know, that's it's so funny. You hear volcanic
and I think a lot of people don't realize that
there is volcanic activity. Was volcanic activity up through the
western coast of the United States, the ridge that's part
of the Ring. Yeah, a lot of people I know that.
Speaking of I'm I'm curious. You worked in New Zealand
and it is at astrolab Is that in Central Otago
(24:09):
or somewhere else I've never been.
Speaker 5 (24:11):
Well, so we were up in Marlborough, but we had
grapes coming in from Central Otago and being shipped up.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
So how would you, to someone that is curious, describe
the characteristics of a New Zealand pino noir to Oregon
pine and noir to the classic Burgundy pino no war
And I know there's other growing regions. I mean, there's
perfiquence in so Noma, But how would you characterize the
nuances differences?
Speaker 5 (24:37):
Yeah, I mean, I've of course consumed way more organ
pino than all of the above and I wish I drank.
I wish I had a deeper history of Burgundy. But
for me, my like inherent feeling is that there is
Burgundyese tend to be like earthier and little more rustic
(25:00):
for me, like they their body is different, the oak
profile seems different, and there's a rusticity to those wines.
New Zealand and Oregon I think traditionally have shared a
little bit more similarity and that they're definitely the New
Zealand seems a little bit more lighter in style, especially
in respect to the Penarash Bin Penarash makes pretty like
(25:25):
uh layered deep wines. But I think we both tend
to be very like fruit driven with kind of like
those red, sort of warm spiced notes that seems a
little fresher, for lack of a better term, than what
I think of when I think of Burgundy.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Well, I think I agree with you. We had the
rare pleasure of going to Burgundy with an importer and
so it was my first foot and getting to drink
a lot of it, and my immediate reaction was love.
I love the wines versusly they have astereurity to an
elegant austerity and a mushroomy quality. That that's the earth
(26:10):
The earthiness is a mushroomy I feel like I'm crunching
the leaves their little punchy And that's I think is
what you mean by the rusticity. I don't know if
you agree to it. And then when I taste your wines,
I get I get more spice and fruit, I get
a different type of earth fruit and spice, more along
the lines of New Zealand. I've never been to New Zealand,
(26:32):
so and I haven't had enough of the New Zealand
pani anomirs to go further on that. But and then
California and the Sonoma much different in terms of more
fruit and more you know location. Yeah, but it's interesting
because are our burgundy producers who have invested in Oregon
(26:54):
as well as South Africa, and Hamilton Russell invested in
We're going to think in the will of the Valley
they make a beautiful pino noir also in uh in
South Africa. If you ever have to trust it's it's
more in the in the style of the French style.
It's really quickly. Yeah, they do some good stuff. Yeah,
(27:17):
So you know, pino and noir could be around the world.
But it's a very particular grape with a distinct personality
that needs to be coddled and too. You know, it's
like it's not an ugly duckling, but it's like that
child that needs to have a lot of grooming in and.
Speaker 5 (27:34):
It's like you don't want to be two hands on
with it because you don't want to manipulate it, right,
you need to just keep a watchful eye through the
whole life cycle of that wine.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Interesting, well, Dot, we talk about some of the wines
we you know, we've been talking about pino.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
Why don't we talk about you talk a little bit
about some of the whites that you make, because.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Actually, great segue.
Speaker 5 (27:55):
You know, the.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
Willamett Valley is also a great place for shardenay and
a couple of other grapes as well, and make a
few whites along with the many pino no wars that
you get point, So let's do that again. Chardonnay is
a good starting point because it's one of the two
signature grapes I think in that in war in the
in thee.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
Yeah, yep, yeah, so Shardonay.
Speaker 5 (28:20):
The history of penarash, I mean, you know, so I
had said I worked for the host Collection for five years.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
I of course made a lot of shardonnay.
Speaker 5 (28:28):
They are an enormous amount of it, and I did
not love it anymore.
Speaker 4 (28:36):
I really didn't.
Speaker 5 (28:37):
But in twenty seventeen Jackson family, of course deeply rooted
in shardonnay, approached me and they were like, we'd really
like Penarash to start a shardenay program. And when had
like famously said Panarash would never put shardonay in a bottle,
But here we are today making sharnay.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
Are you liking it?
Speaker 5 (28:58):
I am, Actually I think we're and chardonnais are incredible.
I think it really like reinvigorated what shardenay can be.
You know, there's just so much acidity and austerity and
minerality to the chardonnaise up here, and I think that, like,
I'm still finding where I want to be with the
(29:19):
chardonnay here at Penarash, but I like where we're going.
And it's taken. It's taken a lot of years. Right
Like when I started the program, I went around and
I tasted barrels with other producers that I loved, and
I picked their brains and we've bounced around where we've
bought and purchase grapes from. But I like our direction.
(29:41):
You know, it's it's generally pretty low impact oak. There's
not a we make three different chardonnaise now. So the
Lammett Valley is the one you'll see out in the world,
and it definitely has a little bit more oak. It
definitely has that like weight and texture and balance that
I think of an arpino.
Speaker 4 (29:57):
Nowars that we're kind of mirroring that.
Speaker 5 (30:00):
And then we have a pot ofome and now a
single vineyard one that are a little brighter and for me,
like there's a focus and like a minerality to those wines.
And I incorporated concrete eggs and I started using porcelain eggs.
So it's been a program that I've been working on
for eight years now, which you know, when I say
(30:21):
eight years, it feels like a long time, but in
learning what you're doing, it's actually really.
Speaker 4 (30:27):
Not that long.
Speaker 5 (30:27):
And I like that it has given some creative like
it's like, what are we going to do this year?
Let's do something wild and zany. And we sent one
of our employees to Giant Steps down in Australia and
she came back and she was like, hey, they make
chardonnay in this way and I think it's really good.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
Let's try it. And so we did.
Speaker 5 (30:48):
We went from press directly into barrel and let it
go native fermentation, ripped through primary and secondary. It's a
great wine. It's something I streuss me out.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
And probably something you don't make a lot of either.
Speaker 5 (31:04):
There was not a lot of control, but man, we
learned something, and so I think that was really cool.
So it's been a it's been a really it's been
a fun program to very slowly build.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
Well chardonnay is so the impact of the winemaker is
so seen in shardonnay and style. And again it's another
grape variety that you know with the blind men and
the elephant theory. Just because you have one, it's going
to be completely different somewhere else, actually be a uniform. Well,
I get excited about you also, and this is more
(31:36):
common in Oregon. Is your reasling. You have one old
Highland vineyard reasling in the mcmnville subaba and reasoning and
Pinot greer and then followed by shardonay. Are the strongest
white grapes in Oregon? Tell us about your reasoning.
Speaker 5 (31:55):
Yeah, I love making our reasling. So these are vines
planted in nineteen seventy two. They're still unrooted. They're just
these like you know, the mangled, gnarly looking vines, and
it's amazing the amount of crop that they'll still put on.
And I try to be pretty hands off from all
the way from the beginning through to the finish. Right,
(32:16):
I'll go out, we'll make sure that there's like, you know,
pretty good air leaf removal on those vines, and I
will get all the way through pina water harvest and
then you're like, there's one more thing that we need
to make sure that we're going to sample, and we'll
shoot out there. I like a little bit of atritis
in it, just to like give some more character. We
(32:38):
hand sort it, we go direct to press tank, ferment
it with a couple of barrels. And for me, I
just like that is those vines are so special that
it's just I need to back away from that and
let them express what they're going to express, because man,
they put out some really beautiful characteristics. And the only
(32:59):
thing that I think I need to do is make
sure that we're balancing that acid. Because they're so old,
they're not accumulating a lot of sugar. They're certainly not
dropping dropping their acid, so we just need to you know,
we're just trying to hit that like one to one
ratio on the palette to make sure that it's a
nice cris balance aromatic white. I love making that wine
(33:24):
so much.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
I find that the reasonings that we've tasted in both
Oregon and Washington State are just incredible. We had the
Echolens was another one we had that we were whoa,
you know, it was like great, and that's wala walla.
You know what's nice about your reasoning? And you know,
it's got so many flavors that go well with the
(33:45):
kind of foods that we like. We're Asian Asian flavors
and of course where we live, agent and Cajun for sure.
So you know you've got the credible pear and ginger
and honeysuckle and just just it's a terrific wine. And
reasoning is another wine where you know you taste one,
you're going on about that, you keep going and keep
tasting because styles are going different, and obviously the cool
(34:08):
of the climate for me personally, the greater the reasoning potential,
so really awesome. You also sent us a Vina, which
I happened to love. Vin. I happen to love the
vna from the northern Rome. Tell us about that, because
vna is that a commonly grown parati, not at all?
I was.
Speaker 3 (34:27):
Remember we were talking about that at dinner. Yeah, and
you were like.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
Yeah, you know, come through. It was a ringer. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (34:38):
It's our biggest production white wine we make. Yeah, we
make about twelve hundred cases of it. And it really
was like rooted in a multitude.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
Then.
Speaker 5 (34:48):
We've been making it since I think two thousand and
Lynn didn't want to do Peinogree because so many people
were doing mediocre Peinogree and so she wanted to put
her flag somewhere else, a different white wine. And we
were doing surraw at the time and there was definitely
co fermentations.
Speaker 4 (35:04):
Happening, and then the Vienna program took off.
Speaker 5 (35:08):
It's a white wine that you don't get a lot of,
but it was growing in southern Oregon and it grows
in the Hood River Gorge and we had sites in
both locations. And so it's been like a huge staple
for Penarash and I don't know if it's still the case,
but for a while there, and we might still be.
We are the largest producers of vienna in the state
(35:28):
of Oregon. Wow.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
Well it was a delightful line. And I remember talking
about how nice is talking about how nice the acidity
was in it as well, because a lot of times,
especially in the Rown, you get that are thick and
yeah right, viscous and whatnot, and this was too, Yeah exactly,
this has a real nice acidity to it, a nice
(35:51):
fight to it.
Speaker 5 (35:52):
It's also great with Asian food and perhaps Cajun food.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Sometimes so a little Mexican or are the food Middle
East around the boldest favors.
Speaker 5 (36:04):
It's like any I mean, I love both of those
wines because we can use them here for any seafood
dishes we're doing, or if we have anything that's spicy
or Asian and and reasoning even it's what I do
for our dessert course.
Speaker 4 (36:17):
It's like a little bit of cheese and some reasoning
and call it a day.
Speaker 3 (36:23):
And we had a couple of those. Well, yeah, I
want to talk about obviously the Peano No our program
is big. You make a lot of them. It's a
little daunting to go through your website and see all
of the different types of and a lot of them
are vineyard oriented. But you have a program called the
POD which you make both white and peano and our
(36:44):
out of. So let's talk about that. Why don't you
define that for us and tell our our viewers what
the POD non program is and.
Speaker 4 (36:52):
Yeah, picture, yeah, So the pot and nome.
Speaker 5 (36:57):
Well, to go back, our blend process here at Panarash
is pretty rigorous. So, as you mentioned, we make fourteen
different pino nowars, twelve which are single vineyards, and so
we taste every individual barrel in the cellar. We're a
team of four and everybody has an equal voice at
(37:19):
the table, and so we taste each of those barrels from.
Speaker 4 (37:23):
The single vineyards and we score them.
Speaker 5 (37:25):
And if there's this really truly stand out barrel, then
it gets the score that puts it as a It
flags it for this Potinom blend.
Speaker 4 (37:34):
And it doesn't mean that the whole barrel will go
towards POTINOM.
Speaker 5 (37:36):
It means I usually pull about fifteen gallons out of
that barrel and I'll work with that to make this blend.
But it has to speak to you in some way,
and whether or not it's you know, oh my god,
the oak aromas or the fruit, or there's something aromatically
that's just like I there's like a for me, there's
like a like a feeling, like that kind of gut,
like you hit that glass and you're like that one
(37:59):
that is speaking to me in whatever way. Sometimes it's
a palette related thing. It doesn't have to be all
of those characteristics. It just needs to be something. And so,
you know, you go around the table and then there's
a lot of Excel spreadsheets and I keep a running
tab of all of those barrels that have been flagged
for Potinome. And so while we're currently blending up the
(38:23):
single vineyard, we're also simultaneously blending up that Potinome. And
it's you know, for it's basically our reserve wine, right
it is the upper tier of our wine program. And
contrary to like normal belief of reserve wines, this wine
(38:43):
I need it to have this delicacy and this nuance.
I want it to dance across the palette. It still
needs to carry breath and weight and depth and a
purity of fruit, but I want.
Speaker 4 (38:55):
It to not do that. Heavily want it to do it.
Speaker 5 (39:00):
So you're getting that lasting, lingering finish, but with like
kind of this like purity to the whole process. And
so that's what I'm looking for as we're going through
all these barrels and we're curating this process, this this blend,
and it will come down to the finites. Like we
start with blend A, we've totally gone into like double A,
(39:23):
double B, double C with a five gallon difference of
like a single barrel or whatever it is. So that's
how both of these pot blends are put together. It's
a very daunting task for the pino because you're frequently
talking about six hundred barrels that can be a candidate
for this program. That is one hundred and fifty cases.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
Yeah, that's a lot of barrels.
Speaker 3 (39:49):
Small production, so so still still good for the wines
that don't make it into the blend.
Speaker 6 (39:53):
And the blend changes every visit blend, right, it's always yep,
it's always tasted blind. So there's no like, yes, there's
not specific vineyards, and it's like I can't express enough
how much you know. Yeah, I'm the winemaker at the
end of the day, and if it really comes down
to a hard decision, of course I'm making those hard decisions.
Speaker 5 (40:13):
But it is a group. It is a team effort
to make this. We all have a say in it.
And I think that's always really important too, because when
we get to the blending in the cellar, that wine
is the biggest headache. That wine will go into ten
different tanks to start with before it becomes its final blend,
if not fifteen different tanks. I mean, it is a
(40:33):
true labor of love, and so I feel like there
has to be some pretty good buy in from the
staff that's actually.
Speaker 4 (40:41):
Carrying out all the racking.
Speaker 2 (40:42):
And you do a pot of peanut war and shardenay,
I love them, say dance across the palate because I
think it's.
Speaker 6 (40:48):
Pot of do I've never heard that before.
Speaker 2 (40:51):
That's I should call it no name, no name. Very
lovely and what a special wine, limited production. So but
it's very pricey. I don't know what the price is
on it. Yeah, yeah, one hundred and forty so for
the range, and we have about three minutes left, so
(41:15):
for the range of pino noirs, because there's so many
we you know, for someone who wants what we call
that not the entry level, but yeah, the entry level
pino noir for pan or ash take us through maybe
like three that you would take you know, as you progress.
Speaker 5 (41:32):
Yeah, I mean for me, it's has a lot to
do with about palette. Right, So our friendship wine is
the Willamette Valley, so that is your sort of entry level.
And I think that one's just an incredible represented. I mean,
it's so cool that we have so many different sites,
so it's like a real snapshot of vintage and the
Willlammette Valley, right, So I think that's incredible. And then
(41:52):
it has so much to do with who your consumer is.
Speaker 6 (41:55):
Right.
Speaker 5 (41:56):
How many times have we heard the person come into
the tasting room and they say, I don't drink pino noir.
Speaker 4 (42:00):
I only drink cabernet. Right, I have something for.
Speaker 5 (42:04):
You from the Ribbon Ridge ava or the m Hill
Carlton ava, or you have the burgundy you know, lover.
And for me, that's when I say, I have this
elev A. It tends to be a little lighter, it
leans a little bit more in that direction. So I
think that's like the beauty of having so many different pinos, right,
(42:27):
is that everybody who walks into our tasting room hopefully
we find at least one, if not multiple single vineyards
that they can gravitate to and love as you know,
as much as I do. I like all of our
little babies, but they're not for everybody.
Speaker 2 (42:43):
Ell of a. Another dance term relevant alive is it
would be a burgundy lover. And then how would you
describe the Zena Crown vineyard for someone who comes in
and says, how would you describe this style?
Speaker 5 (42:57):
Yeah, I mean I would put it in that like
slightly bigger. It's not as big as perhaps our ridge
crust or our bramble hill, but you're definitely getting some
firm tannins in there. But I love that there is
like this inherent sweetness and this really nice.
Speaker 4 (43:09):
Acid profile to it.
Speaker 5 (43:10):
It's you know, it's definitely got a lower pH higher
acidity than some of our northern sites. So I put
it in that like it's like right in the middle
of the road, right, You're not like that real big
you know, and you're not in the like delicate Lva camp.
Speaker 4 (43:27):
You're right there in the center.
Speaker 5 (43:28):
And I find that if I do like a side
both our estate and our Zena Crown, or in the market,
if I do a side by side of those, frequently
the Zena Crown is the one that is like the
easiest for people to go that I'd love that wine.
It's just not that they don't feel that way about
both of them, but there is an inherent sweetness that
(43:50):
I think just attracts like all levels of consumer.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
So this is a pino and one for all palates,
and this is a great way to close. You can
visit Penorash and you offer tours and tasting so that
you can your customers and your gas can experience it.
Give us an example of a tasting experience.
Speaker 5 (44:10):
Yeah, so we actually have three different tasting experiences. We
have one that you can just come up to the bar,
walk in.
Speaker 4 (44:18):
You'll get.
Speaker 5 (44:21):
Four purse and then some bonus pores depending on where
you know your palette leads you. So our tasting staff
kind of like reads the room and then we'll do
some bonus pores. Or you can do a sit down
tasting in our original tasting room, which is absolutely lovely.
You get a full view of Mount Hood and Mount
Jefferson and the valley and that I believe is five
(44:42):
different pinots. Again, you'll get some pores to curate where
your palette goes. And then we have the legacy tasting,
which is the pavilion where I am, and that is
a full like two hours sit down and there's some
paired yet little paired bites with it, and you'll get
some library stuff in that. So that's a fun it's
like more educational. So each each level is a little
(45:05):
bit more educational. Our staff here is absolutely incredible. You
know the history of this winery and the wines that
we're making.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
And yeah, so these are all obviously paid tasting experiences
because it's expensive to do these. You give a love
way a lot of wine otherwise for the for the
Legacy tasting, which is ninety per person or fifty per
Clement Wroe. I'm looking at your website. Sorry, yep, yeah,
is there a minimum? Is there a minimum number of
(45:30):
people to do that? Okay, I don't believe so nope, book,
I thank you. Any level of guests can come in
for that. Yep, Okay, that's good to know. So all
of these are available to study, which I was just
doing reaching across at we have three computers in front
of it. Of course, you the website panorash dot com
(45:52):
where you can learn more about the winery, the story.
There's some beautiful photos and how to visit and taste
and join the community. Hey, Kate, it was really great
to finally see you on likewise, yeah, next time, next time? Yeah,
right for me, at least in person. You got to
(46:12):
meet you in person, but in Oregon. That's right in
Orgon you guys coming in New Orleans. Thank you. We
love it when personal appearances in New Orleans. What makes
us happy.
Speaker 3 (46:23):
We did have a good time.
Speaker 5 (46:24):
Yeah, it was so much fun. I hope to go
back and do that event event again next year.
Speaker 3 (46:28):
A lot to let us, let us know if you
come to town. We're always here and hopefully we'll get
to see you out at pen or Ash one day.
That'll be fun.
Speaker 5 (46:36):
Yeah, you guys, if you make it up here, please
reach out.
Speaker 4 (46:38):
I would love to see you.
Speaker 2 (46:39):
We're trying anyway. You've been listening to another edition of
The Connected Table Live. We hope that this has stoked
your appetite to travel each drink, explore, and be inspired
to step out of your wine tasting comfort zone and
try new wines or a favorite of great varietal from
the other style. Just get out there and do it,
(47:02):
because it's a wonderful world of wine and food and
you should enjoy it. You only live once, so we
as we close this and we get ready to enter
Marti Gras here in New Orleans, we always want you,
our followers, fans, and Kate to stay insatiably curious
The topics and opinions express in the following show are
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make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services,
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(00:20):
choosing W FOURCY Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Hello and welcome to the Connected Table Live where your
hosts Melanie Young and David Ransom. You're insatiably curious culinary couple.
We like to travel the world and today the US
virtually to bring you the places we meet and people
we meet, and the wines we like to drink and
foods we like to eat, because we want you to
get out there and eat, drink, being inspired and explore
(01:05):
with us. So today we're going to Oregon. Now, I'll
be honest, I've only been to Oregon once and that
was to the Columbia River Gorge. So this is going
to be an exploration of a place I want to go,
which is the Willamette Valley. Do you hear that Oregon Wineboard?
And when I think of Oregon, I think of two things, David,
And you tell me what you think. I think of
(01:25):
amazing pino noir wines amazing and mushrooms and how great
they go together.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
What about you, David, Well, definitely pino noir, willam At
Valley and Portland and the beautiful coast as well.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
I've been.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
There's lots going on there.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
James Beard, he's from Oregon, he was from Organ.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
James Beard is from Oregon. But today we're going to
talk about what we are.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
So we're setting it up because Oregon is a beautiful
place in the Northwest that everybody should visit, and it's
got a lot of diversity to it, and a lot
of my friends who have gone and lived there love
it for vacationing, but of course everybody really likes to
also go to explore wines. And we're taking you to
one of the most renowned regions of Oregon's Ava's the
(02:10):
Willamette Valley. It's actually very large region running north to south.
And we're going to talk with Kate Ayres, who is
the winemaker for Penner Ash which was established in nineteen
ninety eight by Lynn and Ron penner Ash in the
northern Willamett Valley in the Yamhill Carlton Ava. That makes
(02:31):
Lynn one of the early pioneers, along with some other
amazing women who helped create the Oregon wine movement. They
have since become part of the Jackson family wine portfolio.
I think that was in twenty sixteen. And you had
the opportunity to sit down with Kate when she made
(02:51):
a market visit to New Orleans for dinner. I sadly
had to miss it.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
We had a lovely hedonistic meal.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Yeah, and our next stop will be going to Pennorash
to visit. But if you look, there he is and
we bring the Wyemaker for Penarash on our show. Now,
Kate Airs, welcome.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
Thank you, thank you for having me, good morning.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
And that's the beautiful inside of Pennarash.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
Yes.
Speaker 5 (03:20):
So this is our pavilion where you can do a
private seated tasting.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Yes, which we're going to talk about the first We
always like to talk about you. Hey, you were born
and raised in Oregon. What was that like? What's it
like to be born and raised in Oregon? What are
some of your childhood memories and what you like to
eat and drink and paw'd you like to play?
Speaker 5 (03:38):
Yeah, I'm a rare fifth generation Oregonian. So the Aris
Broadway families have been here for quite some time, and
I grew up on the North Coast. My dad is
an avid fisherman. We did a lot of mushroom hunting,
speaking to mushrooms. So I spent a lot of time
on the water, whether that was playing fishing, crabbing, clamming,
(04:02):
but we also spend a lot of time like water skiing,
and I had family over the mountains and the Bend area,
so the Cascade Lakes are near and dear to me.
I mean, I think of it as my child as
being pretty picturesque and also like very coastal organ It
was a tiny little town. I graduated with nineties students.
My teachers in high school knew me from the day
(04:23):
I was born. So it's a very very tight knit
community in a very very different world than what I
ended up, you know, when I finally went off to college.
But it was magical. The coast was amazing. It was
really spectacular.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
The pictures I used to see that in some of
the James spired books. The very high look like cliffs
and dunes just incredible.
Speaker 5 (04:47):
The coasts, it's so gorgeous, and it changes so much
from the southern coast all the way up to the
northern coast. And even now, you know, I'm twenty years
out of graduating and the coastline has changed so dramatically.
I mean, it's really phenomenal watching those weather patterns.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
So originally, what were you planning to do with your
wife before you decided to go into wine or did you? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (05:14):
I did not.
Speaker 5 (05:14):
Wine was not like a huge thing. I mean, my
parents drank wine as like a casual beverage, but it
was not something that was focused or talked about in
my family. I wanted to be a vet My dad
was like, really, we always had dogs, and he was really,
for whatever reason, anytime we went to the pet story,
frequently came back with an additional animal. And we had
(05:38):
chickens and I had a goose, we had a duck,
and I just wanted to be a veterinarian. I mean,
from the time I was three years old, that's what
I remembered that I wanted to do. My aunt was
a vetech. She took me around working on large animals.
So it was like my mission to go through high
school and do what I needed to do to get
into UC Davis. Right, that was the place to go. Oh,
(06:00):
it was the thing I wanted to do. I'd never
thought about another career. I never really looked at any
other university like that was the spot to go. When
I landed there and I started taking my classes and probably,
like a lot of kids that think they want to
be a vet, you realize there's a lot of terrible
(06:21):
things about being a vet. And I really just want
to like nurture and foster my edibals at home, and
I love doing that. I've always had a dog. But
I did not want to go down that career path.
And it was, you know, it's a long pre vet
and then vet school, you know, for the next four years,
and I needed a career change, and I literally stumbled
(06:45):
into wine making. I was looking through the course book,
you know, I was an out of state kid paying
a lot of tuition, and I was like, oh, UC
Davis is really really well known for this like viticulture
and anology program. Who knew that that was a possible
job opportunity. And I took my first course, and I
never turned back. I was like, Holy moly, I can
(07:09):
travel the world. I can eat and I can drink,
and I can see all these other cultures and meet
all these other people. I mean, it's just like the
whole world opened up. You're talking about this like small
town girl. I'd been to the Czech Republic and that
was about the only place I'd ever been.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
We've never been to the Czech Yeah, as I've learned
from the Olympics, like where's Chechia? I just saw marching
in the parade.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
It was a beautiful country.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
So long, a long, long way from veterinary to did
a culture.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
It starts with the letter, is it. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:47):
Unfortunately it starts with the same coursework, so it was
an easy transition to make.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
That's good. So tell us about your tell us about
your job trajectory then, because I think you've worked in
California obviously because's where you went to school. You also
did some time overseas and then came back and worked
in Oregon. So yeah, yeah, trajectory. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (08:08):
I took the fall quarder of my junior year off
from Davis, and I worked for cake bread sellers. I
really just wanted to solidify that this was the course
that I wanted to take with my life. And thank
goodness I did, because, oh my god, I just fell
in love with the people I worked for and fell
in love with the job. I was so excited to
go back and finish.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
My coursework at Davis.
Speaker 5 (08:30):
So I worked for cake Bread in six and eight
while I was going to school, and then when I
graduated in two thousand and eight, I what did I do?
I went to New Zealand and I worked in the
South Island of New Zealand doing some pretty big production
stuff there. But we had a astro lab and Jules
Taylor were making wine in the same facility, so I
(08:53):
was able to really focus on the pinot from those companies.
And I knew at that point that I wanted to
do peanut. Oh that was definitely a focus of mine.
So that was great.
Speaker 4 (09:03):
And then.
Speaker 5 (09:05):
The fall of two thousand and nine, I went to
Portugal and I worked in the Alanasia region of Portugal.
I had met, I'd worked with some you know, this
is how the wine world works, right, I'd worked with
some other fellow Portuguese, stayed in contact and went and
worked there. That was just an incredible experience because you're
working in a completely totally different ballgame. Right You're going
(09:27):
from cake Bread Cellars, who was very well funded and
elaborate and beautiful and making these beautiful, gorgeous cabernets, and
then you go to Portugal where you don't necessarily have
heating and cooling and other systems in place, so you
learn making wine differently.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
Which is a difficulty in alent Taju in the summertime when.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
It's one hundred degrees that is exactly the case.
Speaker 5 (09:50):
And then after Portugal, I came back and I worked
for Bethel Heights here in Oregon, and after that I
went to the Barossa in Australa. Yeah, and after Australia,
I was pretty much done living out of a backpack
and realized I needed to kind of buckle down and
maybe find a real job and look for health benefits.
(10:13):
And I was really hoping to be here in Oregon,
but it was twenty eleven at that point and there
were not a lot of job opportunities, and so I
found the analogeous position at the Hess Collection and I
started with them in the fall of twenty eleven, and
by the summer of twenty twelve, I moved up to
associate winemaker and was running one of their facilities, and
(10:36):
then I just kind of bided my time. I had
a really great time. I loved working for Dave Guffey,
he was so wonderful. But I really had my eyes
up in Oregon and I had stayed in contact with
Ben Castiel over at Bethel Heights, and I got the
phone call that Lynn Penarash was quietly looking for an
assistant winemaker, and so I submitted my resume and here
(10:58):
I am today.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
So so Lynn was the wine is was the wine maker.
Is she evolved still or are they.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
She is not?
Speaker 5 (11:07):
No, So they sold in twenty sixteen, and I came
on as associate winemaker at that point. In twenty eighteen,
I got promoted up to winemaker as Lynn slowly started
tapering back her time at the winery, and by yeah,
it was a beautiful transition. She was there for support,
but she was not there. She allowed me to blossom
(11:31):
on my own and take over this facility by myself,
and by harvest of twenty twenty one was the last
harvest that she, you know, was kind of there in
the periphery if and when I needed her.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Well, it's interesting, you know, obviously as a founder it's
hard to let go, but she was also an opportunity
to mentor and share wisdom. What did you learn from her?
What were some things you learned knowing that you were
happily back working predominantly with Pino no Mair, which you
said you wanted to do.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
Absolutely.
Speaker 5 (12:02):
Yeah, you know, it was such a When I was
hired by Lynn, I knew that this was the future path,
right if everything went according to plan, And of course
the first Harvest I walked in, it was just a
complete whirlwind. And she's driving me all over the valley
and we have eighteen different sites that we're working with
and we're chatting during that time, and it was a lot.
(12:25):
But she just took me through it step by step
and worked with me and at the end of the day,
over the five years that we got to work together,
I think the biggest takeaways from her was she let
me become my own person. She was very to let
go of a brand that has your name on it
and give that off to somebody else is a that's
(12:48):
got to be a huge act, and it was big
shoes to fill. But she never made me feel like
she didn't have all of the faith in the entire
world in me to take over this project, and she
allowed me the breath to make it my own. You know,
I slowly started changing barrel programs. I have a lot
(13:08):
of my wine making is true to Linn, but she
gave me the ability to have my own voice. And
she also taught me to like really like believe my
gut instinct when I'm tasting. My palate got infant. It was.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
It's so much.
Speaker 5 (13:24):
Bigger and broader, and my knowledge is so much greater
on the back of lind But she gave me that
ability to have that own like, you know, I have
that confidence in myself.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
That's really terrifict. So you know, you became promoted to
main wine maker. Other like with the kitchen, there's like
level levels, you know, yes from you know, intern and
stars to call me to this and that and similar
in one So I'm curious again, I've never been to
(13:56):
the Well Meant Valley, but this is a big area.
I'm looking at the map. You've got a lot of
different venyard for people who've never been. Let's kind of
set up the geographical aspects of what is this specific
area because there's a lot going on, a lot of
sub abvs, and it's like many growing areas is north
(14:19):
to south, so there's going to be a lot of
microclimates in there. It is west of the Cascades, correct.
Speaker 5 (14:27):
It is west of the Cascades, yes, Yeah, which is
important for Oregon.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Penorash is in the northern area in yeahmil Carlton Aba
and you have it looks like eighteen you said vineyards.
How are they all different from a microclimate standpoint? And
then we'll obviously talk about the wines and how that
they shape themselves because they express the Pino NOI really
expresses itself based on this.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (14:53):
So all of our vineyards are in the far northern
tip of the Williamte Valley, which is where the bulk
of the wineries are nestled. And when I think about
each of our sub abas and the vineyards within them,
it's really interesting about Oregon. Or there's these so many
aspects and rolling hills you're not you know, I think
(15:15):
about Napa and you have that very clear. You have
Highway twenty nine and you have the Silverado Trail to
run north and south. Right right, you got hills on
either side and a bunch of bench land. And here
there are so many different hills. So I am on
you know, one tip of the Yamhill Carlton, it's like
a horseshoe, and we're on the eastern side of that
(15:37):
versus the western side, which butts up against the coastal mountains.
So my portion of Yamhill Carlton is very very warm.
We tend to be earlier ripening, earlier bud break. We
lean pretty hard into those sort of like darker fruits, bigger,
firmer tannins. And the ribbon ridge Ava is right next
(16:00):
to me, nestled within the Shahala Mountains, and those also
tend to really leans. It's protected, and they tend to
lean into those darker, bigger tannins, boulder wines. But you know,
from my tasing room, I'm looking at the Dundee Hills
and it is an extremely protected hilltop, very very early ripening.
(16:22):
It's always my first fruit that I pull off. But
then you are getting the red, earthy notes, right, You're
getting all of that like jewelry soil. So those are
the spiced red fruits that are coming out of those
vineyard sites. McMinnville is the coldest of our abas. It's
the closest to the coastline. For me, those are my
(16:45):
later sites. They tend to have lower pH, higher acidity.
I get those like white pepper, you know, different spiced notes.
And then you go down to Eolamite and even though
it's the southern you have that Vandoozer corridor coming in,
so there's so many winds. So that's a very late
sight for me. It's one of my last picks. The
skins are tougher because of all those wind events. I
(17:07):
tend to retain acid quite well. And then you get
those lovely like blue fruited floral notes and all of
these vineyards. You know, you're only talking about forty five
minutes between each of these zones. We're we're not super
far distances, but they do make a pretty big difference
in your weather patterns. And the Shehala Mountains in the
(17:29):
same way, like there is a certain exposure to these
and when Lynn was originally you know, building our Willamotte
Valley program, it was really really important that we had
all of these different sub avas, and we haven't had
weather patterns like you know, historically but there have been
years where you know, the Dundee Hills will be wiped
out from a hailstorm, right, and we have that, like
(17:53):
we have these other vineyards that we're working from that
maybe we're protected just because of how the weather patterns
work up here in organ It's.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Kind of like having a financial portfolio.
Speaker 4 (18:02):
Yeah, exactly, diversified.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
Diversify, I mean it really is quite diversified, and and
and and and the wines are uh a state wines,
very vinyard driven. Yeah, which is is that singular to
pentaraster or typical of the producers in Oregon.
Speaker 5 (18:26):
And we're a rarity with how big our portfolio is
with single vineyards. There's a couple of other brands that
do a similar model, but it's not yet.
Speaker 4 (18:38):
It's an exception, it's certainly not the rule.
Speaker 5 (18:40):
And yeah, I would say actually quite a few producers,
you know, there's a lot of producers that own their
own land and then they'll make different bottlings out of
their their own holdings. So we are, yeah, we are abnormal,
and that we don't Actually we only have a fifteen
acre Penerash originally only had the fifteen acre parcel that
(19:02):
our winery sits on and everything else was purchased fruit
that of course changed with the addition of Jackson.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Family, so everything that was a state.
Speaker 5 (19:12):
No, we still buy about half of our fruit. But
we had historically made a Xena Crown wine see and
it's always been part of our portfolio, and Barbara Banky
purchased that in twenty thirteen. So then when we joined
in twenty sixteen, I got quite a bit more access
to that vineyard, which is great.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
What's interesting because I think, I think why this is
important is that it's I call it the blind Men
and the Elephant theory of business and life. So if
somebody goes out and borders a pan or ash peanut
and water state wine, that wine may be different to
them than say the pen or Ash zena crap or
(19:56):
the pan which we're going to get into, or the
pen or Ash lava, which we lucky because you send
them all to us. And it's not just you know,
it's like everything in life. If somebody says, oh, I'm
not a big fan of work and pino and r well,
which one did you try? And from what aba? And
you know what vintage is it? So again, as we
always say, open up your eyes and your mind, your
(20:17):
palate because the wine you tasted last week at dinner
that you were like, it's okay, I don't know, try
another one, because you may just go, wow, this is
great from another area, right, And I think that's important
to understand that they're all nuanced. Which brings me to
Pino and War. You liked working with Pino and War.
How is it different from working with say Cabernet.
Speaker 5 (20:39):
Yeah, I mean, you know, I feel like this is
a story that everybody who makes pino says, but.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
It really doesn't.
Speaker 5 (20:50):
You can't hide anything from growing it in the vineyard
all the way through the wine making process. Right, you
have to be so on top of what you're doing,
especially organ with your vineyard practices. We are we have
a finite season, we have rain, we have mildew, we
have betritis, we have all the yummy good things.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
And when you have.
Speaker 5 (21:13):
Those things, you also need to be cautious of it
when you're bringing into the winery.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Right.
Speaker 5 (21:17):
So for me, I think if Pino noir is just like, yes,
it's a finicky grape. It's a grape that you have
to sort of coddle all the way through. But if
you're really really careful with it, and you're very mindful
and your practices are good, it will yield these incredible,
beautiful results. And it makes a big difference where it
is grown, a huge difference of where it's coming from.
(21:40):
And that's not to say that cabernet is like a
piece of cake, and of course cabernet is very different
depending on where you're growing it. But you can also
kind of beat cab up and still walk out at
the end with this excellent product. Right, it can just
it can take so much more. You know, nobody wants
(22:01):
a bunch of oxygen on their wine, but you definitely
can't be exposing pino noir to any any amount of
O two. Right, it will completely adjust your wine. So
I think for me, like from the moment I saw it,
We're working at cake Bread. It was a very small
pino wire production at the time, but all of a sudden,
I'm looking over there and I'm like, there's these tiny,
little open top fer mentors that seem to be treated
(22:24):
differently than these much bigger, closed top for mentors that
are just kind of getting pumpovers five times a day. Right,
you're just manipulating it so much.
Speaker 4 (22:34):
So I like that.
Speaker 5 (22:35):
I think it really like tests me as a winemaker.
It tests my team, like we have to be so
diligent at what we're doing and the nuances of a pino.
I love that. That's the art form, right, That's that's
what brings me joy when I'm making it.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
Great explanation, it really is really nice.
Speaker 5 (22:53):
You know.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
One of the things I was we talked about at
dinner was you talk about the different climates and the
different zones and whatnot, but also the geography comes into
play a lot, and the soil types come into play
a lot, because all those different regions vineyard sites that
you have, they're all they all have different geography, and
they have different soil types that they that they that
the grapes grow, and so those bring in different characters
(23:16):
to the wine when it's made as well.
Speaker 5 (23:18):
Absolutely, I mean I think of shay basically like envelops.
The Panarasha State Vineyard and our State Vineyard is largely sedimentary,
but we have this giant volcanic strip running through it,
and this is this volcanic matter that came from the
Cascades so many millions years ago. Shavinyard doesn't have that
it is largely sedimentary, and so the fruit profile is
(23:40):
off of these two vineyards for a multitude of reasons,
but that's certainly one of them.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Well, you know, that's it's so funny. You hear volcanic
and I think a lot of people don't realize that
there is volcanic activity. Was volcanic activity up through the
western coast of the United States, the ridge that's part
of the Ring. Yeah, a lot of people I know that.
Speaking of I'm I'm curious. You worked in New Zealand
and it is at astrolab Is that in Central Otago
(24:09):
or somewhere else I've never been.
Speaker 5 (24:11):
Well, so we were up in Marlborough, but we had
grapes coming in from Central Otago and being shipped up.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
So how would you, to someone that is curious, describe
the characteristics of a New Zealand pino noir to Oregon
pine and noir to the classic Burgundy pino no war
And I know there's other growing regions. I mean, there's
perfiquence in so Noma, But how would you characterize the
nuances differences?
Speaker 5 (24:37):
Yeah, I mean, I've of course consumed way more organ
pino than all of the above and I wish I drank.
I wish I had a deeper history of Burgundy. But
for me, my like inherent feeling is that there is
Burgundyese tend to be like earthier and little more rustic
(25:00):
for me, like they their body is different, the oak
profile seems different, and there's a rusticity to those wines.
New Zealand and Oregon I think traditionally have shared a
little bit more similarity and that they're definitely the New
Zealand seems a little bit more lighter in style, especially
in respect to the Penarash Bin Penarash makes pretty like
(25:25):
uh layered deep wines. But I think we both tend
to be very like fruit driven with kind of like
those red, sort of warm spiced notes that seems a
little fresher, for lack of a better term, than what
I think of when I think of Burgundy.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Well, I think I agree with you. We had the
rare pleasure of going to Burgundy with an importer and
so it was my first foot and getting to drink
a lot of it, and my immediate reaction was love.
I love the wines versusly they have astereurity to an
elegant austerity and a mushroomy quality. That that's the earth
(26:10):
The earthiness is a mushroomy I feel like I'm crunching
the leaves their little punchy And that's I think is
what you mean by the rusticity. I don't know if
you agree to it. And then when I taste your wines,
I get I get more spice and fruit, I get
a different type of earth fruit and spice, more along
the lines of New Zealand. I've never been to New Zealand,
(26:32):
so and I haven't had enough of the New Zealand
pani anomirs to go further on that. But and then
California and the Sonoma much different in terms of more
fruit and more you know location. Yeah, but it's interesting
because are our burgundy producers who have invested in Oregon
(26:54):
as well as South Africa, and Hamilton Russell invested in
We're going to think in the will of the Valley
they make a beautiful pino noir also in uh in
South Africa. If you ever have to trust it's it's
more in the in the style of the French style.
It's really quickly. Yeah, they do some good stuff. Yeah,
(27:17):
So you know, pino and noir could be around the world.
But it's a very particular grape with a distinct personality
that needs to be coddled and too. You know, it's
like it's not an ugly duckling, but it's like that
child that needs to have a lot of grooming in and.
Speaker 5 (27:34):
It's like you don't want to be two hands on
with it because you don't want to manipulate it, right,
you need to just keep a watchful eye through the
whole life cycle of that wine.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Interesting, well, Dot, we talk about some of the wines
we you know, we've been talking about pino.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
Why don't we talk about you talk a little bit
about some of the whites that you make, because.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Actually, great segue.
Speaker 5 (27:55):
You know, the.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
Willamett Valley is also a great place for shardenay and
a couple of other grapes as well, and make a
few whites along with the many pino no wars that
you get point, So let's do that again. Chardonnay is
a good starting point because it's one of the two
signature grapes I think in that in war in the
in thee.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
Yeah, yep, yeah, so Shardonay.
Speaker 5 (28:20):
The history of penarash, I mean, you know, so I
had said I worked for the host Collection for five years.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
I of course made a lot of shardonnay.
Speaker 5 (28:28):
They are an enormous amount of it, and I did
not love it anymore.
Speaker 4 (28:36):
I really didn't.
Speaker 5 (28:37):
But in twenty seventeen Jackson family, of course deeply rooted
in shardonnay, approached me and they were like, we'd really
like Penarash to start a shardenay program. And when had
like famously said Panarash would never put shardonay in a bottle,
But here we are today making sharnay.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
Are you liking it?
Speaker 5 (28:58):
I am, Actually I think we're and chardonnais are incredible.
I think it really like reinvigorated what shardenay can be.
You know, there's just so much acidity and austerity and
minerality to the chardonnaise up here, and I think that, like,
I'm still finding where I want to be with the
(29:19):
chardonnay here at Penarash, but I like where we're going.
And it's taken. It's taken a lot of years. Right
Like when I started the program, I went around and
I tasted barrels with other producers that I loved, and
I picked their brains and we've bounced around where we've
bought and purchase grapes from. But I like our direction.
(29:41):
You know, it's it's generally pretty low impact oak. There's
not a we make three different chardonnaise now. So the
Lammett Valley is the one you'll see out in the world,
and it definitely has a little bit more oak. It
definitely has that like weight and texture and balance that
I think of an arpino.
Speaker 4 (29:57):
Nowars that we're kind of mirroring that.
Speaker 5 (30:00):
And then we have a pot ofome and now a
single vineyard one that are a little brighter and for me,
like there's a focus and like a minerality to those wines.
And I incorporated concrete eggs and I started using porcelain eggs.
So it's been a program that I've been working on
for eight years now, which you know, when I say
(30:21):
eight years, it feels like a long time, but in
learning what you're doing, it's actually really.
Speaker 4 (30:27):
Not that long.
Speaker 5 (30:27):
And I like that it has given some creative like
it's like, what are we going to do this year?
Let's do something wild and zany. And we sent one
of our employees to Giant Steps down in Australia and
she came back and she was like, hey, they make
chardonnay in this way and I think it's really good.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
Let's try it. And so we did.
Speaker 5 (30:48):
We went from press directly into barrel and let it
go native fermentation, ripped through primary and secondary. It's a
great wine. It's something I streuss me out.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
And probably something you don't make a lot of either.
Speaker 5 (31:04):
There was not a lot of control, but man, we
learned something, and so I think that was really cool.
So it's been a it's been a really it's been
a fun program to very slowly build.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
Well chardonnay is so the impact of the winemaker is
so seen in shardonnay and style. And again it's another
grape variety that you know with the blind men and
the elephant theory. Just because you have one, it's going
to be completely different somewhere else, actually be a uniform. Well,
I get excited about you also, and this is more
(31:36):
common in Oregon. Is your reasling. You have one old
Highland vineyard reasling in the mcmnville subaba and reasoning and
Pinot greer and then followed by shardonay. Are the strongest
white grapes in Oregon? Tell us about your reasoning.
Speaker 5 (31:55):
Yeah, I love making our reasling. So these are vines
planted in nineteen seventy two. They're still unrooted. They're just
these like you know, the mangled, gnarly looking vines, and
it's amazing the amount of crop that they'll still put on.
And I try to be pretty hands off from all
the way from the beginning through to the finish. Right,
(32:16):
I'll go out, we'll make sure that there's like, you know,
pretty good air leaf removal on those vines, and I
will get all the way through pina water harvest and
then you're like, there's one more thing that we need
to make sure that we're going to sample, and we'll
shoot out there. I like a little bit of atritis
in it, just to like give some more character. We
(32:38):
hand sort it, we go direct to press tank, ferment
it with a couple of barrels. And for me, I
just like that is those vines are so special that
it's just I need to back away from that and
let them express what they're going to express, because man,
they put out some really beautiful characteristics. And the only
(32:59):
thing that I think I need to do is make
sure that we're balancing that acid. Because they're so old,
they're not accumulating a lot of sugar. They're certainly not
dropping dropping their acid, so we just need to you know,
we're just trying to hit that like one to one
ratio on the palette to make sure that it's a
nice cris balance aromatic white. I love making that wine
(33:24):
so much.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
I find that the reasonings that we've tasted in both
Oregon and Washington State are just incredible. We had the
Echolens was another one we had that we were whoa,
you know, it was like great, and that's wala walla.
You know what's nice about your reasoning? And you know,
it's got so many flavors that go well with the
(33:45):
kind of foods that we like. We're Asian Asian flavors
and of course where we live, agent and Cajun for sure.
So you know you've got the credible pear and ginger
and honeysuckle and just just it's a terrific wine. And
reasoning is another wine where you know you taste one,
you're going on about that, you keep going and keep
tasting because styles are going different, and obviously the cool
(34:08):
of the climate for me personally, the greater the reasoning potential,
so really awesome. You also sent us a Vina, which
I happened to love. Vin. I happen to love the
vna from the northern Rome. Tell us about that, because
vna is that a commonly grown parati, not at all?
I was.
Speaker 3 (34:27):
Remember we were talking about that at dinner. Yeah, and
you were like.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
Yeah, you know, come through. It was a ringer. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (34:38):
It's our biggest production white wine we make. Yeah, we
make about twelve hundred cases of it. And it really
was like rooted in a multitude.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
Then.
Speaker 5 (34:48):
We've been making it since I think two thousand and
Lynn didn't want to do Peinogree because so many people
were doing mediocre Peinogree and so she wanted to put
her flag somewhere else, a different white wine. And we
were doing surraw at the time and there was definitely
co fermentations.
Speaker 4 (35:04):
Happening, and then the Vienna program took off.
Speaker 5 (35:08):
It's a white wine that you don't get a lot of,
but it was growing in southern Oregon and it grows
in the Hood River Gorge and we had sites in
both locations. And so it's been like a huge staple
for Penarash and I don't know if it's still the case,
but for a while there, and we might still be.
We are the largest producers of vienna in the state
(35:28):
of Oregon. Wow.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
Well it was a delightful line. And I remember talking
about how nice is talking about how nice the acidity
was in it as well, because a lot of times,
especially in the Rown, you get that are thick and
yeah right, viscous and whatnot, and this was too, Yeah exactly,
this has a real nice acidity to it, a nice
(35:51):
fight to it.
Speaker 5 (35:52):
It's also great with Asian food and perhaps Cajun food.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Sometimes so a little Mexican or are the food Middle
East around the boldest favors.
Speaker 5 (36:04):
It's like any I mean, I love both of those
wines because we can use them here for any seafood
dishes we're doing, or if we have anything that's spicy
or Asian and and reasoning even it's what I do
for our dessert course.
Speaker 4 (36:17):
It's like a little bit of cheese and some reasoning
and call it a day.
Speaker 3 (36:23):
And we had a couple of those. Well, yeah, I
want to talk about obviously the Peano No our program
is big. You make a lot of them. It's a
little daunting to go through your website and see all
of the different types of and a lot of them
are vineyard oriented. But you have a program called the
POD which you make both white and peano and our
(36:44):
out of. So let's talk about that. Why don't you
define that for us and tell our our viewers what
the POD non program is and.
Speaker 4 (36:52):
Yeah, picture, yeah, So the pot and nome.
Speaker 5 (36:57):
Well, to go back, our blend process here at Panarash
is pretty rigorous. So, as you mentioned, we make fourteen
different pino nowars, twelve which are single vineyards, and so
we taste every individual barrel in the cellar. We're a
team of four and everybody has an equal voice at
(37:19):
the table, and so we taste each of those barrels from.
Speaker 4 (37:23):
The single vineyards and we score them.
Speaker 5 (37:25):
And if there's this really truly stand out barrel, then
it gets the score that puts it as a It
flags it for this Potinom blend.
Speaker 4 (37:34):
And it doesn't mean that the whole barrel will go
towards POTINOM.
Speaker 5 (37:36):
It means I usually pull about fifteen gallons out of
that barrel and I'll work with that to make this blend.
But it has to speak to you in some way,
and whether or not it's you know, oh my god,
the oak aromas or the fruit, or there's something aromatically
that's just like I there's like a for me, there's
like a like a feeling, like that kind of gut,
like you hit that glass and you're like that one
(37:59):
that is speaking to me in whatever way. Sometimes it's
a palette related thing. It doesn't have to be all
of those characteristics. It just needs to be something. And so,
you know, you go around the table and then there's
a lot of Excel spreadsheets and I keep a running
tab of all of those barrels that have been flagged
for Potinome. And so while we're currently blending up the
(38:23):
single vineyard, we're also simultaneously blending up that Potinome. And
it's you know, for it's basically our reserve wine, right
it is the upper tier of our wine program. And
contrary to like normal belief of reserve wines, this wine
(38:43):
I need it to have this delicacy and this nuance.
I want it to dance across the palette. It still
needs to carry breath and weight and depth and a
purity of fruit, but I want.
Speaker 4 (38:55):
It to not do that. Heavily want it to do it.
Speaker 5 (39:00):
So you're getting that lasting, lingering finish, but with like
kind of this like purity to the whole process. And
so that's what I'm looking for as we're going through
all these barrels and we're curating this process, this this blend,
and it will come down to the finites. Like we
start with blend A, we've totally gone into like double A,
(39:23):
double B, double C with a five gallon difference of
like a single barrel or whatever it is. So that's
how both of these pot blends are put together. It's
a very daunting task for the pino because you're frequently
talking about six hundred barrels that can be a candidate
for this program. That is one hundred and fifty cases.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
Yeah, that's a lot of barrels.
Speaker 3 (39:49):
Small production, so so still still good for the wines
that don't make it into the blend.
Speaker 6 (39:53):
And the blend changes every visit blend, right, it's always yep,
it's always tasted blind. So there's no like, yes, there's
not specific vineyards, and it's like I can't express enough
how much you know. Yeah, I'm the winemaker at the
end of the day, and if it really comes down
to a hard decision, of course I'm making those hard decisions.
Speaker 5 (40:13):
But it is a group. It is a team effort
to make this. We all have a say in it.
And I think that's always really important too, because when
we get to the blending in the cellar, that wine
is the biggest headache. That wine will go into ten
different tanks to start with before it becomes its final blend,
if not fifteen different tanks. I mean, it is a
(40:33):
true labor of love, and so I feel like there
has to be some pretty good buy in from the
staff that's actually.
Speaker 4 (40:41):
Carrying out all the racking.
Speaker 2 (40:42):
And you do a pot of peanut war and shardenay,
I love them, say dance across the palate because I
think it's.
Speaker 6 (40:48):
Pot of do I've never heard that before.
Speaker 2 (40:51):
That's I should call it no name, no name. Very
lovely and what a special wine, limited production. So but
it's very pricey. I don't know what the price is
on it. Yeah, yeah, one hundred and forty so for
the range, and we have about three minutes left, so
(41:15):
for the range of pino noirs, because there's so many
we you know, for someone who wants what we call
that not the entry level, but yeah, the entry level
pino noir for pan or ash take us through maybe
like three that you would take you know, as you progress.
Speaker 5 (41:32):
Yeah, I mean for me, it's has a lot to
do with about palette. Right, So our friendship wine is
the Willamette Valley, so that is your sort of entry level.
And I think that one's just an incredible represented. I mean,
it's so cool that we have so many different sites,
so it's like a real snapshot of vintage and the
Willlammette Valley, right, So I think that's incredible. And then
(41:52):
it has so much to do with who your consumer is.
Speaker 6 (41:55):
Right.
Speaker 5 (41:56):
How many times have we heard the person come into
the tasting room and they say, I don't drink pino noir.
Speaker 4 (42:00):
I only drink cabernet. Right, I have something for.
Speaker 5 (42:04):
You from the Ribbon Ridge ava or the m Hill
Carlton ava, or you have the burgundy you know, lover.
And for me, that's when I say, I have this
elev A. It tends to be a little lighter, it
leans a little bit more in that direction. So I
think that's like the beauty of having so many different pinos, right,
(42:27):
is that everybody who walks into our tasting room hopefully
we find at least one, if not multiple single vineyards
that they can gravitate to and love as you know,
as much as I do. I like all of our
little babies, but they're not for everybody.
Speaker 2 (42:43):
Ell of a. Another dance term relevant alive is it
would be a burgundy lover. And then how would you
describe the Zena Crown vineyard for someone who comes in
and says, how would you describe this style?
Speaker 5 (42:57):
Yeah, I mean I would put it in that like
slightly bigger. It's not as big as perhaps our ridge
crust or our bramble hill, but you're definitely getting some
firm tannins in there. But I love that there is
like this inherent sweetness and this really nice.
Speaker 4 (43:09):
Acid profile to it.
Speaker 5 (43:10):
It's you know, it's definitely got a lower pH higher
acidity than some of our northern sites. So I put
it in that like it's like right in the middle
of the road, right, You're not like that real big
you know, and you're not in the like delicate Lva camp.
Speaker 4 (43:27):
You're right there in the center.
Speaker 5 (43:28):
And I find that if I do like a side
both our estate and our Zena Crown, or in the market,
if I do a side by side of those, frequently
the Zena Crown is the one that is like the
easiest for people to go that I'd love that wine.
It's just not that they don't feel that way about
both of them, but there is an inherent sweetness that
(43:50):
I think just attracts like all levels of consumer.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
So this is a pino and one for all palates,
and this is a great way to close. You can
visit Penorash and you offer tours and tasting so that
you can your customers and your gas can experience it.
Give us an example of a tasting experience.
Speaker 5 (44:10):
Yeah, so we actually have three different tasting experiences. We
have one that you can just come up to the bar,
walk in.
Speaker 4 (44:18):
You'll get.
Speaker 5 (44:21):
Four purse and then some bonus pores depending on where
you know your palette leads you. So our tasting staff
kind of like reads the room and then we'll do
some bonus pores. Or you can do a sit down
tasting in our original tasting room, which is absolutely lovely.
You get a full view of Mount Hood and Mount
Jefferson and the valley and that I believe is five
(44:42):
different pinots. Again, you'll get some pores to curate where
your palette goes. And then we have the legacy tasting,
which is the pavilion where I am, and that is
a full like two hours sit down and there's some
paired yet little paired bites with it, and you'll get
some library stuff in that. So that's a fun it's
like more educational. So each each level is a little
(45:05):
bit more educational. Our staff here is absolutely incredible. You
know the history of this winery and the wines that
we're making.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
And yeah, so these are all obviously paid tasting experiences
because it's expensive to do these. You give a love
way a lot of wine otherwise for the for the
Legacy tasting, which is ninety per person or fifty per
Clement Wroe. I'm looking at your website. Sorry, yep, yeah,
is there a minimum? Is there a minimum number of
(45:30):
people to do that? Okay, I don't believe so nope, book,
I thank you. Any level of guests can come in
for that. Yep, Okay, that's good to know. So all
of these are available to study, which I was just
doing reaching across at we have three computers in front
of it. Of course, you the website panorash dot com
(45:52):
where you can learn more about the winery, the story.
There's some beautiful photos and how to visit and taste
and join the community. Hey, Kate, it was really great
to finally see you on likewise, yeah, next time, next time? Yeah,
right for me, at least in person. You got to
(46:12):
meet you in person, but in Oregon. That's right in
Orgon you guys coming in New Orleans. Thank you. We
love it when personal appearances in New Orleans. What makes
us happy.
Speaker 3 (46:23):
We did have a good time.
Speaker 5 (46:24):
Yeah, it was so much fun. I hope to go
back and do that event event again next year.
Speaker 3 (46:28):
A lot to let us, let us know if you
come to town. We're always here and hopefully we'll get
to see you out at pen or Ash one day.
That'll be fun.
Speaker 5 (46:36):
Yeah, you guys, if you make it up here, please
reach out.
Speaker 4 (46:38):
I would love to see you.
Speaker 2 (46:39):
We're trying anyway. You've been listening to another edition of
The Connected Table Live. We hope that this has stoked
your appetite to travel each drink, explore, and be inspired
to step out of your wine tasting comfort zone and
try new wines or a favorite of great varietal from
the other style. Just get out there and do it,
(47:02):
because it's a wonderful world of wine and food and
you should enjoy it. You only live once, so we
as we close this and we get ready to enter
Marti Gras here in New Orleans, we always want you,
our followers, fans, and Kate to stay insatiably curious
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