dear friend, think of this project as a letter…

…where i share a little about myself…

looking back on things, i can’t say i’m surprised to find myself sitting here now with a career in wine. my earliest memories center around food and entertaining: grade school presentations on my future life as a food critic or party planner; sitting around the dinner table with friends, family, and strangers who needed a meal; climbing into kitchen cabinets in hopes of gathering ample ingredients to craft (inedible) culinary wonders. fast forward through many formative years as a musician (spectacular but not quite the right fit) and a cook (challenging culture, also not a good fit), and i received the friendly nudge i needed from good friend and mentor jill mott in early 2016. as we sat over dueling glasses of luyt and gravner, she suggested i “give harvest a go.” with that, i enthusiastically set off for oregon, and knew there would be no looking back. 

it would be unfair to claim that any one winemaking or wine growing experience was the seed that started it all. instead, it was undoubtedly the well-rounded and far-flung experiences that spanned many years and places that brought me here, as well as the incredible people that shaped my journey: minnesota, vermont, california, oregon, washington, new zealand, australia and france; matthew rorick, nathan wood, and chance meetings with the de moors (to name a few). each experience built upon itself, pushing me to find more, to study, to learn, and to continue to ask what else there could be to know. all of these memories, people, and places instilled in me passion for this craft, a deep reverence for the land i am fortunate to be a part of and tend to, and a love for all the folks i have and will continue to meet. 

perhaps you find yourself here through the recommendation of a friend, or a chance sighting of one of my bottles on a shelf. regardless, know that i am happy you are here. even though we don’t know each other yet, i hope one day to meet you, sit down, learn about you, and share a glass of your favorite wine. if i have learned one thing over my years in this line of work, it is that wine is far less about what is in the bottle, and more about the opportunity it provides to share in one another’s company.

…how i approach farming

i believe that especially in a field like ours - i.e. mono-crops - we must do everything we can to limit our environmental footprint, actively seeking to leave the land better than we found it. that being said, while i am not concerned with certification, i operate with a belief  of “organic at a minimum.” the fruit i purchase follows the tenants of organics or biodynamics, as does the way i farm my own sites. both myself and growers of the fruit i purchase seek to improve upon standard organic farming practices, constantly questioning how we do things, and moving forward with the goal of constant improvement. this could  mean re-thinking nutritional sprays, including native seed in cover crops, or beginning to include animals for under-vine management.

with an eye towards the future…

i caught the hybrid bug quite early on in my career, and likely have a long list of people who could vouch for my incessant proselytizing about the promising future hybrid varieties offer in oregon. even without the recently acquired knowledge of their long history here (horticultural reports in oregon date the practice back to the late 1890s), it is hard to deny what they stand to offer: greater resilience to climate change and the mildew pressure we face here, thus resulting in an incredibly reduced carbon footprint. while i love vinifera and the wines they produce, i believe that hybrids are the key to securing a truly sustainable and long-lasting future for wine the world over. leon millot is only the beginning of our plans with hybrids; just a taste of the commitment i (and this brand) devote to their use and celebration.