Blackbook Winery’s Sergio Verrillo’s guide to London plus the ‘masochistic challenges’ of making fine Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
Endless Art: Dominio IV
Meet biodynamic wine-maker and part-time bathroom decorator Patrick Reuter of Oregon’s Dominio IV winery.
Vinediction Recommended Reading
From the wine library of a defunct California cult to Snoop Dogg and Carmelo Anthony jamming on marijuana legalization over a glass of red, May was a prime reading month for Vinediction.
Exploring Oregon Wine Country
Explore Oregon Wine Country. The following outdoor delights were recommended by some of the Willamette Valley’s best winemakers, whom you can be sure have excellent taste.
AHIVOY Vineyard Steward Education
AHIVOY is a non-profit dedicated to education and empowerment for Hispanic and Latinx vineyard stewards.
Rabbit Run: Coelho Winery
Coelho Winery is a family-owned and operated outfit in the tiny town of Amity, in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Coelho – which means ‘rabbit’ in Portuguese – draws on the family’s Portuguese heritage to make exceptional, unique wines.
Women in Wine: Ana Mendez Gil
Versatus, evokes the heft of wedding silver and the delicacy of crystal goblets. This masterpiece is the handiwork of third-generation wine-maker Ana Mendez Gil of Genus De Vinum, in Ourense, Galicia.
Vinelands: Casa Los Frailes
In 1771, Maria Jose Velazquez’s ancestor bought at auction the house and property in the vall d’Albaida that, 200 years later, became Casa Los Frailes. Before Carlos III stamped them out, Jesuit friars (‘frailes’) lived in this small valley not far from the Mediterranean coast, tended vineyards, made wine and stored it in clay amphorae, tall as coffins, sunk into the cool earth in the low-beamed cellar.
The New Old School: Illahe Vineyards
Typewriters are by no means rare in Oregon. The Smith-Corona in the Illahe Vineyards office is not, however, a hipster accessory. Nor is the chalkboard where someone has scrawled: “Buy more chalk”. Or the phonograph and four-foot high wooden speakers bookending crates of classic rock LPs in the corner of the warehouse.
Where Wine and School Lunch Collide
Maybe the challenge of marketing fine wine to under-40s in the United States is rooted in what they ate as kids.
