written by Carrie Wynkoop of Cellar 503
It’s really easy to make terrible wine. Some grapes, a tank, some bottles and presto—you’ve got bottom-shelf wine.
But really great wine? That requires so many things go right that you might be forgiven for thinking it’s a miracle. For Rachel Rose, winemaker and vineyard manager at Bryn Mawr Vineyards, it all starts with what happens in the fields.
Rose is one of few women in Oregon to serve as both head winemaker and vineyard manager. She works with her team at Bryn Mawr to carefully manage each vine, trimming leaf canopy and reducing yields at just the right time.
For Rose, it’s as much science as intuition, befitting someone with an undergraduate degree in molecular cellular and developmental biology and graduate degrees in oenology and viticulture.
It’s also about bringing passion to the work. “I love to think about wine, drink wine, cook with wine, share wine, and I continually seek to convert the non-believers,” Rose said. After tasting her wine, we’re believers.
Bryn Mawr proprietors Jon and Kathy Lauer have named the vineyard blocks after their children, Jeffrey, Krista and David. Head to their tasting room in the Eola-Amity Hills, just northwest of Salem, and you can join the running debate of whether Jeffrey’s or Krista’s pinot noir is tops in the family—but don’t miss the chardonnay from David’s block.
