written by Carrie Wynkoop of Cellar 503
The birth of Jasper Sisco Wines is a twenty-first-century bootstrap story. The winery name comes from owner Justin Paul Russell’s great-grandfather, Jasper Sisco, a West Virginia coal miner.
Russell had been working as a wine buyer at Whole Foods in Birmingham, Alabama. After a couple of trips to Oregon, he stayed. Working three part-time jobs, he started to save the money he needed to buy wine grapes. After a round of crowdfunding on Indiegogo, he amassed a four-figure chunk of change he needed to plant and start his small-production winery in 2012, based in Portland.
Today, Jasper Sisco has its own winery facility, and Russell is making wine full time. Russell’s Clara Estelle Riesling is one of our November selections.