The Story of Stoller Wine Group with Melissa Burr

Laurie Forster (00:01.428)

Welcome to the latest episode of The Sipping Point. I'm so excited today. We have so much great stuff to cover. I'm going to talk to you a little bit about a question I got regarding serving temperatures, white wines, red wines, bubbly. What temperature do we serve them at and does it taste differently depending on the temperature? Absolutely going to cover that. I'm going to introduce you to another favorite white wine of mine as well in a minute.

 

And then in a little bit, I'm going to bring in Melissa Burr from Stoller Wine Company. And we're going to hear all about her journey to founding winemaker and all the great things they're doing at Stoller Vineyards and Chehalem, all part of the Stoller Wine Group. So get ready. And I'm so glad you're here for our latest episode. All right. So I got a question from you all about serving temperature.

 

and wine. So I thought I'd bring in one of my favorite everyday drinking white wines and introduce you to it. It's actually Bodegas Garzón. It is an Albariño and it is from Uruguay. Now you might know and love albariño like I do from Spain, but this one obviously from Uruguay and I'm very excited to introduce you to it because it's around $20 in my local market.

 

And it is 90 plus point rated wine, if you care about that. Certainly it's wine coach approved. And I just love everything about it as far as it has that really great medium bodied stone fruit citrus, some nice intensity and then crisp acidity. It's my perfect style of white that I love to enjoy. And yes, I love white in the summer.

 

the fall, the winter and the spring. You don't have to switch solely over to red. So I'm gonna just take a little taste of this. Yeah, that knows also some nice minerality on it as well. In addition to the other flavors I talked about, take a little sip.

 

Laurie Forster (02:17.164)

Wow, that zest of acidity, love it. And that makes this food friendly. We'll have to do a whole episode on food and wine pairing or many because there's so many facets, but that crisp acidity helps it stand up to anything with salt and acid. So, Lori, what temperature are you serving your white wine, bubbly wine, red wine? Does it matter? Yes, it absolutely matters what temperature.

 

you serve your wine at because the temperature can affect the taste and the perception on your palate. So for instance, sparkling wines, another favorite of mine, we want to serve in a cooler temperature around 40 to 46 degrees. Now, I don't know if you guys know and think about it for a minute. Do you know what your kitchen refrigerator is temperature wise? Think about it. Guess what? It's probably around 39.

 

So if you're storing short term, cause we've already talked about storing, you're bubbly in the kitchen fridge, you got a pretty good temperature to work with. But white wines, typically Like Albarino I want to serve around 45 to 50 degrees. Bigger whites like oaky chardonnays, maybe even towards the 55 degrees. So that kitchen fridge is serving it up at too chilly of a temperature. And then your red wines,

 

you want to serve somewhere between 60 and 68. Lighter reds in the 60 zone, heavier reds towards the 68, everything else maybe kind of in the middle. So what's a person to do? If you have a dual zone wine refrigerator, perfect because you can have it set for 45 on the top for the whites and 65 on the bottom for the reds. If you don't, if you're like me, you have an aging wine refrigerator that's around 52 to 57.

 

You can keep it there until you're ready to serve, pop it in the fridge, 15, 20 minutes, get it down to that proper serving temperature. But if you have your white wines in the regular refrigerator and they're too cold, a couple of ways you can get them to open up because when they get into that ideal temperature zone, more flavors come out, more aromas. You can warm them with your hands. That's absolutely one way to go.

 

Laurie Forster (04:41.086)

or just take it out of the refrigerator of the bottle, let it sit for 10, 15 minutes, and it will get up to that ideal serving temperature. If you serve white wines, sparkling wines, too cold, all those flavors, like I said, will be locked in the glass and you won't really get them, you won't experience them until it gets into that ideal temperature range. There are some light reds that can be slightly chilled.

 

like maybe Pinot Noir's or Gamay's or even reds that have a little bit of sweetness, but the bolder you go in the reds and the more tannic, that's that dry astringency you get from reds like Cabernet Sauvignon, Tannat, Petite Verdot, Petite Sirah, those you really want to stick towards that ideal serving temperature, 65 to 68. If you serve them cold, they're going to taste very bitter and they're going to be kind of a salting.

 

So temperature makes a huge, huge difference. And so what do you do if you get your white wine in the perfect serving temperature, but now it's sitting on the table during your dinner party or sitting outside on the patio, how do you keep it at the perfect temperature? Well, one of my little accessories that I love is called the Vin Glace, and I'll post a link to both the wine and the Vin Glace on my webpage at thewinecoach.com.

 

And it's like a Yeti for your wine bottle. So you just go ahead and you grab the bottle. And let me give you a close up too, before I do that of this amazing Albarino. I hope you guys will try it. I'll give you the link. Just put that in the Vin Glace. The top goes on. You screw that on. And now this can sit on your kitchen table, your patio table, wherever you're enjoying your wine, red, white, or whatever, as long as it's at that ideal temperature.

 

this will keep it insulated. So that's the basic deal with serving temperature. And I know you guys were so curious. It makes a huge difference in the taste. If you don't believe me, put a bottle of your favorite white wine in the kitchen refrigerator and get it super chilly. Take it out, have a taste and then taste it again every 10 minutes as it's warming up. And you're going to find the sweet spot right in there when it gets to its ideal.

 

Laurie Forster (07:03.392)

serving temperature. So go ahead and email me, Lori at thewinecoach.com. If you have any ideas for topics, if you do the serving temperature exercise, I want to know what happened, what your experience was, and I want to hear all about it. All right. I am excited because we're going to go ahead and bring in Melissa Burr from the Stoller Wine Group. She has over 20 years of winemaking experience at Stoller.

 

And she started out thinking she was going to go into medicine. And after working a harvest in the Willamette Valley, her idea of medicine kind of changed and morphed into the business of wine. So let's go ahead and bring in Melissa Burr.

Laurie (00:01.387)

All right, welcome to the show, Melissa.

 

Melissa Burr (00:04.6)

Thank you so much for having me, Lori.

 

Laurie (00:07.647)

Awesome. Well, I wish I was out there in the Willamette and Dundee, Oregon with you, but this is going to be the next best thing. And we're so excited to hear all about Stoller Wine Group, how you got into the business, maybe taste a couple of Pinot Noirs. But I can't even remember how many years ago we connected. But my first visit to Stoller, I was absolutely in love. And so I'm so excited for everyone listening.

 

to learn more about you if they don't already know. For folks that maybe are not huge fans like I am, tell them a little bit about Stolar Wine Group and how you got started.

 

Melissa Burr (00:49.737)

Yes, absolutely, Laura. Yes, I was trying to think too how when we met, but I think it's been at least a decade. So we appreciate you. Yeah, maturity wise, exactly. So, yeah, I'll tell you a bit about about Stoller Wine Group and my part in it. So it all starts with Bill Stoller. Bill's a third generation Oregonian, and he grew up in a farming family that has

 

Laurie (00:58.65)

We were like 10. Perfect. Yeah.

 

Melissa Burr (01:19.383)

properties all over in the Willamette Valley. So Bill grew up farming on his relative sites and went to college in Oregon for business, came out, started a very successful staffing business. And along the way, he fell in love with wine and he partnered with a winemaker, Harry Peterson Nedry and started a brand called Chehalem.

 

That was his really segue into the wine world. From there, he purchased his uncle's farm in the Dundee Hills, which is now the Stoller Family Estate Vineyard, which is over 250 acres. And so Bill started there planting grapes with the vision of being a world-class grower and a co-owner of a winery called Chehalem.

 

And then he kept growing. That is really his style is to grow things over time, businesses, vineyards and all of that. So today Stoller Wine Group is about 800 acres, 800 estate acres between five different brands. We are still relatively small in the big scheme of the wine world, but you know, for Oregon.

 

Laurie (02:17.019)

Mm-hmm.

 

Laurie (02:23.386)

Right?

 

Melissa Burr (02:40.831)

We've been doing what we're doing for over 25 years and Stoller Family Estate is where I started. I met Bill Stoller in 2003. At that time, I had made wine for two years locally at a winery called Cooper Mountain. I grew up in Oregon. I studied science. I was going to go into medicine and I just took a roundabout detour into the wine world.

 

Laurie (02:59.835)

Mmm.

 

Laurie (03:09.51)

You found a different medicine.

 

Melissa Burr (03:11.274)

I found a different medicine. know, a lot of us are refugees to the industry, meaning that, you know, it's a relatively young industry for United States and for Oregon. And for me, myself, you I went through medicine to get to wine. But the point being, when I met Bill in 03, I had two vintages at Cooper Mountain and Bill Stoller was looking for a winemaker for his tiny brand. At that time in 03, he had a little over 120 acres of

 

Laurie (03:31.0)

Nice.

 

Melissa Burr (03:40.169)

Pinot Noir and Chardonnay planted at his estate vineyard in the Dundee Hills. On that farm I was telling you he bought from his uncle, beautiful, all jewelry soil, south-facing estate. He mostly sold the fruit to other producers in the area, but he wanted to make a few hundred cases with his name on it. And when he met me, he was very passionately telling me how his vision over his lifetime was to be to grow that brand to maybe a 4,000 case brand. And that's it.

 

And so I started then in 03 and made a little bit of Pinot and a little Chardonnay from this spectacular estate vineyard. And then over the years, as I said, things grew as did the Stoller Estate Vineyard. I helped Bill design the very first gold LEED certified winery in the world on his estate property in the Dundee Hills. And that came about in 2005.

 

Laurie (04:33.602)

Nice.

 

Melissa Burr (04:36.401)

So our production was there for the Stoller brand. It was a little over 2000 cases appointment only tasting. Folks would come out and be on the vineyard and taste the wines. And then the next growth was to continue to plant more acres on the estate and also open a tasting room at that property. And that opened in 2012, beautiful tasting room.

 

Laurie (04:59.257)

Yes, spectacular.

 

Melissa Burr (05:00.974)

It's spectacular, lots of sustainable features. It's basically a net zero building. It's got solar array to offset energy, big doors that open to look out at the vineyard. So when that happened in 2012, our production was probably about 8,000 cases right around there. We were in some of the national market accounts just sprinkled around. Chehalem was its independent winery that Bill co-owned, but it wasn't something that was tied.

 

deeply to Stoller in terms of operational support. So the tasting room opened and that really started to drive a lot of traffic to Stoller. It's such a spectacular place and the scenery and the quality of the wines, all of this. And from there, it kept on growing, honestly. The next big chunk of growth came when we as a company at Stoller started taking on more of estate acreage.

 

Laurie (05:44.377)

Yes.

 

Melissa Burr (05:57.958)

At that time, we hired a president for the company, Gary Mortenson. came on in 2012 and he comes from a tech startup world, loves to grow businesses. Him and Bill just gelled and we just took off. We kept on taking on more of our state fruit. So we ended up building a second winery on this property in 2015 to accommodate more wine.

 

The winery that we built in 2005 is very, very specifically oriented on a hillside. It's dug under the earth. And if we wanted to expand, we'd have to move a lot of dirt around. didn't make a whole lot of sense. So we just went across the, across the property on level ground and built a very utilitarian, super efficient facility where we could, we could continue to grow. So that was a step of our growth that we took in 2015.

 

Laurie (06:38.084)

Hmm

 

Laurie (06:50.265)

Love that.

 

Melissa Burr (06:52.951)

And then a couple years later, as we were planting more acreage, we acquired as a company, builded all the ownership of Chehalem. He bought out his partner. And that's when the Stoller Wine Group was formed in 2018. So we had the second facility that we had built that had a lot of space and the tools we needed. We grew our team. We purchased all of Chehalem and we added a couple of brands to our

 

Laurie (07:09.188)

Nice.

 

Melissa Burr (07:22.892)

our company. So Stoller Stoller Family Estate in Chehalem, both have their own estate vineyards. They're in their unique AVA's nestled in the Willamette Valley. We started a brand in 2018 called Chemistry and chemistry is all about affordable luxury is the way I look at it and the way we talk about it. It's we partner with local growers in Oregon. We've recently branched out to Washington, dabbled in some Sauv Blanc.

 

Laurie (07:24.559)

Love that.

 

Laurie (07:42.575)

Yeah.

 

Melissa Burr (07:51.202)

and a little Cabernet Sauvignon, but the whole idea is to create value for people to experience this part of the world and not be scared to get their hands on some wine, but have this delicious wine. So that is chemistry. That's our third brand. We have a brand called History that I started in 2013 where my whole impetus was to find the oldest vines in the Northwest I could find to make these small lot wines and have this.

 

Laurie (08:01.167)

Right.

 

Laurie (08:12.645)

Yes.

 

Melissa Burr (08:19.627)

wine club and just really focus on the history of the Northwest and these really interesting vineyards. So we have History as our fourth brand and then the fifth brand in the wine group is Stoller Swing and Canned Oregon. Both of those are wine in a can in different formats and that is a whole category that's burgeoning. So the long and the short of it is we've got five brands all owned by Bill Stoller and Oregon based.

 

Laurie (08:34.811)

Mmm.

 

Laurie (08:38.277)

Gotcha.

 

For sure.

 

Melissa Burr (08:48.738)

We've got a great team and a lot has changed and grown in the time that I've been there, which now is going on 21 years.

 

Laurie (08:55.523)

my gosh. And I just realized when we met and the first time we met actually was at Pinot Camp, which is for those of you listening, it's a trade event where buyers from restaurants and retail stores and other wine professionals all come to the Willamette to learn about the area and taste the wines and get acclimated. And it was a

 

salmon bake at Chehalem. And I came across the picture the other day, I'll have to dig it up, Melissa, and send it to you because we look like babies. But I think it was 2006, I want to say. So not quite a decade. But yeah, now that just came into my mind. But yeah, so gosh, amazing growth. And I'm going to post on my website, with the show page, I'm going to post the link to the solar family estate website. So you can see the view and at

 

Melissa Burr (09:28.233)

Okay. Yeah.

 

Laurie (09:49.001)

the winery they have all these white Adirondack chairs that you can sit and sip the wine and just take in the beautiful views of the area and it just really puts you in that place that home page on your website is is you know amazing so I'll post that so what maybe we'll taste one of your wines I know we have two we were going to taste here in the interview and then and then I want to just get into sustainability a little bit more for folks that are kind of like what does that mean but

 

Melissa Burr (10:04.274)

Yeah, thanks.

 

Laurie (10:18.841)

I thought maybe we could taste the Stoller Willamette Valley Pinot first and kind of talk about that. Both of the wines we're gonna taste have screw caps and I know there still is this crazy stigma against screw caps in some people's minds, but I kind of really enjoy that for everyday drinking wine or for wines on the go if you're traveling, because you don't have to worry about, no, I forgot my corkscrew.

 

But let's start with that Stoller Willamette Valley Pinot.

 

Melissa Burr (10:52.61)

Great, yeah, let's open that up. And I agree with you, Lori, on the usability of the screw caps. I mean, they're phenomenal. People in restaurants sure appreciate them when they're pouring wines by the glass. And the stigma, luckily, I think it's starting to get more understood, but really from a quality standpoint, it's...

 

fully, 100 % with confidence, the way to go a lot of times because you don't have any cork taint. And so that's been an issue, a really hard one to control at times. And so it's not as romantic looking perhaps, but it sure helps ensure the quality. So as we open up this Lamott Valley Pinot, it's easy and it's delicious. So.

 

Laurie (11:31.655)

Right? Yeah, we can't...

 

Yes. So tell me a little bit about, because you have an estate pinot and then you have the Willamette Valley pinot, tell me a little bit about the Willamette Valley, the style and in where you're placing that in the lineup of your, of the brand.

 

Melissa Burr (11:52.392)

Yeah, absolutely. the estate pinot, one of the benefits of having, there's a lot of benefits of obviously having your estate vineyards, but our estate, specifically Stoller Family Estate Vineyards Pinot Noir is all from the Dundee Hills, which is one of the AVA's within the Willamette Valley. And it has its own nuanced signature flavor profile to it. So that Dundee Hills Pinot from Stoller, you're getting that sense of place.

 

from one of the ABAs that's very consistent. And then the Willamette Valley, we brought in our partnerships with our growers across the valley. So we're really sourcing them from different ABAs that have these unique qualities to them. And you get this really nice broader look at the Willamette Valley. And the way I look at these wines as they're like sisters, stylistically, they're very similar. They're made

 

in a very similar manner. You know, we are all about trying to capture the Pinot Noir at its fresh, ripe spot. So every year that's a bit different chemistry-wise. You the Willamette Valley has this pendulum of different growing vintages. Some years are quite warm and then other vintages can have, you know, cooler seasons and the pinots really reflect that. So we're not trying to change that, but we want to pick the Pinot Noir

 

Laurie (12:54.651)

Mm-hmm.

 

Melissa Burr (13:21.352)

When it's nice and ripe and balanced, we really want fresh fruit, great acidity, ripe, nice tannins and length. And we really don't want to over style that Pinot. We don't want to add too much new oak to influence the flavors too much. We don't want to pick it so early that it's really lean or so late that it's so dense and heavy, but just kind of get it at the sweet spot. Both of those, all of our Pinot Noirs. And so what you're going to get with our Pinot Noir from the Stoller Estate from the Willamette Valley,

 

is this nice collection of the Willamette Valley. So you got, you have complexity. You have the AVA's that have a bit more darker blue fruit and we have AVA's like the Dundee Hills that give you a bit more baking spice, cola and red fruit kind of nicely fermented together. So you're gonna get fresh fruit, length, tannin, and you're gonna really see, you know, what makes Oregon Pinot shine, I think in that bottle. That's our goal.

 

Laurie (13:59.77)

Mm-hmm.

 

Laurie (14:15.073)

Absolutely, I know, wow. I'm getting a lot of cherry sort of red fruit on the nose and then just a little touch of maybe cigar box or cedar or something. What is the oak on here? I think you said you're not trying to make an oak balm here, but what is your treatment on this one as far as what percentage is oaked or not?

 

Melissa Burr (14:41.248)

Sure, yeah, we tend to aim for approximately 15 % of our oak barrels being new. And the way I like to explain that, it's like cooking with spices. The first time you fill a new oak barrel, you get the wine soaks up all of what that barrel is tasting like. We're buying barrels that are toasted and it's a whole art to how these businesses, these coopers make their barrels. But the point is like you're getting that spice. Like for instance,

 

Laurie (14:49.316)

Okay.

 

Melissa Burr (15:10.272)

You put a Pinot Noir at a brand new French oak barrel and it could be very, you know, baking spice, some nuttiness, some toastiness really comes through. So only 15 % of those barrels are new because if they were all new, that's all you would really taste. It's like making a big soup and adding a tablespoon of peppercorns, not a gallon. So we aim for about 15 % new, very carefully selected barrels because...

 

Laurie (15:27.46)

Right.

 

Laurie (15:33.693)

Right?

 

Melissa Burr (15:38.336)

They are like spices, you have to know what you're getting and Pinot Noir is such a transparent, light-bodied red wine that it shows everything. So that's our regime. know, 2023 was a warm growing season. So I think you're spot on. I get a lot of that ripe red sherry as well. And some of that darker spices coming from some of the barrel, but also some of the tannin.

 

Laurie (15:56.845)

Mm-hmm. It's delicious.

 

Melissa Burr (16:03.392)

from the wine and some of the really interesting kind of exotic spices that are coming through, I think, in that vintage.

 

Laurie (16:09.529)

Yeah, and nice and smooth.

 

but also that acidity that makes Pinot Noir so food friendly. So I feel like we would have a wide option of different things. And I mentioned that salmon bake, that was the first time I had ever had grilled salmon with a Pinot Noir and really realized what an amazing combination that was. I know a lot of people think, I can't do fish with red wine, but that combo really works so well.

 

Melissa Burr (16:40.243)

It is like magic. really does, cause that fattiness in the salmon compliments with the, you know, the pinot noir and the acidity. But I will say, Lori, in my opinion, the way I look at pinot noir is to me, it's like the, it's a white wine of red wines. And I mean, I mean that because it is, it pretty much, goes with everything. I the tannins tend to be more moderate, maybe even light on the light side. And a lot of the pinot noirs, especially if you're gonna get an Oregon pinot noir just in general, you're gonna,

 

Laurie (16:42.05)

It is.

 

Laurie (16:55.191)

Yes.

 

Melissa Burr (17:09.267)

likely get some really beautiful bright acidity and that just cuts through food and they're not heavy wines. So I've even enjoyed peanut whites with halibut. I mean, it might not be so traditional, but it complements it, you know? All kinds of seafood, yeah.

 

Laurie (17:12.559)

Mm-hmm.

 

Laurie (17:20.995)

I love that. Absolutely.

 

Absolutely. We're big on, I'm here in Maryland, so we're big on the rockfish around here. yeah. Well, so while we're sipping that, or I'm sipping that at least, and hopefully folks at home will grab a bottle while they're listening to this, we mentioned sustainability and I know that you guys are so committed to that. A lot of the winemakers actually in Oregon are committed to organic sustainability or even biodynamics and it can be quite

 

Melissa Burr (17:28.159)

Nice. Yes.

 

Laurie (17:53.741)

confusing to consumers. So let's just stick with sustainability. Just if people are like, what, what are you talking about? And then maybe just give us a couple examples about how you incorporate that at Stolar.

 

Melissa Burr (18:07.829)

And I think sustainability is such a broad word, but to me it means you're taking care of your land and your people ideally, right? You're being a steward and you're being nurturing to what you're working with. And Oregon, the Willamette Valley in general is full of people that are very sustainably minded in terms of what they're doing with the land, with their vineyards. It's a smaller growing region. Most of our vineyards are on the smaller side compared to...

 

Laurie (18:11.769)

Mm-hmm.

 

Laurie (18:30.33)

Mm-hmm.

 

Melissa Burr (18:37.501)

other regions. And for us at Stoller Wine Group, I mean, we do a lot and there's a lot more to do. We don't have an end destination. We keep trying to adapt new things, but some of the bigger things that we do across the board for all of our estate vineyards is we are live certified in our vineyards and that is environmentally friendly viticulture practices is what that means. We're planting cover crops and wild flowers and we're

 

really mindful of our spray programs. Under the live certification, you can only use certain sprays. A lot of them are prohibited in the vineyards that are gonna cause, you know, buildup, toxic buildup. we really focus on conservation of our soils and all of that across all of our land. And then we are also certified live in our winemaking facilities. We actually get a third party on both the vineyard and in the winery to come through.

 

Laurie (19:10.203)

Mm-hmm.

 

Melissa Burr (19:35.751)

And in the winery, they're looking at our safety, our wastewater treatments, our energy efficiencies, and all of that, what we're putting in the wines and how we're doing it. And so as a whole, the whole company is live certified. That's one of them. We do have a large solar array across our campuses. So we have solar panels at the Stoller winemaking facilities, at the tasting room, at Chehalem. And we're...

 

really trying to get as much of the energy from the sun to offset what we're using. we, you know, we try to do a lot of stuff. We have oak savanna, a large oak savanna, a really large one growing through the Stroller Estate property, which is over 400 acres. And we are preserving that savanna and we can not take down those oak trees because they are such a part of the Willamette Valley and we're trying to preserve that habitat.

 

Laurie (20:27.429)

Yeah.

 

Melissa Burr (20:32.821)

Yeah, so we keep doing a lot. We're also B Corp certified across the company and B Corp is a business sustainability that goes into a lot. It's how you treat, how you pay your employees, what you do with the community and what you're giving back. And so every year we have to renew that and just keep trying to improve on our practices. So yeah, I could go on and on and by no means, like I said, are we done, but as a company we were very sustainable minded.

 

Laurie (20:33.125)

Love that.

 

Laurie (20:47.875)

Nice.

 

Laurie (20:56.088)

Yeah.

 

No. Well, you know, every year you get a little better, right? Yeah. Okay, so we know, you know, the solar story, obviously, is so connected to Chehalem and now obviously part of the wine group. And you sent me a Chehalem Pinot Noir here from the Chehalem mountain. So let's go ahead and give that a taste and just maybe compare because these two are

 

Melissa Burr (21:03.795)

Yeah, you hope so.

 

Laurie (21:27.019)

a bit different and it's interesting to sort of taste them side by side. If you want to go ahead and kind of give me a little background on your thoughts on this one.

 

Melissa Burr (21:36.137)

Yes. Yeah, absolutely. So the Chehalem, going to Chehalem has its own estate vineyards that are within the Chehalem Mountains AVA of the Willamette Valley. And that area, that AVA itself has a distinct personality that we're discovering more and more. And what I see a lot with the Chehalem Mountains Pinot Noirs are wines that have a mix of blue fruit.

 

and darker fruit, sometimes some like blueberry, a little plum, there's red cherry in there too, but that kind of darker fruit with this beautiful tannin and spice that comes through. There's a lot of energy in those pinot noirs. And I think on a year like 2023, that was a warmer growing season, that comes out even more. You get that really interesting, I call it bramble fruit, which in my mind is a mix of

 

Laurie (22:15.055)

Yeah.

 

Laurie (22:31.247)

Yeah.

 

Melissa Burr (22:33.417)

black and red berries. And so we have that. And then that I think is really beautifully captured in the Chehalem Mountains Pinot Noir. The winemaker for Chehalem, her name is Katie Santora and she's got a fabulous team that she works with, but she's been heading up making wines for going on 12 years now at Chehalem. And her style is so elegant. And I think that combination of a real powerful AVA like Chehalem Mountains that can have

 

Laurie (23:00.005)

Mm-hmm.

 

Melissa Burr (23:00.487)

a bit more overt tannin than the Dendy Hills in my opinion. It really does, but Katie kind of refines that. I think her wines are like the Iron Fist and the Velvet Glove type wines, which are so great, because that's a hard thing to do with those wines, but they're real special. And she's really just capturing the growing area there. And that wine, I think, you get some more darker fruit spice, a bit more tannin going on, and lots of energy.

 

Laurie (23:03.159)

It really does. Yep.

 

Laurie (23:12.748)

you

 

Laurie (23:25.115)

Absolutely. And the price points on these, I'm trying to see if I had written that down, but I think both, 40, no, no, that's not, but I know, what, like just under 30 for the Stoller?

 

Melissa Burr (23:42.453)

Yeah, for the Willamette Valley, yes. And the Chehalam Mountains is right around there too, but it depends on the market, but plus or minus $30 on those. Sometimes the Willamette Valley can go into the 20s as well. So that's the idea is to have a wine with that Willamette Valley Pinot in particular that we can scale and offer that value of quality to price point. And we can do that through acquiring more and more partner growers out there.

 

Laurie (23:45.614)

Okay.

 

Laurie (23:56.536)

Nice.

 

Laurie (24:09.403)

And I'll probably get in trouble for saying this. I'll probably get hate mail for it. No, but people are forever asking me, you know, what's a great $10 pinot noir? And kind of my answer is, I'll, guess I'll see what you say is like, it doesn't exist in my mind because you know, I guess the heartbreak grape, they call it, pinot noir. I feel like it just takes a little bit more of everything to make a great pinot. And so yeah, can you find a great $10 red? Yes.

 

Melissa Burr (24:13.329)

No.

 

Melissa Burr (24:34.718)

It does.

 

Laurie (24:39.619)

But $10 Pinot Noir from Oregon? I don't know. I feel like that's like a unicorn.

 

Melissa Burr (24:45.804)

Yeah, unfortunately, if someone's gonna be able to make a great $10 pinot, it's gonna be, you know, some kind of nonprofit business that's just all through some good of your heart, you're just gonna make wine and give it away. But I don't know if that really exists out there yet. I don't think so. I mean, it's not practical. just, pinot noir, yeah, you have to farm it really intensively and it can't carry a lot of crop load like warmer regions can.

 

Laurie (24:55.216)

Yeah.

 

Laurie (25:02.7)

Yeah, it's not.

 

Melissa Burr (25:12.78)

and be resistant to things. I mean, it's got thin skin and all that. So you might be able to grow it and make it, but I don't think you or I would necessarily want to drink it at that price point, unfortunately.

 

Laurie (25:16.848)

Right?

 

Laurie (25:23.651)

Yeah, and so many, like you said, of the wineries in the Willamette are small. And when you're small like that, I mean, you know, a lot of those really inexpensive wines that you might see at the grocery store are big commercial wineries that are making millions of cases and bottles and all of that. So that's a whole different scale. And when you're talking about smaller wineries, winemakers, you know, it's just a different.

 

Melissa Burr (25:28.673)

Yeah.

 

Laurie (25:51.147)

animal. I feel like there's a little more love in every bottle and you know it just that's not the way it works.

 

Melissa Burr (25:58.856)

Yeah, it's, no, it's true. There's a lot, it's more artisan, but I mean, just on the practicality, the down earth side is you really can't farm Pinot Noir big or small and have enough fruit per acre to justify, you can't pay for it. Like it just doesn't exist because Pinot, it's just a way different grape to grow in the vineyard. So it all starts there and you you can't, even if you're huge, I would really be.

 

Laurie (26:13.349)

Mmm.

 

Melissa Burr (26:25.96)

shocked if someone came in even a big big scale to Oregon because it just doesn't it doesn't you can't grow you can't grow it that way.

 

Laurie (26:32.781)

Yeah, so anything new that's going on with the solar wine group that you want to share with me or my listeners out there?

 

Melissa Burr (26:41.804)

Sure, I mean, we've got new stuff going on all the time, but the big news that we're really excited about internally right now is for Chehalem. So Chehalem, we're building right now a tasting room in the Chehalem mountains for that brand. And it is absolutely stunning. It's not too far out from Sherwood, which in our area is kind of a gateway to Portland. So it's somewhere where people can get to relatively easily.

 

Laurie (27:07.118)

Okay.

 

Melissa Burr (27:10.934)

beautifully positioned in the vineyard and it's gonna be a great experience for people. So I think that's super exciting for Chehalem because it's such a wonderful brand to have this crown jewel space for people to come and enjoy the wines. And so that'll be opened up in this spring, just this coming year. And that's something we're excited about and we're just always.

 

Laurie (27:16.955)

All right.

 

Laurie (27:30.361)

I'll post a link to Chehalem as well so folks can take a look at that if they're going to come out and visit, which I hope they will because it's one of my favorite places on earth. And then one last just fun question before I let you go because I know there's so much work at the winery that is going on this time of year. But when you're not drinking Willamette Valley or Oregon wines, what is your favorite wine to enjoy when you're just, you know,

 

Melissa Burr (27:38.346)

Yes.

 

Laurie (27:59.191)

winding down after a long day at work.

 

Melissa Burr (28:01.959)

man, well, I really love to champagnes and sparkling wines because I feel like they go with everything and I love acidity in wines. So yeah, those and I like dry Rieslings as well. So yeah, just depends. I kind of like to drink anything but the Lama Valley Pinot at times because I'm so blessed to have so much of it. I like to explore the other parts of the world. And I also like a good gin and tonic too. That's really a lot of my go-to right there.

 

Laurie (28:07.136)

Love that. I agree.

 

Laurie (28:15.17)

great.

 

Laurie (28:23.58)

Right.

 

Laurie (28:28.569)

Ooh, yum. In May, I got to go up to the Finger Lakes and it was spectacular. So I don't know if you haven't been, put it on your list. The dry Rieslings there are just top notch. you definitely want to check that out in upstate New York.

 

Melissa Burr (28:43.265)

Yes, I would love to go.

 

Definitely.

 

Laurie (28:47.929)

my gosh, Melissa Burr, thank you so much for all your time. You're always so fun to hang with and learn more about Estola Wine Group and beyond. And I wish you just the greatest luck with your harvest. I know that you guys are completing a lot of that right now. And yeah, I can't wait to come back out there and visit again.

 

Melissa Burr (29:07.628)

Yes, thank you so much for having me in same. I love talking with you and spending time with you and I definitely hope you can get out next year, maybe next spring. We'll talk offline, but I want you to come out and check out the Chehalem tasting room and try all these wines. So we will follow up on that and we'll get you out there, I hope.

 

Laurie (29:17.668)

Yes.

 

Laurie (29:24.569)

That would be great. Thank you so much. Cheers.

 

Melissa Burr (29:27.174)

Cheers, thank you, bye.

Laurie Forster (00:01.528)

So excited that I got to share this interview with Melissa Burr with you and Stoller and the whole wine group. If you are not familiar with them, definitely go check them out and all their brands, including Chehalem and Chemistry. And if you have ideas for future shows, just email me at laurie@thewinecoach.com. I'd love to incorporate your questions, your topics, and make this super interactive.

 

Go ahead and follow and subscribe on Apple podcasts or iHeartRadio or anywhere you get your podcasts. So every Wednesday when our new episodes drop, you will get them delivered right to your phone. And if you want an easy way to listen to me on your phone, download my free app, The Wine Coach for iPhone and Android. You can listen to the podcast right within the app, get my great videos, look at the wine picks I have in there and so much more.

 

As always, I love having you here at The Sipping Point. We're all about demystifying wine one glass at a time. Hope you'll give my Albariño a try. And until next week, keep on sipping.