When my buddy Laura Brennan showed me the beautiful old orchard near her farm on Underwood Mountain (an extinct volcano) I got pretty excited. Nobody seems to know how old these apple and pear trees are and the orchard itself is pretty wild, in the best way possible.

I was given the opportunity to work with the fruit, as long as I came and picked it myself. Kate Norris, of Division Winemaking Company, and I jumped at chance to work with these magical apples and pears, and we organized a little caravan to pick in the pouring rain. I was fortunate to get about a half ton of mixed varieties apples.

We brought the apples back to Portland, where I shredded them by hand, adding some pressed Cabernet Sauvignon and Gamay skins. The mixture was then pressed over Chenin Blanc skins, and transferred to a single old barrel where it went through a native ferment. Toward the end of the ferment, we added a small amount of Nebbiolo rosé to the must to bump up the sugar, and bottle under crown cap, to pick up some natural bubble in the ancestral method. No added sulfur.

Available in late spring 2021.