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w i n e B U S INE S S J. Christopher Winery "Fortunately, I have not made any awful decisions. Maybe not trusting my gut, and having trusted people whom I should not have trusted," says Jay Somers of J. Christopher Winery in Newberg, Ore. "I am a winemaker who became a businessman by default, attempting to make money in doing this. "In making wines, my mistakes have come in assuming I knew what would happen based upon past experience. 2003 was a very warm year in Willamette Valley, and I assumed the alcohols would not go as high as they did. But I was terribly wrong with our younger vineyards, so we made a lot of second-label wines from that vintage. I wish I had added more water to our wines, or just picked them earlier to avoid 15% alcohol Pinot Noir. But in the northern Willamette Valley, we rarely have that problem with young vines. "Our 'harder' vintages are when it is too warm because wines become atypical of place, as opposed to California, where it is almost expected to make extracted, round wines. In 2006 and 2009 we handled it much better because I had experience from working with the 2003 vintage. "Making the wines the way I wanted to after having drunk a lot of Burgundy — rather than in California or here in Oregon — helps to distinguish our wines from other Pinot Noirs. Knowing what the wines should taste like before making the wines is the best decision I have made. "Great wines are polarizing; if you make them in a safe manner, with everything controlled and fruity, they are liked by many but not necessarily interesting. Not everybody loves what we do. If everyone likes your wine, then there is a problem; but if no one likes your wine, then it is a bigger problem. You need to make wine with conviction and intent. Sticking to my guns was my best decision." Maysara Winery/Momtazi Vineyard "Working in construction for years it is always feast or famine," says Moe Momtazi. "I decided in 1997 to buy a 496-acre property outside of McMinnville, Ore. (which has grown to 532 acres), to put in a vineyard. We spent the first year on infrastructure — putting in roads, fences and a couple of reservoirs, and working on winery design. "The property had been abandoned for seven years, and we began farming organically immediately with the first 13 acres planted in 1998, building several greenhouses to grow our own grafted vines, putting in 120 acres of vines in 1999. "Farming holistically was our best decision. When we started out farming this way people were laughing at us, that it was not feasible. As time went on, people grew to learn that grapes grown holistically tasted better and produced superb wines. Practical Winery & Vineyard Your source for informative technical books PracticalWinery.com click on BOOKSHELF 68 p r acti c al w i ne ry & v i n e yard DECEMBER 20 13 "With my engineering background we built everything ourselves. In 2005 we became a certified organic vineyard, in 2007 the winery was Demeter-certified. Things here are done the 'old-fashioned' way. It has brought us recognition even though we have not been in this business for a long time. Needless to say, we believe it shows in our fruit and quality wines. "It is a family affair with three daughters working full-time in the winery now. My wife takes care of the money-end of things: I work on development. We are finishing up a 40,000-square-foot winery, which all material has come from the property or recycled elements originally from elsewhere. The potential 70,000 cases per year winery is not yet complete but has brought in a lot of foot traffic in tourism since 2012, even though we are farther away from Portland than most Willamette Valley wineries." What was the worst decision? He laughed, "It would be working way too much. I have put my time, money and soul into this place for too long. I missed spending time with my kids and concentrating on their education as much as I would have liked to. Now I kind of regret it; now they are grown up and there is no way to go back. I have been so into this project that I missed out on many things. When you spend too much time on work you do not see other things as well." Besides making wine for themselves , the Momtazi's also sell their premium grapes to 15 other wineries. PWV