Teutonic Pinot Meunier Borgo Pass Vineyard

Winemaker: Barnaby Tuttle

Appellation: Willamette Valley, Oregon

Grape Varieties: Pinot Meunier

New label, new Pinot Meunier! This is one of our favorite wines to make. Most folks know Pinot Meunier as a component of champagne. We love it as a still red wine. It's bright and fruity with a touch of minerality and lovely soft tannins. We call it our darling wine, you will too once you taste it.

Borgo Pass Vineyard is just a few miles east of Barnaby and Olga's location in Alsea. The vineyard, which for some reason shares its name with the treacherous approach to the vampire's castle in Bram Stoker's Dracula, is as far west as you can get and still be able to put the words "Willamette Valley" on the label. The Pinot Meunier cuttings were planted thirty years ago.

Winemaker Barnaby Tuttle is a native Portlander, a rarity these days. He was just 12 years old when he began to wash dishes at Papa Haydn Restaurant in Southeast Portland. After years at this benchmark institution and a few other jobs, Barnaby returned in 2003 to work as general manager and wine steward. During his tenure there, he developed an insatiable passion for wine and after meeting German wine importer Ewald Moseler, he became obsessed with esoteric cool-climate wines.

Drawing parallels to his native land, Barnaby and his wife Olga set out to produce lean/low alcohol wines that maintain their sense of place and varietal structure. The Tuttles found their hallowed ground in some of the most coveted vineyards in Oregon: including Medici, Maresh, David Hill, and John Albin's Laurel Vineyard (with an elevation of 1250ft, this is the highest vineyard site in the Willamette Valley). Their house style is represented by wines that are low in alcohol (typically 9% to 12% alcohol by volume), and high in acidity.

In early spring 2005, Barnaby and his wife, Olga, were presented with the opportunity to plant a small vineyard on a friend's property in Alsea, Oregon. Alsea is west of Oregon's coast range and only 22 miles from the Pacific Ocean. They took a gamble, planting Oregon's first coastal vineyard. The first years were quite challenging, as they learned some valuable lessons, but they remained true to their goal--to grow fruit in a cool climate. Their first crop in 2008 produced two barrels of Pinot Noir which became available in Oregon in November 2009. Barnaby worked as the assistant winemaker at Laurel Ridge Winery in Carlton, Oregon for two years before moving off on his own to form Teutonic Wine Company with Olga.