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Building a Sustainable Wine Business · The Realtor Who Wines

• 0:00
  Welcome to the Realtor Who Wines podcast.
• 0:02
  I'm Rashelle Newmeyer, your hostess with the most as a student of life, a connector, a passionate wine enthusiast, and your local favorite guide.
• 0:10
  Join me as we explore the vibrant Pacific Northwest.
• 0:14
  Savor the finest wines and champion the spirit of entrepreneurship.
• 0:18
  Each episode, I'll sit down with inspiring guests, supporting business ownership and uncovering the stories that make this community unique.
• 0:25
  So grab a glass of wine, settle in, and let's embark on a journey of discovery and connection together. Cheers.
• 0:32
  Hi, everyone.
• 0:32
  Welcome back to the realtor who whines.
• 0:34
  I'm Rochelle, your realtor.
• 0:36
  Who wins today?
• 0:37
  We are in a beautiful vineyard.
• 0:40
  What a beautiful venue on a vineyard.
• 0:42
  And I cannot wait for you to see it.
• 0:42
  If you're watching on YouTube.
• 0:45
  If you're listening, you'll definitely have to go over to YouTube to see it because it is absolutely gorgeous.
• 0:50
  But I am here with Emily, one of the owners of this winery and vineyard.
• 0:54
  Thank you so much for having us.
• 0:56
  Cheers to you.
• 1:02
  Gosh, that's so good, That's really good.
• 1:07
  Emily, do you mind introducing yourself to everybody and talking a little bit about yourself?
• 1:12
  Yeah, my name is Emily Jensen.
• 1:13
  This is my parents place, John and Leslie Owens.
• 1:18
  And I'm the director of marketing and sales here at Bottle Creek.
• 1:23
  We are pretty new.
• 1:25
  We only opened our tasting room in April of 2024.
• 1:29
  But we're really excited to be in wine country.
• 1:31
  We have a lot of special varieties to offer.
• 1:34
  And thanks so much for having me today.
• 1:36
  Yeah, I'm excited to talk a little bit about how your family decided to take this journey, and then also how it's been going so far because a lot of people dream like, oh, I would love to have a winery someday or to make wine, but it just is such a big undertaking and so I'd love to hear a little bit about the decision to do it.
• 1:55
  And then some of the steps that you guys had to take to get where we are today.
• 1:58
  Sure.
• 2:00
  Okay.
• 2:00
  So the journey kind of starts a little over 30 years ago.
• 2:04
  Okay.
• 2:04
  My dad worked for Esco, which was like a steel manufacturing company headquartered in Portland.
• 2:11
  His entire career, and it moved us to the UK when I was a little, little child, and we had another pair come and live with us because we didn't have any support system in the UK for sure.
• 2:23
  And she was from France, and her family had owned and operated a vineyard for over 100 years, and so that really got my parents into wine.
• 2:31
  But with my dad's job, there was just never time to really pursue that dream.
• 2:36
  Maybe 15 longer than that.
• 2:39
  Years ago, he looked at buying a vineyard, but he just there was like, there was no chance. Yeah.
• 2:44
  So the pandemic hit in 2020 as well.
• 2:48
  Know. Tell me about that.
• 2:51
  And, it it kind of ended his job a little bit early.
• 2:56
  You know he had always been a big career man.
• 2:59
  I thought he would work until he was very, very old.
• 3:03
  Sure. Yeah.
• 3:04
  And he was able to stop working sooner.
• 3:08
  And early retirement suited him well.
• 3:11
  And about a month later, he was like, okay, it's time.
• 3:13
  We gotta look for a vineyard.
• 3:14
  Yeah, it's time because he is going to work. Yeah.
• 3:16
  Right. Right.
• 3:16
  Exactly.
• 3:17
  He's just got a good work ethic for sure. Yeah.
• 3:20
  And so I was a realtor at the time as a realtor for like ten years, and I hadn't done a lot of agricultural property sales before, but I was the realtor that found this, this property and went through the whole process of learning about, oh my gosh, vines and agg and set digs and all the things.
• 3:40
  Yeah, well, and for anyone that's listening, like, agriculture purchasing is totally different than residential.
• 3:47
  There's totally different forms of things that you should know.
• 3:50
  Testing that you should do.
• 3:52
  So if you're ever thinking about buying land, make sure your agent does know that process or has a partner that they can partner with on that process.
• 4:00
  Because yes, it's really different. Yeah.
• 4:02
  And you don't know what you're missing until it's missed, right?
• 4:04
  Oh yeah.
• 4:05
  So for sure that's how most things go.
• 4:08
  Definitely.
• 4:09
  So you guys bought the land and then what's the next step for that.
• 4:13
  Yeah.
• 4:13
  So we bought the vineyard was mostly planted.
• 4:16
  This is a 35 acre property and about 15 acres were planted when we purchased it in 2021.
• 4:23
  And what variety was that?
• 4:26
  Okay, so there's six varietals on the property.
• 4:28
  I look okay, which is what you're drinking and we'll talk about.
• 4:30
  Yes. So good. Sauvignon blanc, Chardonnay.
• 4:34
  And then those are our whites and then the reds are Gamay noir, Pinot noir, of course, and Pinot moony.
• 4:40
  Okay.
• 4:40
  And from the six varietals, we make eight completely different types of wine.
• 4:45
  So, for example, most of the Willamette Valley, you're going to get a rosé of Pinot noir, which delicious.
• 4:50
  Of course, we all love rosé of Pinot Noir, but we chose not to do that at all.
• 4:55
  And all of our rosé is actually from Gamay Noir, which I don't know if you can see it, but like it's kind of a different color.
• 5:00
  It's really bold and orangy and it's really delicious.
• 5:03
  And for you some to. Yeah.
• 5:03
  If you wanted it. Yes, please.
• 5:06
  I will never say no.
• 5:08
  The other really fun thing that you're not going to find tons of other places is with Pinot mini, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
• 5:15
  That's like your traditional champagne recipe.
• 5:18
  So that's what we make our sparkling wine out of.
• 5:21
  We only have one vintage so far because it takes three years to be bottled.
• 5:27
  So we just launched this one last fall, and we'll have another one this fall, but very cool.
• 5:33
  And so nothing was here except the grapes, right?
• 5:36
  When you bought this property or was there something else?
• 5:39
  There was a little house.
• 5:40
  There's a little house on the property for, I don't know, over 25 years, probably, but the tasting room was not here.
• 5:46
  Right.
• 5:46
  So yeah. So we learned how to build two.
• 5:48
  Yeah.
• 5:48
  What was that like?
• 5:50
  Like, did you guys already know a builder from like, your previous life as a realtor or like, how did you decide who to work with things like that?
• 5:58
  Yeah. Well, that was a process.
• 5:59
  We hired an architect first.
• 6:01
  My parents totally had a vision of what they wanted the building to look like and offer.
• 6:07
  Oh, this is a really special space.
• 6:10
  So we're sitting in our main tasting room.
• 6:12
  You have views east and south? Yes.
• 6:14
  And that's crazy.
• 6:15
  Yeah, it's really lovely.
• 6:16
  We're up on top of the vines of our property, and we also sit up on top of Culkin's lane so you can see vineyards all the way down the hill.
• 6:23
  You can see the Charlotte Mountains at one side, the Dundee Hills out the other side.
• 6:27
  It's really pretty to be up here. Yeah.
• 6:29
  And so that was the goal of the main tasting room, right?
• 6:32
  Views, open windows, lots of doors onto the patio, natural light inside.
• 6:39
  And then off of this room we have a lounge.
• 6:43
  So we call it our 1850 lounge because our family's been here since 1850, longer than Oregon's been a state that you guys are Oregon? Yes.
• 6:53
  And the lounge is like much cozier.
• 6:55
  It doesn't have vaulted ceilings.
• 6:56
  It's got an indoor outdoor fireplace.
• 6:58
  So there's there's that room and then we have a full commercial kitchen, which was really important to my mom, particularly because she just loves having events.
• 7:08
  She's worked with lots of caterers.
• 7:10
  And right, like you never have quite all the right things.
• 7:12
  So she was like, we're going to have the kitchen built, right.
• 7:16
  And the kitchen is mostly behind a wall, but it's partially open into like a 14 person table dining room.
• 7:24
  So there's this huge island.
• 7:26
  The stove is in there.
• 7:27
  So we've actually had like chef dinners in there where they can kind of put on a presentation and talk about and serve the food while they're preparing it, which is pretty special.
• 7:36
  And then we have like 2500ft² of patio.
• 7:39
  So, yeah, the right amount of space to be outside.
• 7:42
  Amazing. Definitely.
• 7:44
  And how long did it take from breaking ground to finish?
• 7:49
  Not as long as I would have thought for the size of a building.
• 7:52
  So we.
• 7:52
  Yeah, so so we hired our architect.
• 7:54
  They gave them the idea.
• 7:54
  We worked and worked and worked on that.
• 7:57
  And then we hired a builder.
• 7:58
  We worked with Showman's Sons, which is a long time Oregon family, and they've been in construction, I think Paul now the owner, is the third generation of the family.
• 8:09
  Oh, unskilled.
• 8:10
  And they do commercial scale building.
• 8:12
  They've been in wine country for a long time, too.
• 8:15
  And so then we had to scale back our goals a little bit, because turns out, all the things you want to do with the tasting room is maybe a little more expensive than you want it to be. Total.
• 8:27
  I know. Right?
• 8:27
  Everything in life.
• 8:28
  Yeah. Can we take off this list?
• 8:31
  But the compromising. Right, right.
• 8:33
  Once we agreed on exactly what would be built and, like, submitted the plans and everything, we broke ground in June 2023, and we did our final walkthrough in March of 2024.
• 8:43
  Oh, wow.
• 8:43
  Yeah. It was it was a pretty quick process.
• 8:46
  That's awesome.
• 8:47
  And so now that you've been open for about a year, how's that been going?
• 8:51
  Like it's good.
• 8:52
  We can always have more people coming in.
• 8:55
  Absolutely.
• 8:56
  Yeah. But it's been it's been really fun.
• 8:59
  You know, I think we took a lot of time and effort to make the space and what we had to offer, something that would bring people back.
• 9:10
  So while we did still do a lot of work to get the word out and try to draw people in, we cared more about, you know, the people that do come in, how do we make sure they want to come back and stay kind of more loyal to the brand than just an everyday walk in?
• 9:29
  Want to have a glass of wine?
• 9:30
  So it's picked up good over the I don't know, I let's see, we opened in April and felt like summer would be like so busy and it wasn't.
• 9:41
  But once fall hit and even through the winter and now the summer business has been good.
• 9:46
  Oh, good.
• 9:47
  Yeah, it's kind of interesting.
• 9:49
  Well, because it's so pretty when you're out in wine country during the fall, and I think a lot of people think like, oh, you only go wine tasting during the summer, but like an Oregon, the views are even breathtaking during the fall because they're all the different colors.
• 10:00
  And then all the surrounding trees in the area too are the different colors, plus some of the evergreens that are green.
• 10:05
  So they have like these bright oranges and it's so pretty.
• 10:07
  Yeah. So.
• 10:07
  And the grass is finally green again.
• 10:10
  Oh yeah.
• 10:10
  There's but like, I'm with your view, I'm sure you'll see, like a whole array of colors.
• 10:15
  So definitely check them out during the summer and the fall because you'll see two totally different views for sure.
• 10:21
  Yeah.
• 10:21
  What is something that you and your family have learned from start to finish so far?
• 10:26
  Like that kind of took you by surprise or like, oh, I never even thought that would be a thing.
• 10:31
  Oh gosh. Probably a little bit of all of.
• 10:34
  Yeah. Like all of it was nail.
• 10:35
  We hadn't been in the wine industry before.
• 10:40
  We hadn't been in farming.
• 10:42
  Yeah. Before.
• 10:43
  So I think just kind of the full circle process less about the building.
• 10:47
  You know we had done lots of house buying and selling.
• 10:51
  We had done remodeling so that that was less foreign, eat totally less foreign.
• 10:56
  That's a good way to describe it.
• 10:58
  But the whole farming through harvest, through winemaking was there's just there's so much and I think, I think for me, like, I love sparkling wine.
• 11:10
  So my like one thing that I never would have known is like, you have to hire a completely different process to make sparkling wine.
• 11:18
  Like, oh yeah, the rest of our wine gets made in one place with the same people, but sparkling has to be outsourced.
• 11:24
  And there's like only one company in Oregon that does that.
• 11:27
  So unless you have it in your house, which hopefully someday we will but not yet.
• 11:33
  It's on the wish list. Right, right.
• 11:34
  So that was a totally different learning process.
• 11:37
  Oh for sure.
• 11:38
  How did you go about finding the right partners and like hiring the right people to help guide you with the farming and the winemaking?
• 11:46
  Yeah.
• 11:46
  what was really important to us when we were trying to find partners was someone or, you know, companies that would teach us the process so that someday we could take that over.
• 11:56
  Yeah.
• 11:57
  And feel educated and very confident in making all of those decisions.
• 12:01
  But northwest wine is amazing.
• 12:04
  They have a team that does the farming side of it, a team that does the harvesting side of it, and then some really, really, really top notch, winemakers as well.
• 12:13
  So Laurent Montilla, who owns his own brands and has been a winemaker for many, many, many years, is our current winemaker.
• 12:21
  And then a team under him that we've gotten to know really well as well.
• 12:24
  And there is a wine made here on property, or is it made it off at a different location?
• 12:29
  It's all made at northwest walking. Yeah.
• 12:31
  So does he ever come here though, and like and or like act with the guests or.
• 12:35
  I'm sure.
• 12:35
  So maybe sometimes at a wine club pick up or something.
• 12:37
  You might get to meet them.
• 12:38
  Totally. Yeah. Him.
• 12:41
  And Ansari, who is kind of one of our main winemakers there as well, she comes a lot, actually.
• 12:47
  She's got good. It's awesome.
• 12:49
  And then I'm, I mentioned Wine Club because I assume you have a wine club.
• 12:53
  Of course. Yes.
• 12:54
  Talk about the wine club a little bit.
• 12:54
  What do people go?
• 12:56
  Oh yeah. Okay.
• 12:56
  That's for club members. Yeah.
• 12:58
  So most everywhere you go you're going to have a wine club option 2 or 3 kind of tiers.
• 13:04
  And each of those tiers get different amounts of wine and probably three times a year.
• 13:10
  And we have that.
• 13:11
  So we have we have our wine club which is one, two, three tiers.
• 13:16
  And you get, a case through three shipments in the first tier, two cases over three shipments and second tier three cases over three shipments in the third tier.
• 13:27
  And we actually just recently launched a social membership to.
• 13:31
  And so aside from your membership giving you wine discounts and wine access, we also do a ton of events and so are social members.
• 13:43
  It's very very low threshold to join.
• 13:44
  They have to buy like three bottles.
• 13:46
  And then they can opt in to being a social member.
• 13:49
  And they get discounted access on tickets and early access to events and things like that, because we really thought that the experience was just as important as, you know, your wine offerings here.
• 14:04
  So we definitely love throwing events, and we have a lot of them.
• 14:08
  And we thought that would probably be maybe not just as enticing as the wine, but certainly for some people.
• 14:14
  Yeah.
• 14:14
  For me, when I'm trying to pick a wine club or decide like, should I join the wine club?
• 14:19
  I always think about the wine first, right?
• 14:22
  Like, do I enjoy this wine?
• 14:24
  Because if not, that makes no sense.
• 14:26
  But also like, kids, welcome our dogs.
• 14:28
  Welcome. What are the hours as an appointment? Only?
• 14:31
  Because a lot of times I'll randomly want to just take a client and sometimes are just out and about, and I'm like, actually, do you want to go grab a glass of wine?
• 14:38
  Like, I'm a wine club member up here, and I'd love to host you and show you this.
• 14:42
  And so if it sometimes if it's appointment by only, that makes it hard to be like on a whim, you know, like, hey, let's go do this.
• 14:49
  But yeah, and then the fun events and stuff like whether it's a wine club pickup party, because those tend to happen at a lot of places, but the in-between stuff because like that only happens once a year.
• 15:00
  So it's like, oh, what's going on this weekend?
• 15:02
  I'm at home doing nothing.
• 15:03
  I kind of want to pop by one of my second home, such as my wine clubs.
• 15:06
  Well, and I don't know exactly when your podcast is launching, but we do have a concert here this weekend.
• 15:11
  Oh you do? Yeah.
• 15:13
  And so do you want to come back. Yes.
• 15:15
  Yeah.
• 15:15
  We are right now just for anyone listening we are recording in July.
• 15:19
  This episode will be in September.
• 15:20
  But so not I could, I could do a follow up you like.
• 15:25
  And I was back for the concert.
• 15:26
  It's just me, like, jamming on, But.
• 15:29
  Yeah. No, I love that you do live music a lot.
• 15:31
  Or we just started it this summer, so we did a concert in June with Hayley Johnson, who's a local.
• 15:37
  Yes. And amazing.
• 15:38
  And then, we have another original Oregonian country duo, Cloverdale, coming in in July.
• 15:46
  And then Michael Allen Harrison's band is coming in August, so I don't know that we'll do it throughout the year.
• 15:52
  I think the weather just gets too tacky and we should be outside.
• 15:55
  Well, there's other events and things you can do or like more like an intimate, like acoustic inside or something.
• 16:00
  Yeah, a little bit more low key.
• 16:02
  How has the transition for you been going from, like the real estate industry to your role and being like a part owner and like marketing and doing all that stuff?
• 16:11
  Like, what has been your journey throughout that?
• 16:15
  Yeah.
• 16:16
  Well, I mean, you know, as a realtor, like you're always marketing yourself.
• 16:20
  Oh, yeah. So so that came kind of naturally for me.
• 16:22
  And, you know, I'm kind of an open book anyway.
• 16:27
  So marketing totally fits me. Yeah.
• 16:30
  I think the bigger thing was, when we closed on this property, I had my first child five days later.
• 16:37
  Oh, gosh.
• 16:38
  So just juggling a few things, right?
• 16:41
  No big deal. Right. And so, I have my whole whole world changed.
• 16:46
  Just kind of right at the same time, you know, and, I kept my real estate license active and still did some transactions for.
• 16:56
  I don't know, maybe, maybe three more years after that, but it just felt like the right time.
• 17:03
  You know, my, my renewal was coming up.
• 17:06
  And do I want to pay all these fees?
• 17:08
  I'm not going to do it. Right.
• 17:10
  And so I just I just had to deactivate it and like, huge weight off my shoulder, I just it was not where my passion laid as far as a career anymore.
• 17:18
  And I loved real estate.
• 17:18
  I thought it was so fun.
• 17:20
  But then my family did this, and there is literally nowhere else I would rather work than for our family business.
• 17:28
  Well, yeah.
• 17:28
  And this is your view every day.
• 17:31
  Well, when you're here, every day is like when you're year.
• 17:34
  But yeah, I mean, I feel like who wouldn't make that choice?
• 17:38
  Especially if you love and enjoy working with your family and something.
• 17:41
  Well, yeah, that too, because some people would be like, you couldn't pay me to work with my totally.
• 17:46
  But I love that you guys have a really great dynamic and you all work really well together. Yes.
• 17:50
  Has that been a seamless process, or have you guys had to learn to like, communicate a certain way or have team meetings like, okay, we're not family right now, we're colleagues.
• 18:00
  It's totally been a learning process.
• 18:05
  Not so much in how best to communicate with each other because we totally I mean, we constantly cross the family line, like, we're we're never going to be the kind of people that, like, turn off family, turn on business.
• 18:16
  Except maybe my dad.
• 18:17
  He'd probably like that, actually, if we were able to do that.
• 18:19
  More like, can you stop with the feelings?
• 18:21
  But, it was more about like figuring out once we opened, like, what lane we were in, because before we opened, it was easy.
• 18:30
  Like, we all get input on all the things we were, you know, all doing it.
• 18:34
  Yeah.
• 18:35
  But once we opened, it was like, okay, we can't all be doing all the same things.
• 18:38
  We need to have.
• 18:41
  You're in charge the server, and this. Yeah.
• 18:43
  So that was a little bit of a learning curve.
• 18:45
  But we got there.
• 18:46
  We figured it out. Yeah.
• 18:49
  Talk a little bit about what we're drinking today okay.
• 18:52
  Yeah I'm really excited.
• 18:53
  So you are drinking obligatory.
• 18:56
  Yeah.
• 18:56
  Which is the second most common commonly grown white wine in Burgundy after Chardonnay but is like rarely made.
• 19:10
  And you can't find it in Oregon very often I, I there's only a hand.
• 19:13
  There's like ten.
• 19:14
  Yeah.
• 19:14
  In total in Oregon that you can get oligo from.
• 19:18
  So good. And it's delicious.
• 19:21
  I mean it's super.
• 19:22
  This is not very whiny of me, but it's super drinkable.
• 19:25
  Yeah.
• 19:25
  It's like crisp dry pear e kind of.
• 19:31
  It still has a little bit of sweetness though.
• 19:33
  Like because some people are like, oh, I hate dry wine.
• 19:36
  And that's why they don't like Chardonnays or whatever, right?
• 19:38
  I feel like this is a perfect blend of it's not overly sweet.
• 19:41
  So if you're not, like, wanting us super like sugary red fruit forward wine, right?
• 19:46
  Not like Riesling. Not. No. No green.
• 19:48
  Yeah. This is like right in the middle.
• 19:50
  It's perfect, I love it. It's, it was our, like, second most sold wine the first year we were open.
• 19:57
  People just love it because it doesn't have like a very intense palette.
• 20:00
  Which is great.
• 20:01
  Yeah.
• 20:01
  Because it makes it a lot more accessible for a lot of people.
• 20:04
  Well especially like if a seasoned wine drinker comes with a newbie.
• 20:10
  I'm glad most of the newbies are like oh dang.
• 20:12
  Okay.
• 20:12
  Yeah I can drink this. This is great.
• 20:15
  So it was a bummer for our Chardonnay sales, but love, we love being able to offer something kind of different.
• 20:21
  Yeah.
• 20:22
  And I think I mentioned so my rosé is a rosé of Kimmy Noir.
• 20:26
  It's a little more fruit forward than a Pinot noir.
• 20:29
  Rosé.
• 20:30
  But not overpowering.
• 20:35
  Not like any kind of harsh taste at all.
• 20:38
  It's just, like, very smooth and refreshing and a little different.
• 20:43
  And then, we make three levels of Pinot noir.
• 20:47
  The top is our heritage.
• 20:50
  This kind of cool bottle, heritage, 1850.
• 20:54
  Same as our club lounge.
• 20:56
  It's, in honor of our family heritage here.
• 21:00
  It's 1850.
• 21:01
  Yeah. And then, we also make a still Pinot noir.
• 21:05
  Pinot muni.
• 21:06
  Most of the time, if you have been and.
• 21:09
  Yeah, it's going into a sparkling wine.
• 21:10
  But it's really, really delicious and, delicate as a still red wine. Yeah.
• 21:17
  And then, oh, we also make a Sauvignon blanc.
• 21:22
  Oh, okay.
• 21:23
  Which is fun. And.
• 21:24
  Yeah, not super common in Oregon either.
• 21:27
  But because.
• 21:30
  Okay, so Sommelier Blanc is grown on our property in, like, the deep southeast corner.
• 21:35
  Okay.
• 21:35
  And that's down for us way down at the bottom of the hill.
• 21:39
  And it's very protected.
• 21:40
  So it gets nice and nice and nice warm down there.
• 21:43
  Whereas the rest of our property is like a much more typical Oregon climate.
• 21:47
  And so Sauvignon blanc, year after year is a little bit different here.
• 21:52
  And like here from Bottle Creek, I mean, yeah, and we're really excited about it.
• 21:57
  People seem to really latch on to that one as well.
• 22:00
  I like that you have a variety of different wines too. So, I've talked about this with a few others and stuff.
• 22:08
  We are in Pinot Noir country, so a lot of times if you're visiting from out of the area and you're going wine tasting, you'll start to get Pino blind because you'll taste so many Pinot noirs everywhere. Yeah.
• 22:18
  And I stole that term from Becky Potter, by the way.
• 22:21
  I love, you know.
• 22:22
  Yeah, she said that and it's like, oh, genius.
• 22:25
  Trademark that put on a t shirt.
• 22:26
  Because that's so true.
• 22:27
  Because, like, you are drinking Pino after Pino after Pino.
• 22:30
  Okay.
• 22:30
  But I still with all the right like, I mean, you know something true Pinot noir is my favorite year after year.
• 22:35
  I mean, you know, so I just was in California and they kept trying to give me Pinot noir.
• 22:40
  So I was like, you're adorable.
• 22:43
  And I was like, give me the cab.
• 22:44
  I came here for cab. Totally.
• 22:45
  I get Pinot at home, but I love that you can mix it up, too, you know?
• 22:50
  And so and not everybody is a red wine drinker, so.
• 22:52
  But again, like, if you're coming with a group of friends, the Pinot noir drinker will be happy.
• 22:56
  And then somebody wants something a little light and fruity and crisp.
• 22:59
  And then you also have bubbles, right?
• 23:01
  So like the whole thing, you have the whole spectrum.
• 23:03
  Right? And I'm glad you said that because I didn't mention it.
• 23:06
  But we regularly have three flights, so there's a mixed flight, which is very typical Oregon.
• 23:12
  It's like half Pinot noir, half Chardonnay.
• 23:15
  Then we have an all red flight, so you get to try all the different ones.
• 23:17
  Oh, and we have a Gamma Noir that's not rosé as well.
• 23:20
  So that's just like, yeah, I love a great Thanksgiving wine.
• 23:23
  Right?
• 23:24
  Like, yes, jammy fruity goes great with turkey. Yes.
• 23:28
  You need a little more flavor with turkey.
• 23:30
  So Italy and then we have an all white flight, which was really important to my mom because she's a big white wine drinker.
• 23:35
  So that like really, really helped sell her on this property to not that there was a need to be sold on it.
• 23:40
  Like, yeah, everything about it we loved.
• 23:42
  But being able to offer different flight options to people has been super nice.
• 23:48
  One it is nice because like, I'm somebody that takes a lot of people wine tasting that have like never been or like very rarely go.
• 23:54
  And so it's nice to like give them options too.
• 23:57
  Or like I don't know if you've noticed us when people come in like sometimes are nervous, like, I don't know what I, what am I supposed to order?
• 24:04
  You know, like, so like someone like me is guiding them, like, do you like white wines?
• 24:09
  Like, what do you drink when you're at home?
• 24:10
  And if you don't drink, what are you going to try?
• 24:12
  Like, let's figure this out.
• 24:15
  Speaking of like when you and your family were, like, collaborating, I just sort of this while you were talking about the wine, how did you come to the name of the winery?
• 24:25
  And then also wanting to do things like tie in heritage, like you guys being here since 1850 and things like that, like how did those conversations develop?
• 24:33
  Yeah. So we always wanted it to be like a family first business like my parents didn't want to do it if we weren't, like, totally sold in on it.
• 24:47
  So my brother works for the business full time.
• 24:51
  My husband works for the business part time like it is a full family endeavor.
• 24:56
  But we didn't really want it to be in our family name necessarily.
• 25:03
  So when we were thinking of different options we like look back at our like Scandinavian roots, like is there a cool Nordic name?
• 25:11
  But ultimately landed on Bottle Creek because when we, when my parents got into wine, like I was saying, we in the UK, we lived in a little town called Balsall Common, and we weren't just going to flat out name it after that, but there's a really lovely creek at the eastern side of our property and so bustle and creek, it just yeah, that totally fit the need. And and it was there a second part of your question.
• 25:36
  Well, and just like the marketing, like how you decided to like your labels and like all of that, like, did you get it like an expert to help you or were you guys like, oh yeah, I want to do like a, b, c, things like that.
• 25:49
  No, none of us are overly creative on our own.
• 25:52
  Yeah.
• 25:52
  But we hired Sasquatch Agency, and we've worked with them since almost the very beginning.
• 25:58
  They designed our labels, our logo.
• 26:01
  It was we had some years before. Totally.
• 26:04
  While that everything was being built.
• 26:04
  Yellow stuff.
• 26:06
  Oh, and then you asked about heritage specifically.
• 26:09
  And just like on that same vein.
• 26:11
  So my, my dad's great, great great grandparents homesteaded from the Oregon Trail about 15 miles from here and farmed.
• 26:22
  And so when we ended up with this property, we were just like, oh my gosh, like, what do you guys even know that I know, like, is it documented?
• 26:30
  Like, did people like, yes, we're in like, not Oregon Historical Society.
• 26:35
  There's there's a little museum though, maybe in Springfield.
• 26:41
  I want to say that they're like, on display.
• 26:43
  Their pictures are actually in the heritage 1850. Wow.
• 26:47
  That's cool.
• 26:48
  I love that, and I just don't think you hear that many, especially nowadays.
• 26:52
  Right?
• 26:52
  Everyone's a transplant. And so. Yeah.
• 26:54
  So definitely it's fun to be such an old family here.
• 26:57
  Totally.
• 26:58
  Well, and it's neat that you have like documentation that you were even aware of that because some people might have had family here the whole time and they have no idea because like, you know, history gets lost along the way kind of thing.
• 27:10
  I love that, for I mentioned that sometimes I bring like newbies, wine tasting and stuff was kind of some advice that you would give someone that's going wine tasting for the first time, or like questions that they should ask when they're in the tasting room, or any kind of tips and tricks you would give.
• 27:28
  Gosh, I don't know.
• 27:34
  Tips to someone that's new to wine tasting.
• 27:36
  I don't know, just enjoy the experience because not everyone is going to love wine.
• 27:41
  Not everyone's going to love everything that they try.
• 27:43
  And I, try to find a place that hands you a glass on your way in.
• 27:49
  Yeah. So the best.
• 27:51
  Which we do. Yeah.
• 27:52
  Rosé handed to you when you.
• 27:54
  When you walk in.
• 27:55
  Well, and the part of the reason I wanted to do this podcast is I love wine.
• 28:00
  I love the agriculture behind the wine making the business side of it just there's so many parts that go into it.
• 28:08
  But I wanted to showcase I feel like a lot of people like wine has a stigma of like, the end in it and the legs on This morning, like, you're doing well educated and also just like, yeah, well versed.
• 28:21
  And I don't think a lot of people realize like how it's really like just visiting someone's like living room.
• 28:27
  Like so many of the wineries like this one are, like, very welcoming.
• 28:30
  They want you to enjoy yourself.
• 28:30
  They want you to relax.
• 28:33
  It's not like a test or a no one's going to be rude to you.
• 28:38
  Like, like our staff isn't going to come up and be like, so what did you taste in that?
• 28:43
  Yeah, drink, please name three notes or get out.
• 28:47
  Yeah.
• 28:47
  No, but I think people get overwhelmed like, oh, I don't know if I want to go wine tasting.
• 28:52
  It's almost like when people go to the gym, they want to look a certain way before they go to the gym.
• 28:56
  I feel like they think they need to, like, know enough about wine before they go wine tasting and then like, no, just jump in totally fine.
• 29:03
  And actually you'll learn what you like.
• 29:05
  Questions to ask, things like that once you go wine tasting.
• 29:09
  Yeah. So, you did mention something though.
• 29:12
  Yeah.
• 29:14
  You said you were really interested in the agriculture, which got me thinking something that we haven't talked about that certainly isn't unique to us, but we have pretty extensive sustainability practices here.
• 29:25
  Perfect.
• 29:27
  So we're we're live certified vineyard.
• 29:30
  We're salmon safe.
• 29:31
  We're be friendly, farming safe.
• 29:32
  We have bee boxes on the property.
• 29:35
  We're looking at getting, more animal involvement over this next year.
• 29:39
  So, like hiring out sheep and goats to manicure the property and then, hiring out birds to, to, like, help with natural, vermin reduction and such.
• 29:54
  And, we have over 150ft of solar panels that actually I was going to ask about.
• 30:01
  Yeah. Oh, yeah.
• 30:01
  Did you see that one? Yeah.
• 30:02
  But, so there's about 150ft in the park and they have a charging station.
• 30:07
  If you have an electric car.
• 30:08
  We do. Yeah. Two charging ports.
• 30:10
  And then there's more solar panels on the shed on the other side of the property.
• 30:13
  And so we actually, what is the right term?
• 30:17
  We make more energy to send more energy back to the grid than we consume on our entire site.
• 30:23
  Yeah.
• 30:24
  Which I think is really cool.
• 30:24
  That is really cool.
• 30:26
  And I like that.
• 30:27
  It doesn't take away from the ambient.
• 30:29
  So like, yeah, the solar panels and stuff.
• 30:32
  I like how you have them kind of in, like in the parking area, but even in the parking area, it just looks cool.
• 30:39
  It doesn't look like they're just blocking and, you know, kind of ugly grass hills.
• 30:42
  Yeah, yeah.
• 30:42
  Well I was like, oh, look at them.
• 30:45
  And then I saw the charging stations too.
• 30:46
  And I was like, well that's nice. Yeah. Very cool.
• 30:49
  I love that because when you're out in wine country there's not charging stations.
• 30:52
  No there aren't just FYI.
• 30:54
  So it's that's an awesome option that you offer.
• 30:58
  And why not let your car charge while you're enjoying a glass of wine?
• 31:01
  Totally.
• 31:01
  I mean, if anything, if you're just out in the country, stop by to charge up and get a glass of wine.
• 31:05
  I mean, come on up. Okay.
• 31:09
  What is one piece of advice that you would give somebody that's like looking to get into business for themselves?
• 31:15
  Oh, like, not wine related.
• 31:17
  Just just in general.
• 31:18
  Yeah.
• 31:22
  I mean, be calculated in your choices.
• 31:28
  But don't be afraid of making mistakes you know.
• 31:30
  Yeah.
• 31:31
  And just be bold and that's easier said than done.
• 31:35
  But I, I like I said earlier like I'm kind of an open book like I'm not afraid of making mistakes.
• 31:42
  I mean, big ones, sure.
• 31:43
  But I just kind of put it all out there and give things my all.
• 31:46
  And you're also not afraid to, like, ask questions?
• 31:49
  Oh, not ever seek guidance.
• 31:50
  Embarrassingly, to most people in my life, they're like, oh my gosh, stop asking so many questions.
• 31:55
  Haha. That's funny.
• 31:57
  But yeah, no, I think just be bold.
• 31:59
  Like be confident in your choice and and go for it.
• 32:02
  Well, and I think that's important in any business creation is like understanding.
• 32:07
  You're not going to know everything. Yeah.
• 32:09
  And you can seek guidance from people not in your industry.
• 32:12
  Like, you had Sasquatch, you know, helping you with marketing.
• 32:16
  You had northwest helping you with the vineyards and things like that, like you've had other people helped putting input into your business.
• 32:23
  But that doesn't mean, like, you guys are bad business owners.
• 32:26
  If anything, it means you're great.
• 32:27
  Business owners agree because you're sourcing and leveraging other people's genius to help you.
• 32:32
  Nothing is worse than like pretending to be an expert in your field.
• 32:35
  Oh my gosh.
• 32:35
  Like, yeah, that's not going to serve.
• 32:38
  No. Well, no.
• 32:39
  It might work for a minute until it doesn't.
• 32:43
  And when it doesn't it's a big fall.
• 32:45
  Well, and not to speak poorly on anyone or real estate at all, but there are people that.
• 32:50
  Oh for sure, totally think that there. Yeah.
• 32:53
  No, I'm not going to ask a question because I, I obviously or I've had people tell me like, oh, I'm going to work with so-and-so because they specialize in, let's say, senior living, like seniors downsizing.
• 33:05
  And I go, oh, they do what?
• 33:08
  How did they get a specialty in that?
• 33:10
  Because I want to know because there are actual ways you can specialize in something. Sure.
• 33:14
  And then some people will have done two transactions, let's say were a senior was downsizing, and now they specialize in senior living.
• 33:20
  And they're like, no, you don't specialize in it.
• 33:23
  You just happen to have experience on that, that yeah, there's like two totally different things.
• 33:26
  And any business is that way too.
• 33:28
  Like it's you can specialize in it where you actually have credentials on it and then you can specialize in it because the handle. Yeah, kind of a thing.
• 33:37
  But yeah, I agree with you.
• 33:38
  Like just be honest too with like where you're at.
• 33:42
  And yeah, I've never had a hard time being the one to say, oh I'm actually not sure, but I can find that out for you.
• 33:49
  Yeah. I've never sold a vineyard before.
• 33:51
  One moment. Please, let me consult someone.
• 33:55
  Thank you.
• 33:57
  I appreciate you so much for having us here at your beautiful tasting room.
• 34:01
  Again, if you're listening, make sure you check out the YouTube so you can see it for yourself.
• 34:05
  It's gorgeous.
• 34:06
  Or come actually see it for yourself and do.
• 34:09
  Yes, thank you Emily, and cheers to you and your family.
• 34:14
  And thank you everyone for listening.
• 34:16
  Catch you next time. Cheers. Cheers.