Dai Crisp went to school at OSU for theatre and photo-journalism, and then earned a MFA at UC Irvine.  After returning to Oregon from his studies, he went on to “do what you do when you leave acting school” and began working vineyards in the southern end of the Willamette Valley.  He planted his family’s farm, Wren Vineyard, in 1985 and never looked back.  Always farming organically, he moved into vineyard management for a number of well-regarded wineries in the area.  He has been at the helm of Temperance Hill for the past 20 years and is considered to be one of the best wine growers in the state.  He and his wife PK started their own wine label, Lumos Wines, in 2000.

Temperance Hill is a cooler site, consisting of varying slopes and exposures.  The vineyard looks straight out over the Van Duzer corridor, the large break in the Oregon coast line, receiving the full effects of the famed afternoon winds that pull in cooler air from the Pacific ocean, allowing great ripening capabilities in the area. This is why we choose to split the Gris from this special site into two picks, separated by almost a full two weeks. The added airflow from the coastal winds allows us to hang the fruit for quite some time, making a richer, fuller showing of gris. The earlier pick allows us to capture more acidity and balance in the final wine.

Diane Nemarnik farms a little slice of paradise in the Chehalem Mountain range.  Diane comes from a family with a long history in farming and produce.  She wanted to own and operate a vineyard since she was in high school.  “I think it was just something that was in my blood.”

‍

Johan Vineyards is an 85-acre certified-Biodynamic Estate winery in the Van Duzer Corridor. The project first started in 2005, and by 2007 the path to Biodynamics was well underway. The Johan crew has been unbelievably supportive of the Maloof project since we first started working together in 2017. Today, Nathan Wood focuses on the farming program, while Morgan Beck heads up the cellar team. The Johan crew continues to push the envelope in Oregon in both farming and winemaking. Drink their wines!

Jon and Laura Jennison moved their family from the east coast to the Dundee Hills of Oregon in 1996 to pursue their dream of producing wine from their own organically farmed vineyard. The vineyard was planted in 2000 to Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, and Pinot Blanc. The vineyard is now owned and farmed by Cody Wright from Purple Hands winery. Maloof Wines continues to source all of the fruit from the only two blocks of Pinot Gris on the site, which is used to make "Thistle Pinot Gris".

Marlene and Thomas Woodward farm their high elevation home vineyard in the White Salmon Valley. Gewürztraminer was originally planted at this site in the early 1980s. More recently, both Pinot Noir and Chardonnay have been grown on the high elevation, south facing slopes. The site is in the foothills of Mt. Adams, and produces some of the best fruit from the region.

The vines that started it all. After a meticulous search, David and Diana Lett moved the first 3000 vines in the Willamette Valley here from their 1965 nursery site right down the road after David traveled the world to find the perfect place to grow grapes. He is revered by the Oregon winemaking community as a true pioneer, shaping what we know today as the Oregon wine industry. He planted the vines in this original plot, using material from UC Davis’ plant foundation services as a nursery plot in 1965, while he meticulously searched for the absolute perfect site. Named after the nest (or “eyrie”) of red-tail hawks living at the site, hawks still nest here every year.

Herb comes from a family of California winemakers, and has fully engaged himself in the southern Oregon wine industry. He farms his home sites, as well as a slew of other organic vineyards in southern OR under his "Applegate Vineyard Management" umbrella alongside his mother in law. He also owns and operates Quady North winery. Eevee’s blocks is the second vineyard plot Herb planted on his home property, just on the next slope from his Mae’s vineyard, and is where the fruit for Wax on, Wax Soif red came from in vintages 2017 and 2018.

In 2019, we began sourcing additional fruit from another vineyard under Herb’s umbrella right down the road, Steelhead Run vineyard. This is a very cold, riverside vineyard in the Applegate Valley, owned by the farmers Ron and Laurie Burley since 1989, when they retired from their respective careers in the semiconductor industry. They planted the site in 1993 to mostly Rhone varieties.

Since the 2019 vintage, the "Wax on, Wax Soif" red is produced entirely from SteelheadRun, while the "Soif Blanche" is produced entirely from Eevee’s.

Onesimo “Ony” Mora, and his brother Valentine rent and farm a series of smaller vineyards scattered through the northern Willamette Valley. Many of these sites are unnamed, and often sit on residential properties. All of the sites are farmed following an organic program meticulously, though most are not certified due to the size and need of the parcels. These sites are crucial pieces of our comic book series wines “Where yaPJs at?” and “l’eau épicée".