Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/807387
62 { THE SOMM JOURNAL } APRIL/MAY 2017 At the same time that Earl Jones started his search for the perfect climate for Tempranillo, Terry Brandborg and his wife, Sue, were living in Northern California. Terry started as a home winemaker and launched his first label in 1986. "I cut my teeth on cool-climate varietals," he says. "We had long theorized that as climate change progresses and inland viticultural areas warm, we'd still be able to grow the varieties we love thanks to the cooling effects of air from the Pacific Ocean. At that time I was sourcing Pinot from as far north as Anderson Valley, in Mendocino County. We started looking for a site [to purchase] from Central Coast, where I had purchased fruit from Bien Nacido Vineyard in Santa Maria Valley all the way into Humboldt County." "We went to the Steamboat conference in 2001, and while on that trip we stopped by Abacela and got to talking with Earl Jones. We hit it off, and Earl recommended that we check out Elkton," Terry recalled. "I'd had friends from San Francisco that had moved to the Umpqua Valley. We toured the region together when I would come to visit and I got to know Richard Sommers and Scott Henry, and some of the early pioneers." "As soon as I drove into Elkton, I turned to Sue and said, 'This looks right.' We got home to San Francisco and I started look - ing at climate data and started calculating it out. I told Sue, 'This is the bullseye we've been looking for.'" "We didn't know anyone in Elkton," he laughs; "it's got a population of around 170, but we put an offer on the vineyard prop - erty where we originally thought we would put up our production facility in 2002. We bought the lot in Elkton. I designed the building. I brought the plans into the town clerk, she looked them over for a minute or two and said, 'Looks good to me; go get a building permit'—that was it! I like to tell people how hard it was." Elkton is the only true coastal region within the Umpqua Valley, the burgeoning sub-appellation lies just 36 miles east of the Pacific Ocean, and as in many of the coastal AVAs of California, cool air is funneled in from the ocean and channeled along a gentle grade that facilitates a strong maritime push. "Our own vineyard sits at a 1,000-foot elevation, just 25 miles from the coast. The geography of the Oregon Coastal Mountain Range is composed of layers of ancient seabed stacked up like an accordion. Our soil is quite red—the older a soil gets, the red - der it gets; when we dig down, we get into limestone," says Terry. { cover story } From Grüner to Syrah at Reustle– Prayer Rock Vineyards Similarly, Stephen Reustle and his wife, Gloria, came to the same conclusion in 2000—that the Umpqua Valley would be the ideal spot for growing the varieties they love. And like Jones and Brandborg, Reustle combed through prospective sites from Temecula to the rolling hills of Walla Walla Valley. "We left the East Coast and moved to San Francisco, which I then used as my base of operations to search for the ideal property to make world class wine. I put money down on 200 acres in the Anderson Valley and was considering another site in Sonoma. On a whim—we were just two weeks from closing—we decided to look at property in Tualatin. I wasn't impressed, and my wife and I were in a Winnebago at the time. She's from the Caribbean; it's not a culture that camps!" The Reustle–Prayer Rock Vineyard Syrah is a wine that conjures freshness, with pitch- perfect acidity. PHOTO: JOHN VALLS PHOTO: JANIS MIGLAV Terry and Sue Brandborg, owners, Brandborg Vineyard & Winery in Elkton, Oregon. The Brandborg Gewurztraminer struck a chord with tasters, who for the most part had trouble differentiating it from an Alsatian contender. PHOTO: JOHN VALLS PHOTO: JANIS MIGLAV "The Bullseye" for Brandborg