One question we get asked the most is “How did Teutonic get started?” to which I say “It’s a long story. Do you want to hear it all?”
Teutonic came to be with no real plan and neither of us had any experience in the wine industry. However, with Barnaby’s determination and a little luck, we created a product and brand identity influenced by Barnaby’s inspiration and love of German Rieslings.
It was 2002 when Barnaby was the general manager and wine buyer at Papa Haydn restaurant, one of Portland’s favorite long-standing institutions. German wine importer, Ewald Moseler, brought 14 different Rieslings from the Middle Mosel for Barnaby to taste. This was Barnaby’s “Aha moment.” He was blown away by how each Riesling tasted so different from one another, considering they were from the same region. The terroir in the Mosel is composed mostly of slate, rocks and very little dirt. There are several different slate colors—blue, red, and grey—and each one produces a different flavor profile in the grapes. Depending on which slate composition the vines grow on, their varying tastes can be dramatic. Barnaby bought all fourteen Rieslings for his wine list, creating Portland’s most extensive German wine program. That evening he came home and announced to me, “I’m going to need to quit my job so I can learn how to make wines that inspire me like these Rieslings from Germany.”
In 2005, a unique opportunity fell into our lap. Barnaby and I were having dinner with family and friends. I was busy chatting with the person next to me when Barnaby tapped me on the shoulder and said “Hey, Gisela said we can plant grape vines on her farm in Alsea. Isn’t that great?!!” I must have nodded, as I don’t even recall this micro conversation because the next day, Barnaby called me at work and asked me which credit card he should use. “For what?” I asked. “For the grape vines I’m about to buy. You know, for the vineyard we are going to plant in Alsea. I told you that last night.”
Later that year, we had two thousand vines in the ground at a little farm in Alsea, Oregon, just 19 miles from the coast as a crow flies. We had no vineyard experience, equipment or financial backing. For the next three years, Barnaby and I and sometimes friends (when we could convince them), would drive down on weekends to mow, prune, hedge, spray, plant ground cover, and leaf-thin our two-acre vineyard.
By 2008, Barnaby was really itching to make more wine than the small amount he was making with fruit we bought at a U-pick farm in Canby, which he would ferment in glass carboys with commercial yeast. So his next big move was to leave the restaurant (steady paycheck) and take a job as a cellar rat at a winery (half the pay) in Carlton, the heart of Oregon’s wine country. He learned how to drive and fix a forklift, clean barrels, climb up barrel racks stacked 14 feet high to top off the wine, and clean virtually everything in the cellar. In the fall of 2008, our Alsea vineyard produced our first crop and we made just a few barrels of wine. Later, the following year, after the wines were finished and bottled, we had a lot of wine to sell. That’s when we realized we needed to form a company and begin our lives as winemakers, sales people, publicists, accountants and all the other hats we wear.
Today, we make between four and six thousand cases a year. The varieties include Riesling (of course), Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Gewürztraminer and recently we added Viognier and Grüner Veltliner to the lineup. Barnaby also likes to create blends and experiment with fermenting in amphorae, whole cluster versus de-stemmed fermentation, extended skin contact and adding flor yeast from one barrel to another. While we still make wine from the vineyard in Alsea, we also source fruit from other vineyards around the Willamette Valley. It’s important to us that we only work with vineyards that are dry-farmed (no irrigation) and, ideally, have older vines (20 years or older) and are high elevation, cooler sites. Cooler temperatures allow the fruit to hang longer on the vines without over-ripening or the sugar levels getting too high, but while still allowing them to develop physiologically for more complex flavors.
In the winery, we only use wild yeast we source from each vineyard site, creating a pied de cuve (a traditional French technique for making a yeast starter) and use only the yeast from the vineyards to ferment the wines. Our fermentation vessels include neutral oak barrels, clay amphorae, and traditional fermentation bins for the reds (primary fermentation only) and then they go into barrel. We made this easy to remember by adding on our back label “Old & Cold, High & Dry, Wood & Wild.”
Since 2009, we have also been managing a really amazing vineyard just thirty miles south of Portland. The Wahlstrom Vineyard is planted on a decommissioned gravel quarry which consists mostly of rocks, gravel and basalt. The ground here is so perfect for growing wine grapes, in addition to Pinot Noir, we just had to plant some Riesling on the steepest part of the vineyard which we call “Slayer Block.”
Regardless of which wines Barnaby makes, the wines are consistently delicious, food friendly and priced competitively for the wine market. We are thrilled that some of our wines have landed on top-rated restaurant wine lists across the country.
We are now taking appointments for private tastings. Please visit our Private Tasting page and select the date and time that works for you! Our winery is also open Thursday through Sunday, 12 to 6 pm. Stop by and check out our extensive selection of wines.
Thanks for taking the time to read about us. Stay safe, be well, and drink good wine.
Cheers,
Olga & Barnaby Tuttle
Proprietors