Winemaking is first a dialogue - it begins between winemaker and nature, as he navigates the idiosyncrasies of his fields and cellar. And each bottle tells a story, of its earthly origins, of its winemaker’s hand. Doug Tunnell, however, first honed his storytelling craft in an altogether different space: as a foreign correspondent for CBS. Doug’s passion for wine was cultivated during his stations in Germany and France, and in 1988, he learned that Burgundy’s Domaine Drouhin had purchased property in Oregon’s Willamette Valley - where his own story began.

A year later, Doug found himself home on Ribbon Ridge, standing before a brick house at the center of a forty acre plot of potential. He had set out, from day one, to be a an organic winegrower. This distinction, a grower – and not just a maker – informs every choice he makes in the preparation of his fruit, and his process in the cellar. His organic certification was soon followed by an engagement with biodynamic principles in 2002, and biodynamic certification in 2005. Through these humbling practices, Doug upholds the vineyard as a living organism, benefitting of the fruits of biodiversity.

Owning an estate vineyard, in which he lives surrounded by his vines, provides Doug with a privileged intimacy that is illustrated in each of his Brick House wines. The grace by which Doug navigated the world to share its critical stories is illustrated here, too. In the midst of both harmony and adversity, Doug treats winegrowing as a humble experiment, beautiful and ongoing, to be shared with us all.

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