edibleportland.com | 21 During an interview with Johan’s winemaker, Morgan Beck, and Vineyard Manager, Nathan Wood, they listed 16 different wineries and breweries that have worked with Johan fruit over the years. Many of them are household names in the conventional and natural wine scene in the United States. Few vineyards in any state can boast the number of cultivars that Johan has under vine, and even fewer can honestly say that they have embraced regenerative agriculture quite to the level that Johan has. The Bounty of Diversity After the full transition to Certified Biodynamic, Dan Rinke took things further with regenerative agriculture techniques and putting no-till farming practices into action. Tilling soil may conventionally be a good way to take care of weeds and invasive plant species and a pathway for a quick dose of nitrogen via the decaying mown and tilled material, but it disturbs the natural microbiome and mycelium layer that ultimately makes good dirt do what it does best. After 14 years at Johan, Rinke moved on to pursue his own label, Art and Science, with his spouse, Kim Hamblin. Grape grower and self-described "Grape Cowboy," Nathan Wood took up the mantle of managing the vineyards at Johan. It cannot be understated how difficult it is to work with 16 different grape varieties in a vineyard. Each grape ripens at various times, has its own eccentricities that need to be managed, and will often need to be on a schedule of tending that is entirely different than the grape in an adjacent block. Johan Vineyards has 50 different blocks of grapes growing across the 87 acres of vines they have planted! Despite being interviewed separately, Dan Rinke and Chad Stock used identical language to describe wine grapes made at the site. Both said the white wines grown at Johan have a signature savory quality. The reds, “sanguine.” You can’t make stuff like this up. As Scott Frank put it, Johan is a vineyard that was “Plan B for some early buyers. They would ask for fruit as a backup if other plans failed.” Now, it is hard to imagine passing up the opportunity to purchase fruit from Johan. Even still, Pinot Noir continues to be a difficult sell as it has been overplanted throughout the valley. There is a lot of supply and dwindling demand for the grape that once defined the Willamette Valley AVA. Johan was partly planted or grafted to so many grape varieties because both Rinke and Stock "saw the writing on the wall." They knew that having something other than a monoculture would always benefit the whole. And the grand experiment has paid off. To purchase some cool kid grapes from the site, a client must purchase a specific volume of Pinot Noir. It's only fair.
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