Brandborg Vineyard & Winery
“I started making wine as a hobby in 1975,” says Terry Brandborg. “It was more fun than my day job as a longshoreman in San Francisco. It grew to be a consuming passion.” By 1986, Terry was sourcing grapes from cool Anderson Valley and Mendocino County, and selling his Gewürztraminer, Riesling and Pinot Noir to top San Francisco restaurants.
It was while pouring his Pinot at an event in Wyoming in 1998 that he met “a cute redhead named Sue,” says Terry. “We started a correspondence with real letters. A year later, she joined me and fell right in with the winery.”
The couple began searching for a spot with cool, coastal climate terroir where they could devote themselves to making the kind of wines they love. “I had theorized that, with the changing climate, to do those kind of cool-climate varieties, the best insurance is to be located in a coastal river valley,” says Terry. They discovered Elkton in Oregon’s Umpqua Valley. “It looked a lot like the Anderson Valley,” says Terry. “We found climate data and I told Sue it is what we’d been looking for. And here we are.”
The California Wine Club first introduced Brandborg Vineyard & Winery to our wine club members in the fall of 2018.
The fabulous wines we featured:
2016 Love Puppets Umpqua Valley Pinot Noir
- 100% Pinot Noir
- Only 209 cases produced
- Pair with grilled meats or pasta with pan-seared pork or duck in a rich sauce
Tasting Notes: Lovely deep burgundy in color, with a bouquet that is an herb garden framed by tea roses with a background of dark cherry and blackberry. The flavors continue with a nice interplay between lighter blueberry notes and the darker fruits. The mouthfeel is rich and full, with pleasing texture and a zingy, cleansing finish.
2016 Umpqua Valley Pinot Gris
- 100% Pinot Gris
- Only 648 cases produced
- Pair with oysters on the half shell
Tasting Notes: Pale gold, with aromas of white peach, green apple, and pineapple. There are quince and peach notes on the palate along with strong citrus contributions. The mouthfeel is quite full and rich, with a pleasingly tart finish.
Winemaker's Notes
Love Puppets Umpqua Valley Pinot Noir: Composed from the most desirable lots from Westbrook, Bradley and Ferris Wheel vineyards, all dry-farmed vineyards with heavier clay soils.
Umpqua Valley Pinot Gris: Two vineyards in the Umpqua Valley supplied the fruit. The South Fork Vineyard at the confluence of the North and South Umpqua Rivers has sandy, deep, well drained soils. The Pace Family Vineyard in the Elkton Oregon AVA has similar soils but is windblown.
Oregon
Terry & Sue Brandborg
Sue Brandborg