My winemaking ambition never waned, from playing in friends’ vineyards and wineries, picking fruit at harvest to working for the Ponzi family at 14 years old, working for Rob and Maria Stuart (at Erath at the time) through high school, to applying for a winery job in Israel, doing a stint of study in Burgundy, experiencing community winemaking in the basement of the Enrico Biscotti Company in Pittsburgh, to my return to Oregon to work at Argyle. I started making wine at home while running the lab at Argyle, they sent me to Australia, bringing me back as a more skilled team member. After a couple more years, Rollin Soles told me he thought I was talented but without a degree would never be the winemaker at their company. At 25, I went back to school and started Remy Wines. I borrowed $30k, worked 3 jobs, started 2 brands (Remy Wines and Three Wives) and did something intentionally different from the start: I focused on Italian varietals in the Willamette Valley.
Remy Wines was born with a set of rules; all Pacific Northwest grown Italian varieties (sangiovese, barbera, lagrein and dolcetto were among the first), 100% varietal wines, extended barrel aging programs (from the start, my wines were barrel aged from 14 months up to two years) and sealed under a glass cork – no corked wines for this baby brand (cork processing has changed since I started the brand, allowing us to move to this more traditional closure). I was the first producer of Lagrein (a rare grape from Italy’s Alto Adige) in Oregon! I got my first write-up in Appellation America and I thought, this is it – the brand is launched! LOL. That’s not how it works. I started Three Wives at the same time to be able to make wines without rules, contrary to the Remy Wines.
You know how kids say one thing very definitely, but with a caveat that’s often a totally different thing? I wanted to be a winemaker, or a Hollywood actor, or President. The winery let me be a lot of things; winemaker is just one of them. All the other things I’ve been able to do over the last 20 years, I owe to Remy Wines.
Mayor; it’s uncomfortable to say, but my business underwrote my public service, both by paying employees to do things I could have otherwise done and by paying my bills while I worked a second, full-time volunteer job. Mayor was also one of the greatest jobs I’ve ever had. At risk of sounding self-aggrandizing, I made generational impacts and improved the lives of tens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) through policy that moved through the State. Mayor gave me so much, too — my fellowship at Harvard Graduate School of Design, whose lessons I brought back to both the City and the business – especially how design impacts human behavior and happiness. Remy Wines makes human-based design decisions because we “Design With Love,” as one of my teachers, Katie Swenson, named her book on Urban Design. I got to work with such smart people at the City of McMinnville; a good leader surrounds herself with them. I was really good at this job, and that in and of itself is rewarding. The real and unsung heroes of my mayorship are the team at Remy Wines that kept our small business running despite my frequent absences so I could do this work. I don’t know if I can ever thank them enough, if you liked me as mayor, say a big thank you to team Remy next time you see them, for me!
Remy Wines let me slide into becoming a community organizer; I had a physical space to share – first in McMinnville then in Dayton, Oregon; that unlocked multiple non-profits, built community events and served as an incubator for building relationships and other businesses. I get credit for a lot of these things, but I was just one cog in the wheel, and it was the community I surrounded myself with that built Wine Country Pride, The McMinnville Downtown District Wines and Wineries Association (a dissolved 501c3 that was no longer needed), Queer Wine Fest…What I should get credit for is my willingness to collaborate and open my business to possibility, the community built itself around the space. The achievements of these organizations are because of a lot of other people, too.
Innovator; I’m not scared of change, that’s hard for a lot of people, it also makes me a little fearless in trying new things! Hello, Drabkin-Mead Formulation, the carbon-sequestering concrete that launched a new business (Solid Carbon) in a different sector. I’m heading to Oregon State University next week to check in with our grape plant packaging product cohort. It was Remy Wines that opened these doors for experimentation and ultimately the possibility of worldwide impact. And it’s Remy Wines that has the first carbon-sequestering concrete floor (in the United States) and hopefully Remy Wines will have the first wine packaging made from grape cuttings!
Industry Leader; I am afraid of spiders, snakes, sharks and open water but being direct, speaking truth to power, taking on challenges, speaking my mind fully and perhaps a reckless willingness to put myself in harm’s way when I see something that is wrong – has put me in this role. This isn’t something you can say about yourself, it has to be something others say about you, and they have: Wine Enthusiast Future 40 Tastemaker of America, LIVE Excellence in Sustainability (Three Wives Vineyard is LIVE certified and Bee Friendly certified), Governor’s Award for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging in Tourism, Wine’s Most Inspiring People – Wine Industry Network. The winery and I have appeared in hundreds of publications, from major ones like Forbes, Vogue, Time and The New York Times to industry publications, regional publications, queer-focused news outlets, podcasts, and we’ve appeared around the world. I think that’s because it’s Remy Wines that is the industry leader – not me as an individual. Over twenty years, Remy Wines has been much more than just a business or a winery, it’s been an important part of a lot of communities.
Remy Wines never stops teaching, she’s taught me some version of almost everything I know about how to live.
Trust your instincts, your gut is your second brain.
Always choose the right thing over the easy thing; you’ll be able to hold your head up high and look people in the eye even when it doesn’t work out the way you wanted.
Believe you can change the world to be a better place; we’ve done it on a micro level over and over, and adding small amounts of pressure to even the largest scale will eventually tip it: you could be the last bit of weight needed!
Collaborate with your team, really collaborate, the kind where you actually listen and respond to the team, not yourself.
Question your process, even when it’s working.
Put your best foot forward, always; people notice, and the wine notices.
Invest in others and it will pay you dividends that have nothing to do with money. There is nothing as valuable as community.
Be kind. Be honest.
Be open to opportunities when they present themselves.
Dress for success.
Some of you know I keep a few slogans written on whiteboards around the winery…Plan your work, Work your plan. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. Clean wineries make great wines. Aristotle lives in my office: “We are what we repeatedly do; excellence, then, is a habit, not an act.” Making great wine is a practice, not a destination, not a trophy or a price tag, a practice.
The moments I hold closest from these twenty years aren’t the accolades or the harvests that went cleanly. They’re the meals we shared with our crew on long harvest days, home-cooked, a little punchy, and gratitude all over the table. Singing together on the sorting line. Being alone at the winery in the early morning hours before the sun has even greeted the day, a chill in the air, listening to the birds wake up. Or being the last one out, standing in the parking lot looking up at the night sky, naming constellations, drifting into memory. And then there’s the moment in the middle of a good event when I look around and see that everyone is having a great time. That one I never get tired of.
None of those moments happened alone.
It has taken a village to raise Remy Wines.
Annika Schilling was the very first Remy Wines employee and my first friend in this life. Even before she was an employee, she was helping me do the things she’s now been doing for a decade and a half; keeping us buttoned up, running in the right direction, and grounded. A centering voice through every season, every hard call, and every good one. Beyond operations, she has taught many of us here how to be better people.
Gretchen Phelps, my ride-or-die, has brought decades of wisdom, innovation, willingness, hard work, and more laughter than I can measure. Self-proclaimed “Remy Whisperer,” our history lends itself to conversations that happen without words and a shared understanding of both what matters and a constant reminder that we have to sell the wine.
It’s rare that a company can point to the same extraordinary people through twenty years of ups, downs, and unexpected things. We can. I am grateful every day.
Beyond the two of them, so many talented and beloved people have contributed over the years as employees, harvest crew, advisers, and affiliates. Some were here for a single harvest; some spent years shaping who we are. All of them are part of what Remy Wines is today. Jorge, CW, Ben, Hannah, Tor, Opal, Erin & Erin, Matt, Ralph, Miles, Sophie, Sharon, Diana, Tracie, Andrew, Baudel, Joel, Rachel, Cassondra, KC, Billy, Anna, Jenny, Jeff, Daniel, Alice, Kayt, Ryan, Stirling, Jessica, Eric, Mom and Dad. I am really grateful for the gifts each of you has brought to this business.
Together, we built more than a winery. We made a BIG impact from a small winery.
As we stare into the searing eyes of the 2026 harvest, it’s time to celebrate!
Inside the tasting room, we’re pouring a retro flight – the wines that started everything. Sangiovese, the reason I wanted to make my own wine brand! Lagrein – not only were we the first Oregon producer, we were the second to plant for climate resiliency, and we’ve remained champions of the variety. Three Wives Remy’s Red and Pinot Gris, which became our gateway wines, my playground and a wonderful way to offer wines that weren’t so cost-prohibitive. We’re pouring this retrospective through all of August, and offering them at original pricing – during our anniversary month only.
Outside the winery, we’re preparing for Opera on the Lawn.
We launched this Opera event at our ten-year anniversary and have been fanatics ever since. This year we’re going big, obviously because of the big anniversary. The Portland Opera singers and pianist will be joined by multiple members of the full orchestra. The morning opens with an introduction from Joy Youth Orchestra. The Portland Lesbian Choir performs in the middle of the program. Three hours of live music under the Oregon sky, on the land we farm, among the community that raised us. Tickets are $15, made possible by a generous sponsor. Plus cake, because we can’t celebrate 20 years without cake.
August 23rd, 10am to 1pm!
What comes next? I hope you’ll show up for us the way we show up for you; often, with good intentions and a willingness to find joy and participate. I hope to keep cooking for you. To show up on your table. To be part of your story too.
We didn’t just build a winery; we built a community. As we step into this next chapter, we do it the same way we’ve done everything here: together.
With so much love,
Remy and the gang
