Never, and I mean, never start a business... What makes a wine good? I think the answer to that is different to everyone. Personally, for me the most important thing is balance. Ideally a wine should be a harmonious balance of acidity, fruit and tannin. Acidity will help the wine age gracefully and makes it pair well with food. Too much acidity and it might be a little sharp to drink by itself. Too little acidity may mean that it just doesn't have what it needs to bring out the best in the meal that you drink it with. Personally, I tend to favor wines from cooler climates since the cooler temp ..read more

What is the best wine to pair with family get togethers. It really doesn't matter just so long as you have some... But seriously, here's my two cents on what wine pairs with what over the holidays. Holiday Parties: You can't go wrong with bubbles. The carbonation means the alcohol is delivered to your system more quickly. Hand your guests a small taste when they come through the door and you'll have them in the party spirit in no time. Our is another great party wine. It's fruit forward and easy drinking but still a lovely, well balanced example of an Oregon pinot noir, and it pairs with just ..read more

My name is Pam and I am a Pinot Geek This last week I’ve been a pinot geek. Last Sunday, Kyla (assistant winemaker) and I drank our way through the wines at the Passport to Pinot, which is the last event of the International Pinot Noir Celebration in McMinnville, Oregon. The event brings pinot noir producers and enthusiasts from all over the world to celebrate their love of this finicky yet beguiling grape. I had a huge crush on a 2017 Gevrey-Chambertin offered by Domaine Marc Roy, and not just because they have a female winemaker. The wine was a little lower I alcohol, which was much more agr ..read more

2020 sucked. I’m sure it sucked for pretty much everyone. OK.. maybe Jeff Bezos was skipping all the way to the bank, but for many businesses 2020 was a bust. Like many small business owners, I survived on savings, keeping things lean and working my ass off, which makes the success of 2021 all the sweeter. My sales have increased and are the highest they’re been since I took over the winemaking and began the Willful brand in 2011. When I started the business with my then husband in 2000, he was the winemaker, and I was the sales manager and sometimes cellar grunt. It was after we split in 2009 ..read more

A "punch down" is the term we use for when we push the grape skins back down in to the juice during fermentation. When we make white wine, we usually press the grapes as soon as we receive them and ferment the juice in tanks or barrels (unless we’re make a “skin-contact” white wine, but that’s another blog post…) When we make red wine, on the other hand, we ferment the whole grape, juice and skins altogether (sometimes even the stems too!). Those lovely grape skins are what gives us the intense color, the tannins and some of the flavors.  It’s basically a big soup of juice and grape ..read more

Why is it called "Willful" wine? Jun 22, 2021 at 11:15 AM ..read more

Comfort food and Pinot Noir for self isolation My boys are off of school for the next "who-knows-how-long" and we're self-isolating for the next week. Today we cooked Chicken and Dumplings. We made an extra large batch and canned some of it for our friends and relatives who are older and have compromised immune systems. It's super easy to make and goes great with the 2018 which is really affordable, just $18/bottle or $14.40 if you join the . Any new wine club members get free shipping for their first shipment too! Here's the recipe. It will feed 6-8 people.  2 large onions, peeled and cu ..read more

Easy slowcooker recipe from Harvest 2020: Chicken with Lemon & Ginger Food is important during harvest. When you're working 12+ hours a day, seven days a week for several weeks, good food is something that helps you keep going physically and it's something to look forward to during the work day. However, sometimes it's hard to know exactly when you'll be able to break to eat, so I prepared our crew meals in my crockpot. This recipe was one of my favorite harvest meals (and the crew seemed to like it too). The preparation is quick and it's super healthy. 1/4 tsp ground turmeric (I use 1 tbs ..read more

Easy beef stew with a little help from Julia Child.... I love Julia’s boeuf bourgignon recipe but these days, as a single parent with two teenagers in the house, it just isn’t realistic for me to follow it to the letter. This recipe keeps the essence of it but is a lot quicker to put together.  This pairs wonderfully with the newly released 2018 Willful Seven Hills Vineyard Cabernet-Merlot. 2 large onions, peeled and diced 1 small sprig of rosemary, finely chopped 4 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped 6 rashers of bacon cut in to half inch pieces (trim as much of the fat off as yo ..read more

The best way I've found to explain grape clones is comparing grapes to roses. A rose is a rose, but there are different types of roses, and each has their own unique characteristics in how they look and smell. Similarly, the different clones of pinot noir are all pinot noir, but each have their own attributes. Some are more floral and some more spicy. Some are earlier ripening and tend to be more fruit forward, and others are later ripening and are more expressive of some of the secondary flavors in grapes. And.. because it's pinot noir in Oregon, each clone will express itself in a different ..read more