If you love Oregon wines and biodynamic wines, we have a treat for you! And, if you think you know Oregon wines, this episode is a must listen. Did you know that there are two major wine growing regions in Oregon? It’s true! Most people think about the Willamette Valley, which is where our guest Morgan Beck is making beautiful Burgundy style wines for Johan Vineyards. But we bet you don’t know that in Southern Oregon, where the climate and soils are much different, there are people like our other guest Vince Vidrine making beautiful Rhône Valley style wines, like GSM and Viognier, and Vince makes these wines for Cowhorn Vineyard and Garden. Both of these winemakers are focusing on biodynamic wines - which in essence means they let the grapes and the juice and the specific weather and growing conditions each year tell them how the wines should be made each year. And it also means that they try and do less in the cellar and be more proactive in the vineyard. This was an amazing conversation, and if you want to learn more about wine, you would be hard pressed to find two better teachers than Morgan and Vince!
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Show Notes
Special Episode! Meet the (Wine) Makers #13: Vince Vidrine of Cowhorn Vineyard and Morgan Beck of Johan Vineyards 00:00
We are really looking forward to sharing with you our conversation with two winemakers who are currently working in Oregon - Vince Vidrine who is the Head Winemaker of Cowhorn Vineyard & Garden and Morgan Beck who is the General Manager and Winemaker at Johan Vineyards
So, stay tuned to hear their stories and find out more about them both!
Introduction to the Interview with Vince Vidrine and Morgan Beck 00:24
Hello, and welcome to The Wine Pair Podcast! I’m Joe, your sommelier of reasonably priced wine, and for this special episode, I am on my own as my wine pairing partner in crime is busy making cakes for her Baby Cakes micro-bakery, which by the way you can learn more about if you head over to her website lovebabycakes.com.
Now, as a quick orientation to our podcast, what we usually do in each episode is learn about, taste, and review two to three wines that are reasonably priced, which means under $20, and should be easy to find. However, for this special set of episodes, we interview people who are involved in actually making wine. Because part of what we want to do with our podcast is to educate ourselves and you on different aspects of wine knowledge in a fun, entertaining, and unstuffy way, even fun and entertaining as Decanter magazine has called our podcast, and that is what we are doing today!
A small plug before we get to the interview with Vince and Morgan - if you like what you are hearing or are interested in hearing our other “regular” episodes, please subscribe to or follow our podcast so you can hear more - especially since you are only getting one half of The Wine Pair Podcast in this episode! You can also go to our website thewinepairpodcast.com to send us a note or subscribe to our newsletter, you can follow us on Instagram at The Wine Pair Podcast, and, if you like what you are hearing, you can even leave us a nice rating and review, we won’t mind!
Ok, let’s get to the interview with Vince and Morgan
Interview with Vince Vidrine and Morgan Beck 02:03
Hi Vince and Morgan - and welcome to The Wine Pair Podcast!
We are so happy that you are with us today, and we are really excited to learn more about you both. Now, I know that both of you are focused on making biodynamic wines in Oregon, but different parts of Oregon, and so I know we are all really interested in learning more about how you got to where you are today, and what drew you to focus on biodynamic wines. So, I think we should jump right in, and we’ll start with you, Morgan, if that is ok, and what we want to begin with is just a little background into you - your family, where you grew up, and maybe if wine played any part in your life growing up - and then we’ll dig deeper into other areas that come up
Interview Questions:
- Tell us a little about yourselves - your background, your family, etc.
- Tell us about how you got into winemaking. Was this something you had planned for and pursued, or did it "find" you?
- Did you have a mentor, or someone who taught you the ropes?
- What do you think defines you as a winemaker and makes you and your wines special?
- Why the focus on biodynamic wines, and how you define that, and sustainability?
- Tell us about a few of your latest releases and what makes you excited about them.
- Do you lean more towards the art or the science of wine (or both)?
- What’s something surprising, interesting, exciting, or funny you have learned about yourself since you started making wine?
- Are there any important or interesting stories about your wine or the people you work with that you think would be important for our audience to know?
- If we were to invite you to Sunday Night Dinner (a tradition in our Italian American family), what of your wines would you bring and why?
- How can people find your wines and follow you (your website, social, etc.)?
Outro and How to Find Vince Vidrine and Cowhorn Vineyard & Garden and Morgan Beck and Johan Vineyards 45:27
Thank you very much for listening to our interview with Vince and Morgan, and we hope you will take the time to learn more about them and their businesses.
Just in case you are worried about memorizing all the website or email to get in touch with them, don’t worry, you can find out all of this information on our website thewinepairpodcast.com in our show notes for this episode. But so you have it, here again is the information about how to find out more about them
For Vince Vidrine and Cowhorn Vineyard & Garden
- Website: https://www.cowhornwine.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cowhornwines
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cowhornwine
- Email: info@cowhornwine.com
For Morgan Beck and Johan Vineyards
- Website: https://www.johanvineyards.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johanvineyards/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JohanVineyards/
- Email: info@johanvineyards.com
And, we hope you will subscribe to our podcast The Wine Pair Podcast and follow us on Instagram, and visit our website at thewinepairpodcast.com where you can reach out to us and sign up for our newsletter, and you can also reach out to me at joe@thewinepairpodcast.com if you want more information, and we look forward to hearing from you!
But for now it’s time to go, and as we like to say, life is short, so stop drinking shitty wine.
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