Penner-Ash Wine Cellars
Have you ever walked into a restaurant, winery, or store and instantly felt brighter? Knew that this would be just the first of many visits? That’s precisely how we felt walking into Penner-Ash in October. Our first visit to Penner-Ash sealed the deal, not only did they make us (and our 3 month old) feel incredibly welcome but we loved every single one of the wines we tried (I’m a picky wine drinker, this is a feat I promise you). We left that visit as wine club members and forever Penner-Ash fans.
I am absolutely elated to share an interview with this fantastic winery with you. You’ll probably pick this up from their answers but Penner-Ash is full of rich people who make rich wine. I love everything they stand for. I love that they have a female wine-maker who followed her passion to Oregon with her husband. I love that making wine for this team is about making life fuller and enjoyable and they make wine with passion and excitement for putting an experience in your glass. A great quote from the interview is “we like to say you can taste the passion in our Pinot Noir” and boy can you. Also, okay, its just BEAUTIFUL there, you really have to see it to understand.
Okay I’m done (for now). Enjoy!!!
Tell me about the history of Penner-Ash. When were you founded and what was behind the start of the winery?
After making wine in California for several years, Lynn Penner-Ash became intrigued by the emerging wine industry in Oregon, deciding to take a chance and relocate to Oregon with her husband Ron in 1988. Upon her arrival, Lynn joined Rex Hill Vineyards, becoming the first female winemaker hired in the state of Oregon, and she continued to produce award-winning wines for the winery until 2002. In 1998 while Lynn was still at Rex Hill, she and Ron started Penner-Ash Wine Cellars, carefully crafting small amounts of Pinot Noir and Syrah. Their early success with the label allowed them to dream of what they could create and within a few years they began focusing full time on building Penner-Ash Wine Cellars. In 2005, Lynn and Ron designed and built a sustainable, gravity-flow estate winery surrounded by vineyards in the Yamhill-Carlton appellation of Willamette Valley. Over the years, Penner-Ash has achieved impressive growth and success, from 125 cases of Pinot Noir in 1998 to a diverse portfolio of Pinot Noir, Syrah, Chardonnay, Viognier and Riesling today.
What makes Penner-Ash wines unique?
Absolutely the diversity and breadth of the wines. The Penner-Ash portfolio spans across the Willamette Valley AVA and six of its seven sub-AVAs (note: the Van Duzer Corridor is Willamette Valley’s newest AVA having just been officially recognized in 2019).
Penner-Ash sources from its renowned estate vineyard and well as some of the region’s most distinguished vineyards, including the Shea Vineyard in Yamhill-Carlton, the Bramble Hill Vineyard in Ribbon Ridge, and the Zena Crown Vineyard in Eola-Amity Hills. The line-up of 13 Penner-Ash Vineyard Designate Pinot Noirs (meaning a single vineyard in the bottle) showcases the diversity of the Willamette Valley. Penner-Ash takes great pride in our philosophy of “intentional winemaking”, it has been Lynn’s motto from day one.To Penner-Ash that means working hand-in-hand with the vineyard to source the best fruit each vintage and allowing that fruit to come alive in the winery through different methods of fermentation and an extensive barrel program (Penner-Ash has 850+ barrels!). When you are tasting through the line-up of Pinot Noirs you get to experience— see, smell, and taste—the diversity of the Willamette Valley and really appreciate the uniqueness of each vineyard.
On the flipside, from these vineyards Penner-Ash also crafts a Willamette Valley Pinot Noir (a blend of select vineyards/sub-AVAs), which was the first wine produced by Lynn at the winery and continues to represent Lynn’s unique expression of Pinot Noir from across the region. Though we are known for Pinot Noir, Lynn also specializes in varieties such as Viognier and Syrah from Oregon’s Rogue and Columbia Valleys which are always fun additions to our tasting menus.
Penner-Ash has been described as a sustainable winery. What does that mean for how you grow your grapes and produce your wine? Why should consumers care about drinking sustainable wines?
Both the Penner-Ash winery and estate vineyard are LIVE certified— Low Impact Viticulture and Enology— which is the standard for sustainability certification in the Pacific Northwest, and also one of the most authoritative sustainability accreditations in the wine world. The Penner-Ash winery is one of just 48 wineries that hold this certification.
Along with the Penner-Ash Estate Vineyard, many of the other vineyards we work with also hold the LIVE certification, including Zena Crown Vineyard, Palmer Creek Vineyard, Hyland Vineyard, Aegrina Vineyard and Bramble Hill Vineyard, to name a few.
Being LIVE certified both in the winery and the vineyard means our grapes are grown and the wine is made to the highest standard to minimize environmental impacts, preserve agricultural fertility, and sustain economic viability for generations to come. And LIVE takes that even further by looking at an entire property, including non-grape crops, landscaping, building operations, labor practices, water conservation, even packaging must be managed to LIVE standards. It’s all about “doing the right thing” which is a mindset Penner-Ash loves and thinks everyone can get behind the need to protect Mother Earth.
Willamette Valley is a relatively young wine region, yet it consistently gets high remarks. What makes Oregon wine, and Pinot Noir specifically so special?
Oregon marches to its own beat. We like to forge our own paths and blaze our own trails. Yes, we’ve learned a lot from other regions. But we aren’t Burgundy. We aren’t Napa. And we love that. We like to experiment and push the boundaries but are fiercely protective of our land and the fruit that it provides us. As most winemakers will tell you, Pinot Noir is a challenging grape. It’s delicate and you have to be in tune with your vineyards and your winemaking so as not to destroy the intrinsic qualities of it. Combine that with the diversity of Oregon’s soil, climate, and the unyielding commitment to quality we have as producers and it’s created the perfect pinot storm. We like to say you can taste the passion in our Pinot Noir.
What wines are you pouring right now in your tasting room? Any consistent favorites?
Penner-Ash offers guests two different tasting experiences—a Signature Tasting ($25 pp) or a Seated Tasting ($50). Since Penner-Ash has the advantage of having a very diverse portfolio, we like to show it off and change each of the menus on almost a monthly basis based on what we are releasing from the cellar. What is consistent is always starting out with something chilled and light since our tastings are Pinot Noir-focused. Guests can expect to start with our Viognier or since it’s summer, our Roseo. But you can almost always taste some Penner-Ash signatures like our Estate Pinot Noir, Shea Vineyard Pinot Noir, and our Pas de Nom Pinot Noir.
Are there any wines you’ve recently released that you’re especially proud of?
As true Oregonians, we are proud of everything we put in the bottle, of course. But some current standouts would have to be:
2017 Willamette Valley Chardonnay. It’s Lynn’s FIRST EVER Chardonnay. Think of it as the counterpart to the Penner-Ash Willamette Valley Pinot Noir. It’s a comprised of chardonnay from multiple vineyards across the region. And it’s a wonderful culmination of the excitement that is happening here in the Willamette Valley and at Penner-Ash.
2017 Pas de Nom. It won’t be available until August, but we are in the midst of finalizing our annual Pas de Nom Soireé—an elegant celebration of the wine and the release of the vintage. Lynn first bottled the Pas de Nom in 2007. The name literally means “without a name” because each year we blend the best barrels across of the vintage and don’t reveal which vineyards go into the final blend. The wine is purposefully dark, more complex and brooding. It’s racy and spicy. It’s a sexy Pinot Noir deserving of a proper soiree and this year’s celebration will take place on July 25— we’d love to see some of your readers there!
2016 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir. It’s our flagship wine. Each vintage is different and allows us to put a stamp on what we think it means to be a Pinot Noir that represents our beautiful home in the Willamette Valley.
Besides the great wine, one of the things I love most about Penner-Ash is the culture you’ve created. The atmosphere in the tasting room is welcoming and cheerful and the team makes joining the wine club like literally being in the Penner-Ash club. How did Penner-Ash build its culture? What makes your team so excited to come to work and serve its customers every day?
First, we LOVE that you are a member of our Cellar Club and thank you for it. We love seeing familiar faces around the tasting room on any given day and being able to stay connected to our members thanks to Instagram and Facebook when they are enjoying our wines at home. The Penner-Ash culture starts, quite literally, with Lynn and her sense of community. She is a pioneer, not just for women in winemaking, but for the Oregon wine community as a whole. But for a long-time she was the only woman in the room. And with that came an extraordinary sense of confidence and understanding of how important it is to make everyone feel heard and respected. That translates into how everyone interacts with each other at Penner-Ash, we are a family. From the vineyard owners we collaborate with to the harvest interns that come and go. It takes a village to create great wines and Lynn will be the first to say it. Our winemaker Kate Ayres, assistant winemaker Lauren Wheeler and cellar master Nolan Ellis are shining examples of Lynn’s legacy of community, passion, and respect. Besides, wine is FUN. We come to work every day to make and share #KickAsh wines. It’s exciting, we love making people happy.
Why should people visit your winery? What would you tell travels from all over the world interested in coming to Willamette Valley for the first time?
This is an easy question to answer: our #KickAshWine and our #KickAshView. Sitting in our famed Adirondack chairs sipping on some Pinot Noir and taking in the panoramic views of the Willamette Valley is quintessential Oregon wine country. But if you’ve never been to Oregon or the Willamette Valley, the three things that will strike you immediately are the people, the passion, and the community. Our sense of community and the support we give each other is unique in the very competitive world of wine. And our passion for creating the best wines in the world reveals itself in the most delicious and quirky ways.
