Bryn Mawr Vineyards

Bryn Mawr Vineyard is the consummate family-owned and -managed winery. It’s small. It’s hands on. The owners do everything. They plant, prune, train the canes, remove unwanted shoots, thin clusters and trim leaves. And that’s just to get the vines to grow grapes. Later, they have the task of turning fruit into wine, bottle by bottle, to produce around 1,000 cases annually. If you look up “artisanal” in the dictionary, you may see a picture of David Lloyd-Jones and Sharon Powers and perhaps their two girls and the family dogs. This is a working winery with everyone pitching in.

To appreciate the name Bryn Mawr Vineyards, you need to be there. The elevation is higher than other parts of the Eola-Amity Hills AVA, and “bryn mawr” happens to mean “high hill” in the ancient language of the Welsh people, to whom David and Sharon can trace some of their family lineage. So the name rang true with the couple when they arrived here from California in the late 1980s. The views of the valley below are spectacular; it makes perfect sense that their slogan is “A Great Place to Grow Grapes High on a Hill.”

They succeeded in planting pinot noir and tempranillo vines for themselves and other notable wineries. They emphasize organic methods for the vineyard. To this end, a flock of Dorset sheep often munch their way through the vineyard while depositing their organic contributions to fertilize the grounds.

By the way, this rather unassuming David Lloyd-Jones turns out to be quite the renaissance man. First, visitors need to appreciate that the tasting room and house that you experience were built by David — from the framing to the plumbing and electrical work. That’s on top of growing the grapes and making the wine. Also of note is that David is a poet as demonstrated by this verse:

In every glass of wine, there’s a view from a hill
Where a gentle wind complements the sun.
Where scent and touch of earth is warm,
And uplifts the spirit to soar
Like bird o’er valleys of grapes below.