Rusty Grape Vineyard

Unedited

Jeremy and Heather Brown had a problem. With one two year old and one in the oven they were running out of space in their small house. They needed a larger house to raise a family and that they did finding a fixer-upper one mile east of downtown Battle Ground. The sloping property of 5-acres provided plenty of space for a house and with the burgeoning wine business in Southwest Washington and nearby Willamette Valley they planted a vineyard. In coming up with a name, they settled on Rusty Grape Vineyard because “they liked the sound of it.” Well, that’s good enough for me.

This is a fun, unpretentious winery of the festive type. It reflects the personality of the owners – easygoing. However, the relaxed demeanor belies the hard work and ambitious undertakings of Jeremy and Heather. It’s no small task to plant a vineyard, make wine with little training, create an on-premise restaurant featuring wood-fired pizza, host live music performances and show movies on the lawn. It is reason in large part why they were voted Best Winery in Clark County in 2011 by readers of the local The Columbian newspaper. For a “laid-back” winery, you have to be working hard to garner nearly 2,500 friends on Facebook.

Rusty Grape makes cabernet sauvignon, merlot, syrah, sangiovese and pinot noir as well as strawberry and blackberry wine. While pinot noir enjoys a stellar reputation in Oregon it has not achieved such acclaim in Washington due in large part to little thing called climate. Still, that doesn’t keep winemakers from trying to create this most supple of food-friendly wine. About the quality of their pinot, noted wine reviewer Sean Sullivan of Washington Wine Report writes, “Rusty Grape’s Pinot Noir fruit is 100% from Clark County where the winery is located. The wine shows both some of the promise as well as the problems of Pinot Noir in Washington. The wine has an engaging nose but a palate that is heavier than expected for a Pinot. Still, there are enough good things going on that it will be interesting to see the results as the vineyard matures and Brown gains additional experience nurturing this finicky grape.”

Sean Sullivan’s use of the word “promise” is encouraging. This family is in it to win it. I’m sure they will keep trying.