Try the newbies!

James Rahn is one busy guy. In two years, he transitioned from running the wine program at a well-known downtown restaurant to planting a vineyard and turning a horse barn into a winery at Abbey Road. It’s a gorgeous and unique destination with a beautifully-crafted winery in Carlton. Still focused on unusual varietals, you’ll only find one Pinot Noir on the tasting room line-up and the Pinot Gris is a red one!

When I asked him if he considered himself a “natural wine” winemaker, he laughed. Yes, he believes himself to be making wine in the most natural way he can but he doesn’t like the trappings – or the confusion – behind the “natural wine” label. He greatly admires the winemakers in Oregon who are pioneers of the movement but would rather be known simply as a good winemaker.

For two decades, James has pushed well-known restaurants around the country to “try newbies!” – wines they may not have tried before from small producers. As he says, those small winemakers “have a vision that comes from managing a 100-case production rather than a 100,000-case production, so that’s their baby. And that wine, for better or worse, has more personality than the majority of large-production wines. I believe that wholeheartedly.” We agree!