In 1998, Shellie and Bryan Croft were driving along a
vineyard road in the Willamette Valley.
The Crofts were viewing possible vineyard sites while working for other
employers. At one point, Shellie vividly
remembers turning her head to look over her shoulder. She viewed an aging farmhouse in the
distance. At that moment, a shock of
electricity went up her spine. She had a
moment of clarity viewing that home.
She then
turned back to the conversation in progress, the tingle up her spine
dissipating as quickly as it started.
Some part of Shellie must have known that years later, she would be living in that home. She and her husband would be raising their
children in the middle of those vines, calling that vineyard their farm as they
tended to the fruit that would be Firesteed Cellars' wines.
Most winemakers feel a connection
to their wines--a deep, profound link to the grapes, to the land. Bryan and Shellie Croft of Firesteed Cellars
have this connection; it comes from living on the land, raising their children
in the middle of the vineyards, and watching the vines grow every day of every
year. However, Shellie sensed this
connection so many years before.
Shellie got her start in wine during college
in Chico, California, where she worked in the service industry to make money for
school. One weekend she found herself in
Napa working a golf tournament. By 1990,
she was working there full time as a tasting room staff member for Silverado
Vineyards. At the same time, Bryan was a UC Davis grad who
was also working at Silverado Vineyards.
The two met, fell in love, and got married in 1998, the same fateful year
of seeing their future home.
They eventually moved north to
Oregon and were working at a custom crush facility owned by Wayne and Mickey
Flynn. Firesteed was one of the custom
crush accounts. In 2000, Howard Rossbach
bought the facility from the Flynns and turned the entire production area to
Firesteed Cellars, with no more custom crush clients. Rossbach retained Bryan as his winemaker and
Shellie as the cellar rat, making this upcoming fall Bryan’s twentieth harvest
in the wine business.
Firesteed makes nearly 85,000 cases
of wine near Rickreal in the central Willamette Valley, every year using less
and less outside-sourced fruit and getting closer and closer to being only an
estate-grown producer. Of course,
Rossbach and the Crofts specialize in the Valley’s best growers: pinot noir, pinot gris, riesling, and
gewürztraminer.
Shellie starts our tour in the lab
to help us get to know these Firesteed favorites; she considers this area her
domain. We then follow her to the
vineyards, literally just days away from bud break at the time of our visit.
Though she considers this Bryan’s area of expertise, he is away that day
lecturing at OSU. I’ve seen the pictures
of Shellie’s hard work in the vineyards, right by Bryan’s side, so I know she
is very knowledgeable in this realm, as well.
We make our way back to the
production area and then barrel room, to the exact spot Shellie suffered quite
an injury several years ago when falling off a barrel stack while working. Though this wound has healed, at the time of
our visit she was nursing a cracked heel, another winery injury from this fall’s
cellar work. It is a reminder of the genuine
hard labor it takes to make wine; this is not a profession for the weak or faint-of-heart—Shellie and Bryan are neither.
Amidst the barrels, Shellie lets us
taste her “Shellie Chard,” the 2015 chardonnay still sitting on its lees. This barrel is actually for the Citation
label also produced by Firesteed; these wines are small-lots using only fruit
from the Erratic Oaks vineyard, the spot Shellie and family call home. The inspiration for Shellie’s chardonnay is a
very early wine tasting experience she had in Napa. She was blind tasting chardonnays, and one--with its light oak and unmistakable fruit--seemed so remarkable to her. She remembers it as “Wine C,” which turned
out to be a Kistler Chardonnay. It is
what set her palate for every chardonnay since.
All the Firesteed wines are excellent examples of their terroir. I
first fell in love with the Firesteed Riesling, made in a wonderfully dry style
that still shows the characteristic apple and floral notes with just a slight hint
of petrol—my favorite. Next, the
Firesteed Pinot Gris is a quintessential example of the Oregon style—light with
zippy acid and white fruits.
I had my first taste of the
Firesteed Rosé (from pinot noir, of course) after my visit: a beautiful shade of pink--with hints of
strawberry, grass, and honeysuckle--that makes me long for summer and a
patio. Finally, my other long-time
favorite is the Firesteed Pinot Noir.
Filled with bright cherry, fresh strawberry, slight mint, and wet earth,
it is has become my go-to pinot, an outstanding example of an Oregon noir at an
amazing price point.
The connection Shellie and Bryan
have to Firesteed wines can be sensed in every sip. Shellie knew this connection was meant to be
nearly twenty years ago when she spied her current home for the first time, years
before Howard Rossbach appointed her husband to be the winemaker at
Firesteed.
Raising their children in the middle
of the vineyard at Erratic Oaks gives Bryan and Shellie Croft a deep appreciation
for the vines that make Firesteed Cellars' wines. The terroir is reflected so well in Bryan’s
wines because he lives in that spot, in that place where his wines actually
begin. The distance between the land and
the glass has never been as short as it is for Firesteed wines.
