Evan Rose is the reserve winemaker for Stoller Family Estate in Willamette Valley. The wine bug bit Evan as a teenager when he started working in vineyards in the Ohio River Valley outside Cincinnati. That early exposure lead him to study Botany and Molecular Biology at Miami University. From there, Evan worked harvest at Adelsheim Vineyard, and then spent the next four vintages as Assistant Winemaker at Meier’s Wine Cellars in Ohio, all the while Oregon was calling to him. Craving some international experience, he went down under to work a harvest at Craggy Range in Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand, before finally making it back to Oregon in 2016. Working with both Anne Amie and Paul O’Brien Winery, Evan knew he wanted to spend the rest of his career in the North Willamette Valley, and in 2019 his dream came true when he joined the passionate Stoller winemaking crew. Evan is a big wine geek at heart, and he’s fortunate that his hobby is also his profession. When not going down the wine rabbit hole, he enjoys hiking and camping in the Pacific Northwest with his wife and dogs. Media Inquiries: Hannah Guth HannahG@StollerWineGroup.com | https://www.stollerfamilyestate.com/
What’s the ONE THING most unique, authentic, & memorable about your brand?
The most unique attribute of the Stoller Wine Group is the tremendous strength of winemaking talent shared across the wineries. Few brands in the Willamette Valley have the depth, understanding, and expertise like ours. We have three distinct winemaking teams with members of diverse backgrounds and experiences, all within minutes of each other. Any time a challenge arises, there is most likely someone on our team with knowledge to share. This also creates some exceptional wines coming out of the cellar.
The 2023 Dundee Hills Estate Chardonnay is a combo effort between the Stoller Estate Wine team, which focuses on larger production blends, and Reserve winemaking teams, which focuses on small production wines. The teams have worked closely to bring the best components of each wine together in a new interpretation of unoaked Chardonnay (20% Concrete and 80% Stainless Steel). I look forward to watching the evolution of this wine and the team’s continued collaboration.
Describe how and what you’d do with your winemaking career or winery business if you were not constrained.
If the sky were the limit, I would like to take the Reserve Winemaking team to experience vintages in other renowned regions worldwide. Many of us were fortunate to work in various regions early in our careers, but there is never enough time to explore it all. At Stoller, we keep the cultural and enological exchange alive by bringing a diverse crew of domestic and international interns each fall to help us shepherd the vintage. They each bring a new perspective, and hopefully, they leave with valuable insights to take back home.
But imagine if we could open the harvest multiverse of inspiration and learning! An early vintage in Champagne, a Pinot harvest in the Southern Hemisphere, or a Cabernet harvest in Napa. As you said, the sky’s the limit.
What is the One Wine most emblematic of your brand and/or winemaking style? Tell us its story.
Our 2021 Reserve Pinot Noir is the wine that tells the Stoller story. From vintage to vintage, it consistently represents the best of what the Dundee Hills offers. Its beautiful red fruit, layers of earth, and rich spice creates a harmonious and full wine. When assembling this cuvée, we draw from the diverse “spice rack” that Stoller Family Estate vineyard provides each year. A wide range of clones, coopers, and fermentation techniques allows us to craft a wine that is a true reflection of the terroir. This wine drinks beautifully young and only deepens with complexity with age. Check out this wine review and why Evan chose this as his flagship wine.
Bonus Question: Why Winemaking?
I fell into winemaking by accident as a teenager. I often joke that I’ve stayed because I don’t know how to do anything else. The truth is the incredible sense of community within the winemaking industry. Wine brings people together, whether for celebration, dinner with friends, vineyard trials, or even sharing a beer while chatting about the long hours harvest brings. There is a tremendous community around us, from the vineyard to the cellar to the customer.