Try the newbies!

James Rahn is one busy guy. When he’s not running the wine program at Portland’s Departure Restaurant or consulting on wine lists around town, he makes wine at the Southeast Wine Collective. His focus is on single-vineyard wines with minimal additions or manipulations.

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!