I was first introduced to Craft Wine Co a few years ago, when I was in Oregon for Pinot Camp. Throughout the countless pinot noirs tasted, and numerous winemakers met, these fresh, pure, idiosyncratic and artfully labeled wines stood out. There is a wealth of wine riches in the Willamette, but I hadn’t experienced wines that were pushing the envelope like Chad’s. Schioppettino, Petit Arvine, Tempranillo, Furmint, Savagnin Rose, Grüner Veltliner, Mondeuse, Dolcetto… these were not grapes in my Willamette lexicon. In the years since, I’ve kept an eye out for these wines, and now I’m proud that we represent them in Ontario.

Craft Wine Co. encompasses three individual brands united in one winemaking facility in Carlton. All in the family, the three lines embrace authenticity and transparency in viticulture and vinification.

Omero Cellars was the impetus of the project, begun in 2008 to highlight the purity of the Willamette. These wines are meant to be benchmarks of grape and place.

Minimus was created in 2011 as a series of one-off experiments, and continues to be an incubator and innovator of wine, pushing the previously known boundaries of what Oregon could grow, and show. Through low-intervention winemaking, native ferments, various fermentation vessels, and numerous grapes and clones (many unique to this project), this exciting range charts a brave new future for Oregon wine.