Rachel Rose graduated with her B.S in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Fresh out of college and working in a Biotech research lab, she never imagined herself elbow deep in roiling ferments within just a few years; however, wine finds a way. For her, it came through food. Cooking was her hobby through college and her first couple years of professional life, and as she gained a job with stable income, she was able to start pairing her meals with wine. Each wine she tried opened her eyes to new regions and new varietals, and she picked up a job in a tasting room on weekends to grow this newfound interest. Meeting with a winemaker, she realized that not only were geography and climate huge factors in wine, but biology and chemistry as well. Wine quickly became a fiery passion, but unlike most passions, her education was shockingly relevant to this particular one. She realized she might have that chance that every 20-something dreams of, the chance to explore the world with an active, hands-on profession that could lead to a professional future. Already feeling exceedingly restless in the lab setting, she debated what and where to study before taking off for Australia to learn viticulture for a year.

One year became three years, by the end of which she had her M.S. in Oenology and a postgraduate diploma in viticulture. At the University of Adelaide in South Australia, she had a unique educational opportunity. South Australia has an exceedingly diverse set of converging climates. Hundreds of varietals can grow successfully in a relatively constrained space. The University provided a working winery so Rachel could play with this stunning array of grapes in a hands-on, experiential fashion, with a focus microbiology and soil chemistry. In the Adelaide Hills, Rachel discovered Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, igniting a love affair that grows stronger to this day. She knew either Burgundy or “the New Burgundy,” AKA Oregon, were in her future, and as a non-French speaking American woman, the latter seemed to make the most sense. To help that decision to come back to the West Coast were family and a young musician/artist named Liam Stary, who Rachel met just a few months before she left for Australia. Liam and Rachel would live on site for our first five years, and she nurtured wines of stunning complexity and character from her young vines. She’s become the beating heart and soul of Bryn Mawr, and the Lauers were smart enough to recognize how lucky they were to have her.

Rachel is an adaptive and experimental winemaker who bridges the gap between natural and conventional winemaking. She is remarkably prolific. making an array of unique wines that require adept skill and technical knowledge. Her primary winemaking philosophy focuses on minimal use of SO2, judicious use of new French oak, and continual experimentation. Through contemplative intervention in the vineyard and the cellar she aims to express and elevate the unique characteristics of each vintage of wine she makes. She knows how bridge the artistic creativity that’s the lifeblood of the wine industry with a modern understanding of biochemistry necessary for understanding the building blocks of her wines; this allows her to envision what she wants her wines to be while allowing her the tools to achieve those goals. Her appreciation for many different winemaking philosophies combined with her refusal to be dogmatic makes her one of the most exciting winemakers on the West Coast, reminding us that wine can be fun, serious, educated, and pretty wild!

 

Jon and Kathy Lauer grew up in small towns in the midwest with rather religious families. Early contact with wine was limited to communion, wine coolers, and maybe a white zinfandel thrown in the mix. When they met at a hearing in Yuma, Arizona, Jon had recently moved to San Diego and Kathy was still in law school at the University of Michigan, where Jon also received his J.D. Four weeks after that hearing, they were engaged, and four more weeks after that, they hopped in a car and went on their first road trip up the California Coast to visit Jon’s sister in the Bay Area. Spur-of-the-moment decisions would become a defining fixture of their lives together.

The California wine industry in the 80s was in a golden age. A couple decades of establishment and global recognition had raised the bar for quality, yet tour busses and long, packed tasting bars were still a thing of the future. From Santa Barbara to the Russian River Valley, great wines were being produced along the West Coast in small, family owned wineries. This trip was a flashbulb moment in their history; they both clearly recall the Newton unfiltered Chardonnay brought to them at the Sardine Factory in Monterrey. It exploded any preconceived notion they shared about wine. A day trip to the local wine regions was added to the itinerary, where they had the chance to meet the growers and winemakers defining their culture. The seed was planted for a lifelong passion that would come to determine the fate of their family.

That family, though, still had to be had. First was Jeffrey in ‘89, followed by Krista in ‘92, then David in ‘94. Raising their kids came first, but wine was constantly macerating on the back of their minds. Family trips weren’t to beach resorts but to wine country, where the kids would play tag outside while Jon and Kathy expanded their knowledge. Their social group revolved around monthly wine dinners where they and other aficionados explored wine regions throughout the world. Jon would pick the wines and Kathy would create food pairings, becoming quite the skilled gourmet cook in the process. By the late 90s, they both knew that growing grapes and making wine was an undeniable urge, and Jon, growing frustrated with corporate tax litigation, took the leap.

He started with an online winemaking course at UC Davis followed by planting half an acre of Italian varietals on the family’s hillside home in San Diego. As a recently retired, full time stay-at-home dad, he could tend to the site while the kids were in school, and within a few years he was producing some surprisingly drinkable table wine. The goal, though, was not to make drinkable wine, it was to make great wine. That just wasn’t possible in San Diego’s monotonous climate, and by the turn of the 21st century, California’s wine regions had changed. Not only was land prohibitively expensive, but the climate was shifting and water pressures were beginning to set in. But even more importantly, the humble and grounded nature of the young industry was lost as it matured, and Jon found himself thinking a little more to the North.

Oregon had been Jon’s conscience since the mid 1990s, and he visited with David in 2002. While David was hunting waterfalls with his grandparents, Jon toured several different AVAs, but a last second stop in the Eola-Amity Hills grabbed his heart. Here, he found his holy grail, those smaller, family-owned wineries making stunning wine in a non-pretentious setting. It was everything he loved about the wine industry, everything he and Kathy dreamed of doing one day. Plus, it was refreshingly green. After 30 years of San Diego’s uniform shades of browns and yellows, he needed that. All that was left was finding the land, which he did in the late 2000s. Bryn Mawr Vineyards was a tiny winery that needed a lot of love, but he saw the depth and potential in the few wines produced and the stunning neighborhood around it. Kathy was convinced by his enthusiasm to go forward with him, and another spur-of-the-moment decision brought them to Bryn Mawr Vineyards in December 2009.

Initially, Jon was planning to learn how to make Pinot Noir and Chardonnay on the job, but he quickly realized he was in over his head. These varietals in this climate were exponentially more difficult to grow and maintain than what he had done in San Diego, and the bar for quality in this neighborhood was astronomical. However, in a ridiculously lucky twist of fate, a young winemaker had answered the previous owner’s ancient advertisement on the Chemeketa message boards for someone to live onsite and manage the vineyard just a week before they bought the property. They met this young woman with a mind-blowing résumé and hired her on the spot to take over vineyard and winery operations. Suddenly, they had a winemaker.

When The Lauer family took over operations at Bryn Mawr Vineyards on January 1, 2010, there were 4 acres of established grapes and a whole lot of promise… and that’s about it. Sheep ran loose in the vines, three stray roosters sat in a very sad chicken coop, a faded mint-green, double-wide trailer was falling apart, and the hand-built house/basement winery was rife with molds and bacteria. There was no glamor to be had. Kathy, never having visited the site before Jon convinced her to purchase it, was flabbergasted at her husband when she saw the mountain of work before them. This was not “the lifestyle” she had been promised, but a Herculean task. That said, every time they drove to and from the vineyard, they passed by wineries they’d known and loved for decades, and they could rest somewhat-easy knowing great wine was just waiting to be made.

By 2012, 11 acres of overgrown blackberries and scotch broom were removed, 4 acres of vines had become 15, and growth was imminent. Liam, Rachel’s beloved, redesigned the logos and branding, bringing our winery into the modern age with some slick new labels. The basement was renovated and expanded, allowing us a small tasting room and space for production to grow. In 2017, the property next door was purchased, allowing us to move out of the basement, build a new winery and tasting room, and expand our vineyard to 28 acres. Each year brought more and more work to be done, and Jon and Rachel only have so many hands. They needed some help, and luckily there were a few Lauer kids who wanted to give it.

From the start, the three now-grown kids could be seen running around the tasting room on busy holiday weekends, but all later took on more serious roles at some point. Jeff married a wonderful woman named Nina and the both of them spent two years here, one after graduating undergrad and one after Jeff finished his M.B.A. at the University of Oregon. Nina was instrumental in establishing tasting room protocol and wine club management in the early days, and Jeff and Jon laid out many acres of vineyard together. Post-M.B.A., Jeff works in consulting on the East Coast, where he lives with Nina and his own two kids.

Krista attended college at Willamette University in Salem, working the tasting room during weekends and summers in our early days. After graduating she took off to Denver, where she received a Master’s in Art History. After 6 years of working at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver in their visitor services and curatorial departments, she’s recently made her glorious return to the family business, offering a refreshing outside perspective and a wonderful burst of artistic direction.

David has proven to be the biggest surprise of the Lauer kids. Though he initially wanted little to do with the wine industry, by his second year of college he was already planning his return. The only place he’s ever worked, he has participated in nearly every realm of operations as the winery has grown, from working the vineyard to driving the forklift all the way to national sales. His passion for the wine industry and sharing his family’s story is nearly overwhelming, but he takes immeasurable pride in being Rachel’s megaphone to the world both onsite and on the road. Though his title says “National Sales Manager,” he wears more hats than anyone here and is involved in a wide array of happenings at Bryn Mawr.

After almost a decade in the industry, the Lauer family was finally ready to find some help to run the rapidly-expanding hospitality side of things. With 15 years of industry experience, Karyn was exactly the kind of woman we needed to tell us our ideas were enthusiastically misguided, and this is what we SHOULD be doing. She immediately took the reigns of the wine club, shipping, and fulfillment, bringing just the right hint of professionalism to guide us in the right direction. She’s the mastermind behind Taco Tuesdays and will continue to develop our event program. Hailing from North Carolina (or perhaps Massachusetts if you’re willing to dig deep), Karyn brings unmistakable energy and confidence into any room she walks in. She has seen every curveball this industry has to throw, and the woman can throw a hell of a party. Bryn Mawr already feels like a forever home for her, and unless we mess things up big time, she will continue to be an excellent addition to the family.