Antiquum Farm's Grazing-based Viticulture
In March of 2021 Mrs. G and I left home for the first time in over a year on a road trip down the coast. We were stir-crazy, having been house-bound for the previous 12 months; we'd had our second vaccinations (remember there were not yet all the variant Covids to worry about); and we were on a specific writing mission.
For some time I'd wanted to do a Wine Enthusiast feature on Oregon winery farms and at long last it had been approved. I chose five to visit for the piece, and among them was one I'd never been to and was especially eager to see. Antiquum Farm was of particular interest in part because I'd been reviewing their wines for years and found them distinctive and terroir-driven. My friends at Big Table Farm had also spoken very highly of the holistic, grazing-based viticulture being done at Antiquum, and I wanted to learn more. The fact that other well-respected wineries were purchasing fruit from them also piqued my interest.
We ended up spending a full 24 hours with Stephen Hagen and his family and winemaker/GM Andrew Smith. In the course of that visit I was able to do an extended interview, only small bits of which made it into print. It provides a fascinating window into the amount of time, effort, creative thought and grueling labor that goes into producing these wines, and I am running more of the interview (lightly edited for clarity) here.
SH: "The idea behind grazing-based viticulture is to coax terroir from a site that is truly site-specific. What we’re doing fills out the idea of terroir. I see so many practices that are actually erosive to terroir. The idea that you’re going to be organic and make wines of place but yet you’re shipping organic fertilizers from across the country. So not only are you bringing in inputs that have nothing to do with the Willamette Valley or Oregon, but it’s the same stuff that the guy growing grapes in Texas is using. This leads down the rabbit hole of specificity. If you are truly going to sustain a vineyard with compost, every little swale, every knoll, every vine pocket is an opportunity for differentiation.
"So I started thinking about how can we farm this place in a way that’s truly self-contained? I started visiting biodynamic vineyards. To sustain a vineyard off of compost you need a Costco-sized compost pile for a 20-acre vineyard. I have yet to see that. Instead I see demonstrative compost piles, not anything of substance. But even if you’re doing it right a lot of machinery use is needed to collect, turn and distribute those piles.
"So I began to wonder what is compost? It’s forage passed through the animals. So why not skip the cows (or at least the piles) and start farming microbes. How do we get wines that really have a personality, that really feel alive? You fill the vineyard up with life. With grazing-based viticulture the vines are part of the whole, not the whole thing. The goal was to go from having a vineyard to having a farm that happens to make wines.
"We’re dividing the vineyard into tiny segments and practicing rotational intensive grazing. Our lead grazers are pigs. Behind the pigs come the sheep. We have a system for adjusting the wires so the sheep won’t get at the vines. Then come the geese. Pound for pound nothing grazes like geese. And behind the geese come the chickens. The grazers have exposed the insects and also pooped. The chickens go through the manure, scratching it, exposing the eggs, eating the eggs and anything that hatches. I call them the weeding and sanitation crew. As the vineyard is drying out later in the summer we start throwing scratch grain in the weeds. It settles into the soil and the chickens scratch the weeds out for us.
"This is not a system; this is a lifestyle. This never stops. The timing is where the art is. The underpinning for me is to make wines of truth. Truly authentic unabashed expression. If that’s the goal then the idea of what should this be goes out the window. We are constantly saying style is not a thing. There’s only truth. You go where the vines take you, and that’s the goal. We have taken being non-interventionist to the extreme. We don’t cut corners; we manufacture additional corners for the joy of cornering!”
PG: In the wake of the fraught 2020 vintage no wine was produced at Antiquum Farm, which meant that just a single Pinot Gris (Perpetua Album I) and a single Pinot Noir (Perpetua Rubrum Pinot Noir I) were released last year, both non-vintage blends. The first wines to be released since came out this month and unsurprisingly have already sold through on the website. However, they are being shipped out to distributors around the country and will be appearing in wine shops and other retail outlets in the near future. With a little searching online you should be able to track them down.
Advice from the winery is that the best way for customers to secure their wines is to sign up for a Farm Family Membership. "With demand completely outstripping supply, it's the only way we can guarantee receipt of wines" they write. Farm Family Membership information can be found here.
The three bottlings of 2021 Pinot Gris are each uniquely different and exceptional. Here are my notes, along with an earlier review of the Perpetua.
Antiquum Farm 2021 Daisy Pinot Gris
From 22-year-old vines, this was fermented in a mix of stainless steel and neutral oak. It's leesy and creamy and rich without being at all heavy or cloying. The fruit density is impressive, with a delicious mix of peach and pear with further hints of pineapple and papaya. There is underlying minerality infusing the acids, which are fresh and yet remain neutral.
570 cases; 13.2%; $30 (Willamette Valley)
Antiquum Farm 2021 Aurosa Pinot Gris
One of three distinctively different Pinot Gris from Antiquum Farm, this is left soaking on the skins for 72 hours prior to pressing, yielding a coppery gold wine with a soft, lightly oxidized mouthfeel. The aromatics bring up hibiscus, honeysuckle, rose hip tea and chamomile, with gently melded fruit flavors of apple, peach and papaya. Amazingly it's just as good (if not better!) on the fourth day as it was when first opened. That is almost unprecedented in my experience.
170 cases; 13.5%; $38 (Willamette Valley)
Antiquum Farm 2021 Alium Pinot Gris
This takes Pinot Gris into a whole new dimension. Following fermentation the wine was "steeped on the skins until a textural shift took place". The color is a deep sunset hue that might be mistaken for a 10-year-old tawny Port. This wine is bone dry, aromatic and subtly flavorful with pastry fruits – candied orange peel, dried apricot and pear tart. It's best given a light chill to a cellar temperature of 55 degrees (more or less) which doesn't kill the aromas but props up the mid-palate. Drink this now and over the rest of the decade.
80 cases; 13.8%; $45 (Willamette Valley)
Antiquum Farm NV Perpetua Album I Pinot Gris
The concept behind the Perpetua wines is to build a different picture of the winery by combining multiple years of Pinot Gris (or Pinot Noir) into a single wine. This first release is a blend of the 2018 and 2019 vintages. Future Perpetua releases are expected to include 10, 20 and up to 50 years of wine in a sort of solera system expression. Perpetua Album 1, which I tasted last summer, is complex and leesy, with pear and melon fruits, a hint of mint and a mineral-soaked foundation. This wine is still available for purchase.
70 cases; 13.8%; $65 (Willamette Valley)
https://www.antiquumfarm.com/product/Perpetua-Album-Pinot-Gris-I
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Note: The wines I recommend have been tasted over many hours and days in peer groups and are selected for excellence. I have chosen to eliminate numerical scores from this website. Only exceptional wines are shown, no negative reviews. Unlike print publications, which may face long delays between the time wines are tasted and reviews actually appear, my notes are posted before wines are sold out, so you can purchase them directly from the producer. I take no commission, accept no advertising, and charge no fees for wines reviewed on this website. Contact me at paulgwine@me.com with your feedback and suggestions for future posts.
Coming next week: A close look at the four new Pinots from Brittan Vineyards, along with Part One of an extensive survey of Northwest Rieslings, with a focus on the dry styles that are more difficult to do well but more interesting to drink with summer foods. The Pierce Riesling spotlighted this week is a preview of the astonishing quality that will be featured.
Heads Up: I will do a focus on Syrah, GSM blends and other Rhone reds and blends later in the fall. Also planning a detailed look at the McMinnville AVA. Please send current and upcoming wines from either category no later than the end of September. Shipping information is published on this website or text paulgwine@me.com. I am always open to suggestions for future topics, so send me your thoughts at any convenient time.
Thank you for your support! – Paul Gregutt
