Greetings from Newberg, Berserkers!
We are excited to share our story and welcome this opportunity to share our Gamay, Pinot Noir & Passetoutgrain-style wines on offer for BD12. Please feel free to put any questions you have into this thread. Thank you in advance for your interest and support.
Aerea, Latin for aerial or ethereal, was founded in the spring of 2016 by Ian Burrows after years of tasting fine wine, presenting exciting pairings tableside, and assisting in friends’ cellars in Adelaide and Burgundy. Ian is a native of Orpington, England and currently based in McMinnville, Oregon. He has been consumed by hospitality, food, and wine his entire adult life. Before moving to Oregon in 2014, Ian worked as a wine director, sommelier, chef, and restaurant owner, in settings as far afield as Paris, London, San Francisco, and Adelaide.
Aerea’s focus has always been on bottling fresh and vibrant Gamay with a decidedly mineral-earthy character, a wine style Ian developed an appreciation for during regular visits to the Fleurie & Morgon regions in Beaujolais, to taste and assist with blending alongside friend and mentor Tim Johnston (Juveniles, Paris).
Each year since 2016, Ian gathers a small crew in late summer to create tiny lots of dry, finely textured, highly individual wines in his unpretentious cellar void of most modern equipment. Open-top fermenters, 300lb capacity pneumatic upright press, and a 12 ft. stainless steel sorting table is all that one will find nestled between a variety of used French oak barrels. The humble facility is perched on a secluded hillside above the town of Newberg, where passion, precision and creativity can shine. Ian’s vision was to develop the cellar as a research-based project to enhance his understanding of farming and winery operations.
Vineyard partners are selected for their farming reputations, minimal environmental impact, and assurance of varietal character and harmony. Aerea’s wines are naturally fermented, matured in seasoned French barrels of various capacity; hand-bottled and stoppered with Diam Origine 10 closures, and without filtration or fining. Moderate levels of sulfites are added to preserve freshness and ensure stability for extended cellar aging. Each component of production at Aerea is considered a step toward a greater understanding of fine wine from the Willamette Valley.
Purely Domestic Wine Report Volume 8.3:
93 Points - 2016 Aerea Vintners Pure Gamay
90 Points - 2017 Aerea Vintners Pure Gamay
94 Points - 2018 Aerea Vintners Pure Gamay
More details about us can be found at:
Instagram: @Aerea_Vintners
We’d love to share a more thorough look into our history via a video interview produced by our friends at Linfield University’s Oregon Wine Archive: