Behind the vine

Bee Maloof - Maloof Wines - Forest Grove, Oregon, USA

When do you think you fell in love with wine, enough to make a career of it?

I have always liked wine and been into wine, but didn't come from family that was into winemaking or vineyard management.

My ‘a-ha' moment was after I met my husband Ross. He was a beverage coordinator for a vegan restaurant group in Philly. When I met him, he was very into the natural wine scene and I hadn't been exposed to that style of winemaking. I remember we were in a park and he had brought a bottle of Lucy Margaux Noir de Florette. I remember having it and thinking: WOW, this is incredible. He knew the whole story, and he went into how the producer got started and created this wine. It opened my eyes into the story behind the wine and that's what I got interested in. I saw it as a learning journey: the stories and learning about things I had misconceptions about. Then I wanted to try so much more.

A while later, Ross had come out to Portland to meet with winemakers, and when I picked him up from the airport I knew from the way he was talking about wine, the process, the community; it was going to be a part of our life. It had taken root. The next year he decided to go back and work harvest and I had 2 months of vacation, so we both went out to Portland and it took me almost no time to completely fall in love with the process. It blew me away. I was a materials processing engineer, and I could see all the similarities. The process of how you get fruit in the door and how it travels to the bottle - it just clicked in my brain. I loved the science behind it and then there was a product that was so much more intimate and invigorating and expressive of work I'd actually done. I was home.

On the plane back to Philly, I was so heartbroken to leave. I was back at work the first week, sitting at a desk, and I knew it wasn't going to work for me any more. We sat down and decided we needed to make this work. So we quit our jobs, sold most of our stuff, and we left en route to Portland to pursue that passion.

What story does your wine tell?

For smaller producers, everyone has a similar story. We all want to showcase a time and a place and the hard work that goes into the final bottle that you have on your table. Our wines should compel you to look deeper into the process and the story behind the label: the fruit, the fermentation, the community.

We’re passionate about supporting sustainability within the community. We use organically or biodynamically farmed fruit. When we were new to the area, as first-generation winemakers, we didn’t think we had the luxury to demand organic production, but our early fruit came from good sites and we found beautiful sites and started conversations. We worked with farmers who were considering converting to organic, but found the cost prohibitive, so we said we would pay more for those grapes. That helped move the needle.

The same thing happened with our prized grape - Pinot Gris. Pinot Gris has a fate of being a cash-flow wine. It’s cheap, hangs out in stainless steel and then it’s out the door, which is such a shame because it’s a close genetic mutation to Pinot Noir. We knew sites that had what we would consider grand cru quality Pinot Gris fruit , but they were grafting over to Pinot Noir or Chardonnay and it broke our hearts. So, again, we had conversations with farmers and agreed to increased charges to keep those blocs, and this grape, alive.

In the winery, Ross and I are very yin and yang. We practice low intervention winemaking and try not to add anything to the wine. We want our wines to showcase the close relationships we have. We put a lot of effort into it, but it's not just us - it's the farmers, picking crews - it’s our community.

What misconceptions about wine do you think people should forget?

There are so many, and I know them from personal experiences. For example, at one point in my life I told people I don't like white wine - and now we primarily make white wine!

What I see the most is consumers who aren't part of the wine world making snap judgement off the varietal. Saying, oh I don’t like Rieslings, or I don’t like Gewurtztraminer. I’d encourage people to transition from viewing wine as a commodity to seeing it as an artistic expression of a winemaker. For example, Jackson Pollock and Kandinsky - both were abstract artists, but their products were unique. The same thing can be applied to wine. Winemakers all start out with a grape, a healthy dose of fear that whatever can go wrong will, and then all the twists and turns help you arrive at a final product that is unique. Don’t automatically cross anything out, because there’s always a variation on a grape - even a vintage - that you can explore and enjoy.

What great things about wine do you think people should remember?

I think the best thing about wine is that it can be as intimate or as whimsical as you want it. There are no rules. As long as it's bringing you joy, you're doing it right.

As a winemaker, I want to produce a product that's appealing to the palate, but my favorite and most heartwarming compliments from people aren't the tasting notes; it's when you hear from people ‘I've opened your wine and it took me back to a place.’ Wine is so special that way, it makes the world a smaller place and connects us through time and place.

What is a piece of advice you would give to a woman interested in breaking into the wine world?

I always try to encourage people to do what I did when I got into wine. If it's compelling to you, go and look into the background. If you have passion and drive and unwavering curiosity: go for it, don't wait!

Also, I’d say don't forget to find your community. Like with anything, you'll have ups and downs, but if you have a strong network around you - people within the industry and outside of it - you won't fail. Believe in yourself. Have other people who believe in you and who you can ask questions to and it will all work out.

Who is a woman that inspired you?

Early on when I really started to get excited about wine as I know it today, I had a handful of wines from Koehler-Ruprecht that blew me away. Since then I've had the pleasure of meeting and talking to Franzi Schmitt, who has been the cellar master there for almost a decade and is largely the reason Koehler-Ruprecht has the clout we know it to today. She makes really beautiful and unforgettable wines, and is an all around groovy human being.

Where can women find your wine?

You can find your local retailer here. We’re available in the US, Canada, South Korea, Singapore, and Japan, and will soon be in the EU!