Inside Willamette Valley Wine: Chehalem Winemaker Katie Santora

Check out all the great events Laurie has on the calendar in 2026 on her website at TheWineCoach.com/events including her Treasures of Tuscany Wine Tour this October.

Join us for a conversation with Katie Santora, head winemaker at Chehalem Winery in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Katie shares her journey from Utah to wine country, how she blends science with intuition in the cellar, and her approach to crafting balanced, food-friendly Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Along the way, we explore Oregon’s unique terroir, the evolution of winemaking techniques, and what’s next for the industry.

In this episode:

•  Katie’s unexpected path into wine and what sparked her passion 
•  Why real-world experience often trumps textbook winemaking
•  The story behind Chehalem and its role in shaping Oregon wine
•  How Willamette Valley soils influence Chardonnay and Pinot Noir
•  Crafting expressive, single-vineyard wines and finding the right balance with oak
•  Rethinking Oregon Pinot Noir—structure, versatility, and common misconceptions

Wines Tasted:

Chehalem Estate Chardonnay

Chehalem Pinot Noir Rose 

Chehalem Estate Pinot Noir

Transcript

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Laurie Forster (00:26)
This week on The Sipping Point, we're heading to Willamette Valley, Oregon to talk to Katie Santora, winemaker at Chehalem Vineyards. Just a quick reminder, if you're looking to get my free video series, all of the tips you need to taste, serve, pair, and enjoy wine like a pro, go to thewinecoachsecrets.com, share your email, and you'll get those videos one day at a time.

You'll also get notifications on all my upcoming events, podcasts, interviews, and of course, my wine tours. And I've got one to Tuscany coming up in October. All right, Katie Santora is the winemaker at Chehalem, where she's been shaping wines since 2012, starting as assistant winemaker and stepping into the lead in 2018. Over the years, she's had hands in every part of the process, developing a deep understanding of the

likes to think of herself as a conductor, guiding her team to create wines that truly express the vintage while keeping the energy collaborative and

Laurie Forster (01:28)
Katie, welcome to The Sipping Point.

Katie Santora (01:30)
Thank you for having me today.

Laurie Forster (01:31)
Awesome. And I guess, you we couldn't be further apart in the country if you think of it that way. I'm here on the East Coast in Maryland and you're dialing in from the Willamette Valley in Oregon, correct?

Katie Santora (01:37)
Hahaha

Yes, that is correct. And it is a rainy day on this April spring day.

Laurie Forster (01:47)
Yes, it's a little rainy here too, so don't feel like you're missing anything. ⁓ I thought we'd start out with your background and I just wonder how does someone who grows up in Utah end up making wine in Oregon? Tell me a little bit about your story and journey to that.

Katie Santora (01:51)
Hahaha

Yeah, so, I mean, it's Utah, like I like to tell people is not the wine capital of America. But when I grew up there, I after I graduated high school, I really just wanted to leave and see what else the world had to offer. I ended up going to the University of Oregon for my freshman year and didn't really know what I wanted to study. I loved math and I love science.

My dad was an orthopedic surgeon and I just wasn't ready to commit to the life of being a doctor even though I loved everything that would go into that. So I actually transferred schools and went to a community college to play soccer and be with some of my girlfriends from Utah and then take, you know, generals to try and see where school is going to take you. There was a summer between

school, the school year and my dad's friend was actually at our house and he started giving me like the third degree as you do with young kids being like, what are you going to study? What are you going to do? And I was like, I don't know, Mike, I'm just like trying to figure it out, take all these different classes. And he was the one that was like, I went to UC Davis for nursing school. They have a great wine program there. You should go study wine.

And he said that I was like, nobody does that for their life. Nobody makes wine. And for whatever reason, there was like a little seed that planted and I went and looked to see what the basically what the schedule of studying was. And it was all science and all math. And I thought, well, maybe this could be something that's really great to learn about. And who knows where it'll take me. And if it doesn't work out, I'll have all these prerequisites for whatever is next.

so I applied to UC Davis to go to their enology and viticulture program and didn't get in the first time focused a little more and then applied again and got in. So, my entry into the wine world was really going to school and learning about it. And then I feel like the, the claws really dug in for me when I started traveling around the world and doing vintages and.

Not only just like really immersing yourself in a wine region, but just meeting the other people that are in the industry and what it all entails was just something that I couldn't, I never walked away from.

Laurie Forster (04:32)
for folks that are listening, if you don't know, UC Davis is the preeminent winemaker college to get into. it's super prestigious. I'd say Cornell would probably be the other one here on the East Coast. But is there something that you learned while you were at UC Davis in the program that you use every day? And then on the flip side, is there anything you had to unlearn in the real world that

know, is one thing in the textbook, but when you get out in real winemaking, you kind of have to change it or alter it a little bit.

Katie Santora (05:06)
Yeah, good questions. mean, my real science knowledge was very basic. I mean, my family drank wine that was a part of our culture, even in Salt Lake City, Utah. So I understood it a little bit, but really never deep dove into the aromatic complexities or the structure of a palate. But even beyond that, what makes up all of that?

Is what really I feel like UC Davis accentuated I think what I would take from them as just like a broad Really a broad stroke is that you can go as deep into wine making and wine tasting on like a scientific level to any extreme that you want so On the day to day I find myself, you know being like wall

Why are we smelling this compound? Where is it coming from? And you can find research after research trying to figure that out and find the complexities to it, but does it really help you on the day to day? So what I feel like I had to unlearn from going to school is that there is so much that you have to decide in the moment that really isn't textbook.

Laurie Forster (06:08)
Mm-hmm.

Katie Santora (06:20)
supported. It's more experience supported and a feeling and understanding the vineyards and you know your system at your winery and knowing that and also your team you have like so much that you have to trust beyond just like what the textbook says. So being able to like balance those two I think is very essential to know that like there is a space for

Laurie Forster (06:39)
Mm-hmm.

Katie Santora (06:47)
the academic deep dive into the wine world. And then there is a space that really needs to focus just like on like really all the stuff that we can't explain completely that comes with wine making.

Laurie Forster (07:00)
I find that, you know, in studying our WSCT sommelier certificate that I got, you know, this one thing when you read something, but then when you see it in practice, it's like, whoa, I made up this image in my mind. And then when I see it, like to see a fermenting tank of wine, I didn't expect it to look like a boiling pot. You know, I didn't think it was so active. And so, you know,

Katie Santora (07:21)
Yeah.

Laurie Forster (07:25)
all the heat and the CO2 that comes off it. You know, know there's CO2, but to see it in the real world is a different kind of education. So I think that's great. Well, Chehalem is such a special winery. And I've had Melissa Burr, your sister winery Stoller on the show before. And she had a similar background as far as kind of wanting to go into medicine and then choosing the wine medicine route,

tell me a little bit more about Chehalem the winery and the region. And so we can learn a little bit more about that. And then we're going to taste some Chardonnay.

Katie Santora (07:59)
Yeah. So Chehalem has been around in the Willamette Valley since the early 80s. Chehalem first was founded by Harry Peterson Nedry. He had an idea to plant some vines up on Ribbon Ridge AVA, an American viticulture area. So one of these small, very small areas within the wine region. And he went to his tasting group at the time and asked them

who wants to believe in my dream and invest with me? And he got about 50 investors to invest in him purchasing this land and planting vines up on Ribbon Ridge, which he called Ridge Crest Vineyard. It takes about two to three years, two to three to four years for vines to come online, which means basically they start producing fruit.

And so around the late 80s to early 90s, he was making the wine that came off that vineyard in his garage in Newburgh, Oregon. And then in the early 90s, he decided he really wanted to make a thing out of what he was doing, like make it legitimate. So he went back to his 50 investors and went, who would like to join me in making basically, shehalem what it is today? And the only person that came back

was Bill Stoller, who said, I would love to do this for you with you, right? So Bill became the silent partner of Chehalem back in the early 90s. At the same time, in the early 80s, there was this couple, they were doctors called the Howsons, and they had purchased one of our other vineyards, Corral Creek, in also the early 80s. They and their friends pulled out all the hazelnut trees that were on

vineyard and then planted the vineyard themselves without any wine knowledge. So it is funny because when you think about that and you see the vineyard, the vines are very wavy. You can tell it's not planted to be harvested or harvested or taken care of very mechanically friendly or efficient, I would say is a better word.

And then they realized how much work it actually was to take care of a vineyard and make wine and they decided that they wanted to get out of the wine industry. They tried to give that vineyard, which we call Corral Creek and their winery and property away to Oregon State University at the time. And this was at that same early nineties and just as like a vineyard that they could work for their program because they have a really great analogy and viticulture program as well.

And they told them they didn't have the bandwidth to be able to truly take care of this extremely generous offer. So it went up for sale. And that's when Bill and Harry purchased Chehalem property and our vineyard became, or our winery became two vineyards, one on Ridgecrest and one on Corral Creek, both in different American viticulture areas. At that same time,

Bill Stoller's farm, I think Melissa probably went into it, but came up for sale. He decided he wanted to purchase that for his own project and purchase the Stoller Vineyard. This is important because the first couple of vintages were made at Chehalem Winery. A couple of the other big producers in Oregon, DDO, Domaine Drouhin made it at Chehalem Winery. I'm pretty sure Penner Ash or Rex Hill made a couple small vintages at this small winery.

So it's really this historical just helping, I feel like some pretty amazing producers ⁓ catapult into what now is like a major pillar for the wine industry in Oregon.

Laurie Forster (11:30)
Pinot camp had an event there, a salmon bake. And this is years ago. I'll have to look up what year it was, but it's beautiful property. And now you're all under the Stoller Group, including chemistry, which is sort of a joint project as well. But I mentioned

Katie Santora (11:33)
nice.

Yeah.

Laurie Forster (11:50)
Yeah, I mentioned the Chardonnay and certainly for you, this is one of the key white grapes there at the winery and you sent me the Chehalem Estate Chardonnay. How would you characterize your style for this Chardonnay, your thoughts around making Chardonnay? I'd love to hear more about it. I know a lot of people think Pinot Gris and you make that as well, but Chardonnay can just be so beautiful coming out of the Willamette Valley.

Katie Santora (12:07)
Yeah.

Laurie Forster (12:17)
but specifically tell me about Chehalem Chardonnay.

Katie Santora (12:21)
Yeah, so I sent you a couple wines from our newest vineyard, Chehalem Estate. Like you mentioned, Chehalem is fully owned by Stoller now. And when that happened in 2018, we became the Stoller Wine Group and have the brand chemistry as well and history, which I think maybe Melissa touched on. But when that happened, we purchased this other property, which became our fourth estate vineyard, Chehalem Estate.

and then our home to our new amazing tasting room that spans the vista. But when that happened, we planted Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Gruner velltweiner. We have Pinot Blanc. I personally going back to Chardonnay, but I personally love Chardonnay. It's just like always resonated with me. I think it's my it is my mom's favorite grape. So it's probably goes farther back than, you know, I can even really explain.

And Oregon Chardonnay in particular is I feel like so amazing and at a really great point where people assume that Chardonnay is a certain way where all Chardonnay is rich and viscous and buttery and oaky or or any of those right one of those where I really am seeing Chardonnay in Oregon having its moment where

it has this really nice balance of bright acid through the wine. And even if it's barrel fermented or does all these things that might lend to buttery and rich, it actually is really balanced with the fruit and the acid in the wine. So I think it's one of these varietals that really can show place just as much as Pinot Noir can. And so because of that, and we got this amazing new vineyard,

I've been trying to push for single vineyard Chardonnays to be in line with our single vineyard pinots from our four estate vineyards. So the one that you're drinking today is our first single vineyard Chardonnay that we have online. And so we've always had a reserve Chardonnay, but this is our single vineyard Chardonnay from Chehalem Estate. And then this upcoming year we'll add a Stoller vineyard Chardonnay. So.

Laurie Forster (14:22)
It's.

Katie Santora (14:32)
slowly opening up the portfolio to prove the complexity of Chardonnay.

Laurie Forster (14:36)
I think I saw 15 months in oak. So there is oak aging here, but it's really mineral and bright on the acid. you're, yeah, you're getting the apple pear, maybe even a floral note here, but you get a hint of creaminess, but I love that bright acidity at the end that it's like, whoa, this is super, you know, food friendly. And it can go with a wider range than maybe another more, you know, viscous.

Katie Santora (15:00)
Yeah.

Laurie Forster (15:05)
oak, you know, heavy style. I think it was something like 30 % new oak or around there.

Katie Santora (15:13)
I think

it's actually 40%, which people kind of are shocked when they taste it because it's really integrated nicely into the fruit that comes from that site.

Laurie Forster (15:15)
Okay. Yeah.

Katie Santora (15:23)
I also think as interesting as, you know, everyone is getting better at their craft. I also think barrel makers, coopers are getting better at their craft as well. So when we come to them with our intention of how we would like it integrated into our fruit, they really help us. So where I think instead of toasty vanilla aspects that might overwhelm, we're focusing more on like an energy and like a broadness that

can give to the wine or help give to the wine. So yes, this is a fermented and aged in oak for about 10 months. And then it goes to a stainless steel tank with all the lees, which is all the sediment that falls down to the bottom of the barrel during ferment and aging. And what it does is lees can add a creaminess and over time, they break up themselves and can add this layer of complexity to a wine.

So we take that all into a stainless steel tank for another five months to integrate, to get more of the lees that break down a little bit to add the complexity versus the oak adding more. So it is about 15 months aging, but about 10 oak and then five stainless steel.

Laurie Forster (16:23)
Mm.

cool. Yeah, it's so delicious. And it's the exact style of Chardonnay that I that I absolutely prefer. But OK, so I read in your bio that you said that, you know, being a winemaker, you like it to a conductor sort of kind of keeping all maybe all of the musical instruments going together. Tell us a little bit about how that works.

Katie Santora (16:38)
Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Laurie Forster (16:58)
What are you balancing as the conductor and thinking about at all moments?

Katie Santora (17:04)
Yeah, I mean, I truly believe that there is so much more than the winemaker making a bottle of wine. As a female, I found it very important to work up the ladder and be in every position to know what it takes to do that position. And every position has really tough pain points and beautiful moments and things that

are so important to, I think, accentuate in the people that are doing them. Winemakers, for the most part, especially at medium-sized wineries, can't do everything. There's just not enough time in the day to do everything like most jobs, right? We just can't do it all. So working through all the steps and positions to get to where I am today, I know how valuable it is to feel important in what you're doing and knowing that every aspect

of a wine's process to the bottle truly matters. So this begins with our vineyard stewards in the vineyard. I mean, they are the ones that are really taking care of the plants, making sure that they are growing in the correct way, that the fruit is exactly pristine, how we want it to be when it comes into the winery, all the way to my crew at Chehalem. We're a small crew of two, but we have a cellar master and associate winemaker that have been

The associate winemaker, Jess Sparra has been with us for eight years and Ian Hayes, our seller master has been with us for four years. just the making, I mean, not only does longevity matter, right? As they take care of fruit with their knowledge of the space, but also just knowing that what they're doing is so important. And then all the way to it getting bottled. There are so many people that order the right stuff, making sure our bottling line is correct. There's a...

Yeah, I just find it so valuable to make sure everyone feels appreciated and important and knowing that without their true dedication and passion to what we are building together, it wouldn't be, it wouldn't be what it is.

Laurie Forster (18:53)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Well, you mentioned earlier, you know, we're firmly into spring now and nothing says spring more in a glass than rosé. And I have your Chehalem Pinot Noir Rosé and it's absolutely beautiful in color. So tell us a little bit about, I know it's 100 % Pinot Noir, ⁓ but tell us a little bit about your take on rosé.

Katie Santora (19:25)
Yeah.

Laurie Forster (19:29)
And, you know, people think France, but I think maybe they need to start thinking about Oregon for their rosé, right?

Katie Santora (19:35)
I mean, I agree. think the acid retention that just comes in the soils here is what keeps, I think, a lot of our wines bright and food friendly, where you can have them, obviously, with food, many, types of food, or just by itself. So you almost don't have to think about it. Our rosé, what I like to say, it is 100 % Pinot Noir.

We pick our blocks in the vineyard for our rosé blocks. So it is intentionally made from the growing season. So that means we can leave a little more fruit on the vines, which actually lends more towards like the delicate aromatics that I think you can get in Pinot Noir versus more concentrated. It's more of like this, like I always get like some grapefruit, some like.

Laurie Forster (20:06)
Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Katie Santora (20:24)
fresh beginning of the season strawberries where they're not quite like juicy and extra ripe but more like like that little like sour on that verge of sour ripeness. We pick it a little earlier than we would red Pinot Noir so we make it basically more like a white wine than we do a red wine.

Laurie Forster (20:27)
Mm-hmm.

Katie Santora (20:43)
which means we pick it, it comes straight to Chehalem and we press it right away. So we don't distem it, it's pressed on its skin or on its stems. And to get the color, which is natural, we actually leave about a third of the total production that we make in the press on its side overnight to just sit on the skins for, I mean, it ends up being like eight hours.

till we come in in the morning and press it. And when we press it, the juice that comes out, I'm not joking, is like black. And every time I'm like, oh my gosh, we went too far. This is gonna be like such a bright rosé. And then through ferment, all the color falls out and you get this really like nice light salmon, salmon pink color. The other thing we do with our rosé, we put about 15 % of it into neutral oak. So we're not looking for any...

Laurie Forster (21:26)
Mm-hmm.

Katie Santora (21:36)
oak aromatic components that add to it, but more a texture feel. So after the juiciness and the fruit on the palate goes away, you're left with just like a little bit of like some texture that what I think is something that maybe a lot of people don't think about, but makes you I think want to drink a little bit more or have another sip. it adds like this subtle complexity to, you know, a really like bright rosé.

Laurie Forster (21:55)
Yeah.

Absolutely. And it has a long finish. after you taste it, you still keep tasting it. And that's something that also makes you want to go back for the next sip. You got that crisp acidity. You're still kind of tasting. You're like, OK, time for the next one. And as you said, think this would be you said salmon in color, but this would be great with salmon or salads or some of your lighter seafoods. But it is a complete wine.

Katie Santora (22:22)
Yeah.

Laurie Forster (22:27)
on its own if you just want to sit on the back porch and sip a delicious rosé. I think this fits the bill. And I see that you're using screw cap for the rosé, but our estate chard and pinot are under cork. How do you decide which wines you're going to do with screw cap, which is no longer social suicide, people? It's fine for your everyday drinking wines.

Katie Santora (22:49)
Yeah.

Laurie Forster (22:52)
How do you make the distinction what's gonna have cap versus cork?

Katie Santora (22:55)
Yeah, we, Chehalem used to be 100 % screw cap. And when we were acquired in 2018 and started really looking at our portfolio of wines, you know, there is, like you said, a consumer education that needs to happen to let people know that screw cap ages just as well as cork or conglomerated cork.

But with the, you know, our nicer wines, people just never really seemed to understand why they were under screw crap or conglomerated cork. And it's the experience, right? Like everyone loves like opening it and it's like beautiful. With that said, I feel like as again, the industry is getting better. So are the closure options. Conglomerated cork is what we use is

Laurie Forster (23:33)
Gotcha.

Katie Santora (23:48)
an amazing product that the company takes the cork, takes out all the possible contaminant particles out of the cork, then puts them back together. So they're really guaranteeing that the cork that they're giving you is gonna be clean and won't end up affecting the wine, which that's for me a big reason to move from some other choices.

Laurie Forster (24:12)
Yeah.

Katie Santora (24:13)
With that said, we are talking even to Cork people right now because they've also gotten better at testing and making sure that their products are more clean. So I think the industry is at an amazing point as a winemaker. We have a lot of choices and people are just getting better at their craft as it happens.

Laurie Forster (24:31)
Yeah.

And there are glass corks, which I'm seeing from a lot of Italian and French producers out there as well. So we kind of oriented everybody, you know, where Chehalem is and in the Willamette Valley. But I know that before we taste the Pinot Noir, that the soils there are very, very special. There's volcanic, there's glacial, there's all...

Katie Santora (24:36)
Yes.

Laurie Forster (24:54)
a really variety of soils that make it such a great place for growing wine. So maybe talk to us a little bit about what it is and why it's so suited for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, of course, and some other grapes as well.

Katie Santora (25:10)
Yeah, I mean, as you mentioned, the Willamette Valley is has such a diversity of soil choices and within the Willamette Valley, I think within Oregon, actually, we have 11 AVA, which is different soil types that are balanced with like the microclimates involved with them. So it's more than just the soil, it's where they're at. And, you know, I really think that will get even broader as we learn more about the area.

⁓ because of those different micro climates and soil types, it lends to, I think the varietals that we grow really well here, having like a really transparent palette of showing where, how place really affects a wine. the varietals that have been grown here for years are, years are cool climate. it is a still a cool climate area, even as the seasons are getting warmer and the

Laurie Forster (25:39)
Mm-hmm.

Katie Santora (26:06)
is changing, we still are a cool climate area. And I think the benefit of that is and why I feel very lucky over the years working at Chehalem is that we work, like I mentioned, with four estate vineyards and three of them, three of the vineyards are in different AVA's. And so as we make the same choices for these wines,

Besides like one or two things here and there, what really shows through is where they are grown. You know, our team in the vineyard is doing the same things. In the winery, we have found a system that works for us. So no major choices are being different between them. And it really is the land in the area that is showing the complexity and differences between them.

Laurie Forster (26:50)
Well, speaking of that, the Chehalem Estate Pinot Noir is the red that I have here in my glass. tell me a little bit about, this estate vineyard for Pinot Noir and how that translates in the glass.

Katie Santora (27:03)
Yeah, so Chehalem Estate was our newest vineyard that we brought onto the Chehalem portfolio in 2018. Where this Pinot Noir is from is a side parcel that we purchased in 2020 where our VP of Vineyard Operations, Jason Tosh, he had actually planted it in 2008 with another winery, Anne Amie

and he knew how good this fruit was and we purchased this side parcel to basically one have wine from this amazing vineyard to produce but also to really understand the vineyard for what was to come in the future. So this the wine that you're drinking is from the Laurelwood district ABA. It's Lois soil so it's this windblown windblown salt

Dirt dust that like blew as the glacier was coming down the Willamette Valley So for those of you that don't know back millions of years There was a huge glacier that came down through the Columbia and that's why our soil is so diverse this area in particular was this like light the All the sand and rock that was being moved along the way. There's like a light really light fine dust that would come with it and so it was blown upon the like hillsides of the

Laurelwood District AVA. And what that lends to is a wine that I think is a little bit more floral, more aromatically bright. While this vineyard in particular, it's our coldest vineyard that we work with. So the fruit that comes from here is always the very last thing we bring in. It has this like really nice density and concentration and tannin structure that from

Laurie Forster (28:26)
Mm-hmm.

Katie Santora (28:43)
our other Laurelwood district vineyard is a little more like has substance to it in some structure. This wine is also about 35 % new oak, maybe 30 % new oak. And what we're pushing with that is just like helping the oak really like lift the aromatics and give like this broadness to the palate Yeah.

Laurie Forster (29:07)
Yeah, I was gonna ask you about misconceptions people might have about Pinot Noir from Oregon or Pinot Noir in general and and one just came to my mind is that people think it's gonna be really light and thin and not have the structure but this one has that red and black fruit with that floral nature to it and it does have that structure it's not tannic by any you know sense of the meaning but

it does have that little bit of structure and acidity on the end that you can, sure, you could have this with salmon, but you could also have this with meat as well. And so are there any other misconceptions about Pinot Noir that you think people have that you wanted to throw out the door?

Katie Santora (29:50)
Yeah, I mean, there's so many misconceptions out there. feel like the one thing, whether it's Pinot Noir or Chardonnay, like we talked about a little bit earlier, or Riesling for that matter is trusting your own palate and not fully just listening or reading and believing in what

what is out there, right? That's like the one thing that I would love for people to take for themselves is if you're in a room and 100 people love this wine and you are not enjoying it, like that's just as valuable as the 199 other people that are really enjoying it.

Laurie Forster (30:12)
Mm-hmm.

Katie Santora (30:27)
And trusting in what you believe so and experimenting right like if you hear that or think that a wine is supposed to be a certain way or like you mentioned a big red is supposed to go with steak try a pinot noir with steak because I also guarantee you that you will enjoy it and the pinot noir can can hang up to a steak if both are done really well

Laurie Forster (30:52)
I totally agree that that's a great myth to dispel right now. You can have, what's great about Pinot, I always say when I'm doing classes or events is that if you have a table and people are ordering a really wide variety, one has fish and one has meat. Pinot is such a great choice because it just has all those, you know, abilities to pair with such a wide varieties. Whereas a cab, that's going to clobber the fish and it's probably not going to work for that person.

Katie Santora (30:56)
Yeah.

Absolutely.

Laurie Forster (31:21)
Okay, before we wrap up, these are all delicious, but I have a question. If you are just hanging out on a Wednesday night, like you might be tonight, and enjoying a glass of wine, what might you be enjoying? And you can't choose your own wines because of course we know those are delish, but what else might you be enjoying outside of what you make there at Chehalem?

Katie Santora (31:21)
Yeah.

Thank you.

laughs

I mean, maybe not so much like an exact producer, but in the last five years, we have added a sparkling wine program to our portfolio. And so for me, the biggest way to educate yourself is to taste.

the product that you are hoping to make. So you can definitely find me sipping on a glass of bubbles these days and really trying to find the ones that I am enjoying or the style that I like and then figuring out why those bubbles were that way. So definitely sparkling wine right now is my choice.

Laurie Forster (32:24)
well, we're going to be fast friends when I come out there next to visit the new tasting room. All right. Well, Katie, thank you so much for joining me on The Sipping Point. If folks want to check out your wines, join the club, order wines. Where can they go?

Katie Santora (32:27)
I can't wait. Yes.

Chehalamwines.com will lead you to definitely whoever you want to meet. We have a great concierge team and you know, we want to make everyone feel important and valuable and want to come out and visit us. So please do.

Laurie Forster (32:54)
All right, well, thank you so much for joining me. And I just want to say cheers. Cheers.

Katie Santora (32:56)
Thank you so much. Cheers to you too.

Laurie Forster (32:59)
I hope you enjoyed learning more about Chehalem Vineyards and Katie's journey to becoming head winemaker. If you want to learn more or join their wine club, go to Chehalemwines.com. And just a reminder, if you go to thewinecoachsecrets.com, you can sign up for my free four point video series, getting all the tips us pros know to taste, enjoy, serve and pair wine.

and we'll stay connected and you'll find out about all my events, tours, and future podcast interviews. All right, until next week, cheers.