Walla Walla Valley AVA — May 17, 2016 — On May 15th, Willamette Valley Vineyards was joined by over 300 crowdfunding winery owners who brought their shovels to the Walla Walla Valley to plant Cabernet Sauvignon vines and celebrate the groundbreaking for the new vineyard and winery, called Pambrun in the SeVein Vineyard Development.
The SeVein Vineyards is a state-of-the-art 1,500 acre vineyard development founded by Walla Walla Valley winery visionaries including Marty Clubb of L’ecole 41, Norm McKibben of Pepper Bridge Winery and Amavi Cellars, Chris Figgins and Gary Figgins of Figgins Family Wine Estates and Leonetti Cellars, and Bob Rupar of Nelson Irrigations. Together they have a combined 90 years of experience producing some of the world’s finest grapes. They each own a vineyard in this development and they have invited select producers to plant alongside of them.
Willamette Valley Vineyards (WVV) was one of those producers invited to participate. They purchased 42 acres of land to build Pambrun, a vineyard and by-appointment only tasting room. For WVV Founder Jim Bernau, it was a chance to return to his roots. Pambrun was named in honor of Pierre Pambrun, Walla Walla’s First Citizen who led the Hudson’s Bay trading post there and is Jim’s fifth grandfather.
They are collaborating with Architect Joe Chauncey of Boxwood Architects in Seattle to design their tasting room and winery, which will focus on Cabernet Sauvignon. The wines for Pambrun are being made by consulting winemaker Jon Meuret of Maison Bleue Winery. Meuret has produced some of the highest scoring Walla Walla wines.
Bernau explained the reason why they are planting Cabernet above the Seven Hills Vineyard, “these visionary Walla Walla winemakers have proven this is one of the best places in the world to grow Cabernet Sauvignon.”
Owner Carole Christian flew in from Florida for the groundbreaking and says she supports Willamette Valley Vineyards “because we love the wine and it just seemed like a fun thing to do—the idea of being a part of the ownership was a thrill.”
The “ownership” refers to the crowdfunding Willamette Valley Vineyard put together to offer wine enthusiasts an opportunity to be a part of Oregon’s wine future by selling preferred stock at $4.35 per share with a 5.1% annual return to fund the project. It all began with a dream that founder Jim Bernau couldn’t possibly achieve alone or finance: to build a world-class winery to make wine unique to the weather, topography and soil while taking care of the land and each other. His belief was that many wine enthusiasts shared this dream and would combine their efforts to pursue it. Bernau secured qualification from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and conducted the nation’s first successful self-underwritten Regulation A public offering in 1989, creating the first “crowdfunded”, consumer-owned business in the U.S. with nearly a thousand owners investing an average of $1,500 each. Today the winery is now owned by over 9,000 wine enthusiasts holding the winery’s Common (NASDAQ: WVVI) and Preferred Stock (NASDAQ:WVVIP).
“It was a wonderful experience, with owners traveling from far away to join us in planting a Cabernet Sauvignon vine,” winery director Christine Collier said. “Many planted their vine in honor of a loved one or dedicated to future generations.”
In addition to the groundbreaking, a winemakers dinner was hosted by Willamette Valley Vineyards at the Marcus Whitman Hotel on Saturday. More than 200 owners, as well as managing partners of SeVein including Chris Figgins, Norm McKibben and Marty Clubb were in attendance, breaking bread over Walla Walla and Willamette Valley wines.
About Willamette Valley Vineyards
Established in 1983 by winegrower and Oregon native Jim Bernau, it has collaboratively grown through partnerships like the merger with Bill Fuller of Tualatin Vineyards (est. 1973) and later the Dick and Betty O’Brien of Elton Vineyard. Jim’s vision of organizing the support of wine enthusiasts to grow world-class wines through shared ownership has resulted in over 9,000 owners. Willamette Valley Vineyards’ winery director Christine Collier is supervising the planting and establishment of Pambrun Vineyard and Elton Winery. She co-founded the company’s effort, Oregon Estate Vineyards, dedicated to small, estate wineries at some of Oregon’s most intriguing vineyard sites.