Home > Dream Job Holidays > Amity Vineyards
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Wine Maker
Wine: Amity Vineyards, Amity, OR
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Does your interest in wine go beyond selecting a good Pinot Noir for dinner? Perhaps you dream of walking through a vineyard on your way to work every day, checking the grapes along the way? Does the craft of winemaking appeal to your sense of taste and your sense of business? If you are ready to roll up your sleeves, test you palate, and have a hands-on winemaking experience, join Wine Maker Myron Redford at Amity Vineyards for a VocationVacations® dream job holiday in the heart of Oregon’s Pinot Noir country. Myron Redford’s first memories of tasting wine go back to his college days. While attending Antioch College in the mid 1960’s, Myron participated in a study abroad program. During that time, he and a friend hitchhiked from Ankara to London. It was on this hitchhiking adventure that Myron was introduced to wine. “In Bulgaria, I had my first European wine. It was a wonderful white wine which I still remember today,” says Myron. He also remembers ordering house wines in two neighboring B&B’s in the Moselle Valley in Germany, “I discovered that even though both wines were made from Riesling grapes grown in close proximity, one was great and the other one was not.” These early experiences and discoveries fueled Myron’s interest in wine and the winemaking process.
After college, Myron returned to his hometown of Seattle and went to work for the vice president of academic affairs at the University of Washington. His quest to learn more about wines and the business of making wine continued to grow. “I had become a wine fanatic,” laughs Myron. He began making trips to California to expand his knowledge of wines and his understanding of the wine business. Fate stepped in when he overheard some faculty members at the University of Washington discussing a small winery they had started in the Seattle area. Myron seized the opportunity to do some work for them. “They needed a strong back on the weekends, and I needed the experience,” explains Myron.
Myron began home winemaking in the early 1970’s, and in 1974, with the help of his mother who re-mortgaged her house to provide the down payment, he purchased Amity Vineyards in Amity, Oregon. In 1976, he built the winery, and in 1977 his first vintage hit the market with a Pinot Noir, a Riesling and a Semillon. His first crush of eight tons of grapes resulted in the production of 6,000 bottles of wine. Today, the winery harvests about 120 tons of grapes which results in about 90,000 bottles of wine. The selection has grown to include Pinot Blanc, Gewurztaminer, Gamay Noir and Marechal Foch as well as the original Riesling and Pinot Noir. Amity Vineyards is recognized as one of the leading producers of Pinot Noir in the country. Myron is truly a pioneer in the Oregon wine industry. “There were only 10 wineries in Oregon when I bought Amity Vineyards. Today, there are 300,” he says. Over the years, Myron has been a leading innovator in the Oregon wine industry and continues to take the path less traveled. In 1988, he discontinued the use of new oak, which was a radical move at the time; also in 1988 he introduced a true Gamay Noir from French cuttings; and in 1990 he produced the first organic, sulfite-free Pinot Noir. Myron was also an early proponent and champion for Pinot Blanc. “When others were looking for new clones of Chardonnay, I began grafting my Chardonnay over to Pinot Blanc. I really felt the future was in Pinots.” When asked in general what his winemaking philosophy is, Myron is quick to say, “Wine should taste of place, not production.” Winemaking requires a lot of hard work, long hours, attention to details and doing whatever it takes to get the job done. “That may include cleaning the tanks at 4 a.m. when the temperature is 40 degrees,” says Myron. “Then, of course, you have to deal with Mother Nature, and ‘she’ doesn’t cut you any slack. If you don’t do things on time you are out of luck.” Myron takes the hard work and challenges in stride and remains passionate, but realistic, about winemaking. “People have a romantic idea about wine, but there is much more to it. I like to describe wine as a romantic face on a very hard and laborious body,” says Myron. Although Myron has recently turned over much of the day-to-day operations to wine maker, Darcy Pendergrass, Myron will forever be an expert in the many sides of wine’s romantic face.
While on your Wine Maker VocationVacations® dream job holiday with Myron, Darcy and their team at Amity Vineyards, activities will include some or all of the following:
- Wine Appreciation Education
- Harvesting (October) – Picking, crushing, pressing grapes and…clean-up
- Preparing the wine for bottling (November-May) – Clarification, cold stabilizing, fermentation, racking, topping barrels and, yes…clean-up
- Bottling & Labeling (April-September) – Setting up bottling line, lab work, label layout, labeling, bottling and, yes…more clean-up
- Marketing (Year-round) – Tasting-room, selling, wine festivals, material design (no clean-up required…but Myron’s desk is always in good need of it!)
The Wine Maker VocationVacations® dream job holiday includes
- Two-days of one-on-one mentorship in your dream job as a Wine Maker
- The ability to take the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®), an online personality assessment designed to identify interests and skill sets
- The opportunity to participate in a total of one hour of pre- and post-VocationVacation career coaching from an accredited, affiliated VocationVacations career coach
- A pocket-size VocationVacations journal so you can document your dream job becoming a reality
- Light lunches with your mentor
Available: April through October based on Mentor's availability, with exception of holiday weekends
Price: $949 Per Person
Suggested Accommodations
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Hotel Oregon |
Youngberg Hill Vineyards & Inn |
| (Not inluded in the price of your VocationVacations® holiday)
Buy some Amity Vineyards wine!
Reservation, Cancellation and Rescheduling Rules and Conditions:
Full payment of the VocationVacations dream job holiday is required to make a reservation. A $100 non-refundable fee is assessed if a VocationVacations experience is cancelled or rescheduled prior to 14-days of the scheduled VocationVacations holiday, based on the approved availability of the mentor to reschedule. A VocationVacations adventure cannot be rescheduled and is non-refundable if cancelled within 14 days of the scheduled VocationVacations holiday. Written notification of cancellation or rescheduling is required in all cases. In the US, Grounded Nomads, LLC and VocationVacations holidays encourage all customers to acquire travel insurance to cover any unforeseen expenses due to cancellation or rescheduling. In the UK, Grounded Nomads, Ltd and VocationVacations holidays must require all customers to acquire travel insurance to cover any unforeseen expenses due to cancellation or rescheduling and provide verification of such travel insurance to Grounded Nomads, Ltd. |
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