Minimus Wines: Maximum Intensity
9/19/16 -
(Chad Stock among Chardonnay vines at Omero Cellars - photo: Jonas Mendoza)
Minimus Wines are unconventional even by Oregon standards. Each wine is an individually numbered, non-repeating experiment with assorted varieties, fermentation, and/or maturation techniques that eschew or break formal winemaking conventions. For example, Experiment #1 was devoted to aging wine in acacia barrels; Experiment #2 focused on co-fermenting Tempranillo with Viognier skins. Nevertheless, to fully comprehend Minimus Wines, you must understand Chad Stock.
Chad initially set out to study business at the University of Oregon, but ended up relocating to his home state of California and graduated with a degree in viticulture and enology from Fresno State. After graduating in 2006, he landed a harvest job at Rudd Wines in Oakville, California. The subsequent year, he returned to Oregon to work at Antica Terra. Afterwards, he worked and consulted for Johan and Durant Vineyards in the Willamette Valley, and Two Hands in Australia's Barossa Valley before launching Minimus Wines in 2011.
A quietly intense person in both the vineyard and the cellar, Chad reminds one of a methodical scientist, but with the soul of a passionate artist: both hard work and inspiration inform and drive his winemaking philosophy and practice. Officially, Chad is winemaker/partner in Craft Wine Company, which markets Omero Cellars and Minimus Wines. Omero focuses on Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Gris; Minimus is their exploratory label where no grape, AVA, or fermentation vessel is off the (sorting) table.
Chad has a laser-like focus (emphasis on laser) on every detail of vineyard, cellar, and business management. While spending several hours with him at Omero's vineyards and tasting room, Chad was able to cite acreage size, soil type, and variety of every block, but also the harvest date, elevage, and maturation of each of the nearly 20 wines we sampled. To further push Oregon's winemaking envelope, he has planted a slew of non-traditional varieties like Mondeuse and Aligoté.
His quiet intensity and unrelentling curiosity is firmly grounded by his underlying humility. To quote Chad: "Minimus is a personal growth project. I consider it to be a continued education of sorts. I just want to be the best winemaker I can be." Jonas Mendoza
