Next Wave Awards Winery of the Year: 00 Wines
In an industry with as much history and tradition as wine, producers are often eager to share how many generations their family has been in the business, how old and storied their estate is, or their impressive resume of winemaking education and experience working harvests across the globe. But the way Chris and Kathryn Hermann, the couple behind Oregon’s 00 Wines, see it, entering the industry as newcomers was one of their greatest advantages.
Before starting 00 Wines in 2015, Kathryn was entrenched in the world of tech startups and Chris was a lawyer in the Willamette Valley, working with both local and international wineries. Though tangentially absorbing information about vineyard sites through client deals, the two had no experience making wine, just a mutual love for enjoying a great bottle of Chardonnay. Spending many evenings savoring an unctuous Burgundy or exploring producers from the U.S., it was clear Chris and Kathryn felt so much passion for the grape variety, the only thing left to do was try to make it themselves.
“The core of 00 Wines starts with us coming to this with a beginner’s mind,” Chris says. “We didn’t go to wine school, our family didn’t own a vineyard for 200 years. People often come to this industry with a context, a fixed architecture. We had to create our own.”
Credit: Mariana Fernandez
What the pair did have, though, was a clear goal in mind. “I had a vision of what I wanted the wine — particularly the Chardonnay — to look like, taste like, and feel like,” says Chris. “So from there, it’s figuring out what the pieces are to start to assemble the product that has all of these aspects. It’s about deconstructing the 150 steps from the vineyard to the bottle.”
Chris’ father was an esteemed plant geneticist at Oregon State, which imbued Chris with a lot of state pride, but also drew his interest to the scientific method. Chris applied this systematic approach to making wine, testing as many variables as possible to see what could get the wine closest to their vision. “That’s why we didn’t buy a vineyard,” he says. “We don’t know if that works best with high elevation, low elevation, east facing, west facing, sedimentary soil, volcanic soil, certain clones, grafted, ungrafted. So I assembled a giant matrix of all of these factors and just started testing them.” The duo painstakingly assembled trials to assess each factor, from vineyard site to barrel selection, determined to bring their dream Chardonnay to life.
While Chris and Kathryn wholly embraced their building-it-from-the-ground-up philosophy, that doesn’t mean they don’t value expertise. They also tapped famed consulting winemaker Pierre Millemann and hired Léa Lafon, who has deep family history in Burgundy’s Meursault region, to provide guidance.
In studying their favorite bottles of Chardonnay, one theme that clearly stood out was the use of the unconventional “black Chardonnay” method. The technique maximizes exposure to oxygen early in the process, turning the pressed grape juice into a murky, dark brown. It’s shocking at first, but over the next few months, the wine returns to a golden color, and is left with a remarkable complexity. Many winemakers would consider this approach risky — but the Hermanns were tenacious in their pursuit of excellent Chardonnay, willing to experiment and try anything to reach that perfect texture and energy.
Credit: Mariana Fernandez
“Much of what we do is not typical and sort of idiosyncratic,” Chris says. “That’s what causes us to be a unicorn. No one else is doing what we’re doing because they didn’t go through our process. And that’s why our wines have a distinctive signature.”
Though the industry was reluctant to embrace the newcomers at first, the wine’s unique style made it quickly stand out among the world’s top collectors. “People weren’t even willing to taste the wine at the beginning because we weren’t in the industry,” Chris says. “But we were incredibly persistent. What we began doing in the beginning was blind tastings with somms of our Chardonnay against bottles from Burgundy’s Coche-Dury. They would taste and you would see this look come over their face. Sometimes they would get it right, sometimes they wouldn’t.”
The wine first found its most dedicated audience through some high end Burgundy collectors, known for seeking out distinctive Chardonnays from small producers across the globe. In 2020, they recall getting a call from the head sommelier of the French Laundry who had tried the bottles that guests brought in as corkage and wanted to buy a case of every SKU. At that point, word was spreading about their wines.
Credit: Mariana Fernandez
What’s remained consistent through 00’s journey is its undying commitment to Chardonnay — though it also produces focused expressions of Pinot Noir. Chris and Kathryn have expanded the operation to Burgundy and Champagne, eager to have a foothold in each of the world’s premier terroirs for the white grape variety.
Though the production has scaled up from the winery’s first vintage of 250 cases with spray-painted labels — 00 now makes about 5,000 cases in Oregon — it remains a boutique operation, with Chris and Kathryn laser-focused on each aspect, from production to sales. As the wines have received more accolades and allocations have become more difficult for buyers to come by, the Hermanns have never rested on their laurels. Instead, they use their newfound platform to bring attention to the potential for great Chardonnay in the Willamette Valley, hosting wine dinners and tastings around the world, from Charleston, S.C. to Singapore, to showcase the incredible single-vineyard expressions coming from the humble Oregon region.
“That’s why we’re so specifically passionate about the Willamette,” Kathryn says. “The monks found out the great terroirs of Burgundy, but the greatest vineyards of the Willamette Valley haven’t been written in stone yet. It’s an exciting time to be on the cutting edge with other people in the region.”
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