Page 67 - Grapevine Jan-Feb 2020

Marketing & Innovation

Charlie and Echo owner and
Winemaker, Eric Van Drunen,
initially collaborated with Bill
Lindsay and Jonathan Barbarin of
Thunderhawk Alements, an inde-
pendent brewery in the district, on
“Project X.” The three successfully
created a Chardonnay and Pinot
Grigio blend with Hallertau Blanc
hops named after Van Drunen’s
favorite song lyrics. Sister Golden
Hair Surprise, or S.G.H.S, reflects
the color and sensory experience of
the wine. The second wine he cre-
ated is called Citrasé, a rosé blend
of Grenache and Mataro with Citra
hops. The name is a mashup of
Citra and Rosé.

With unique, on-trend wines
comes unique, on-trend packaging.
“We’ve put these wines in cans
which seems apropos since they are the intersec- Boedecker Cellars & Little Beast Brewing
tion of wine and beer,” Van Drunen said.
Stewart Boedecker of Boedecker Cellars in
For their part, Thunderhawk Alements is quite Portland, Oregon, collaborated with Charles Porter,
proud of the product and hopes to do more collab- Founder and Brewmaster at Portland’s Little Beast
orations. “We not only learned how hops can com- Brewing, in creating two mixed-culture beers fer-
plement wine in a beautiful way; we are excited to mented with wine grapes: Bière Gris and Radical
see these unique wines become available to the Forces Pinot Noir beer.
public. We look forward to more collaboration,”
Barbarin, co-owner of Thunderhawk Alements said. “We turned the art of wine and beer making
on its head a bit, and the result is quite beau-
Hops, Van Drunen said, affect the wine in unex- tiful. Stewart came up with the idea of a lac-
pected ways. “Hops help the wine retain the head tic-bacteria-fermented Pinot Gris juice that we
that one generally sees on a beer. It changes the then blended with our wort and fermented, as
color of the wine, changes the aroma and has a usual, with Saccharomyces and a secondary with
very transformative mouth feel,” he said. Brettanomyces. This aged in oak for six months,”
said Porter. “For this Bière Gris, Boedecker Cellars
To ensure he has the freshest product, Van pressed their Pinot Gris grapes and put it in a tote.
Drunen makes a batch of wine every two weeks, Once the tote arrived at our brewery, we added
since the hop content drops around six months. our Lactobacillus to sour the juice. This process is
He’s experimented quite a bit to get to this point. heralded in the making of tart and sour beers but
“It has been a long journey creating these wines. typically avoided in winemaking. Once soured, we
I’ve tried a few wines getting to this final product. added it to a beer we made that day and co-fer-
I tried a sparkling sour red, which was originally a mented it all together.
good wine that went bad in the bottle. I’ve tried
to dry-hop a red wine, but it wasn’t as tasty as the “The Radical Forces Pinot Noir beer was my cre-
Sauvignon Blanc,” Van Drunen said. ation. I wanted to mimic the character of a Pinot

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