Latino winemaker has unique Oregon distinction

By Katherine Cole, The Oregonian

At the age of 28, the brand-new winemaker at White Rose Estate in Dayton received two scores of 94+ from the influential Wine Advocate for his first vintage, the 2008. The following year, one of his wines achieved a 96 — tying the highest score ever accorded to an Oregon pinot noir by the Advocate.

This winemaker did not attend graduate school to study oenology or viticulture. He did not — as many do — travel around the world, working apprenticeships at top-flight estates.

Instead, he got his college degree in computer systems engineering. Then he traveled across the border with a visitor’s visa and began working in agriculture in the United States. Or, to put it another way, he began laboring in vineyards with others like him — Mexicans who don’t speak a word of English.

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