Fermenting Friends is a cooperative venture undertaken by long-time good friends who enjoy sharing great food and wine.

Ed and Roxanne Sienkiewicz own a home and property on Chehalem Mountain where we began planting grapes in 1997 and where we established the Fermenting Friends Winery.  Gary Fuqua is one of the early Dundee, Oregon "wine pioneers" whose vineyard provided the grapes for most of our early wines and continues as a major source of grapes and expertise.  Ed and Gary combine their respective experience, knowledge and talents as Chief Winemakers.

In addition to these folks, Larry & Ila Larson, Dave & Ernie Francisco and Walt & Weeze Pollock formed the charter membership of Fermenting Friends as "Chief Grunts" with major responsibilities in the areas of picking, pressing, bottle washing, and bottling operations, as well as construction and maintenance of the winery.  Harrison Call, who resided on Seven Arches Vineyard in Cloverdale and Al and Diane Wright were founding members with contributions of moral and financial support as well as labor when their “non-retired” schedules allowed.  Sadly, Harrison passed away in 2003 (see Harrison Call).

 With several members choosing to semi-retire from winemaking as their cellars overflowed, we have taken on several new members to keep the staffing (and drinking) levels up.  Dave and Joy Gay Pahl and Norm and Pat Sandberg are the newest “Grunts”; they join Paige Richardson (Gary’s daughter), and Tom Shipley and Christi Thomas, our migrant workers from Austin, Texas as well as Vinnie and Mary Kay DeFalco, our migrant workers from California, Ohio, Washington and environs. Tom and Christi have enjoyed part-time wine work enough to purchase a second home in Portland (and they also get to visit grandchildren). Vinnie and Mary Kay have now bought a semi-permanent home in Lacey. And, finally, during the hectic harvest and bottling periods, we have enjoyed incredible help from family and friends. We have met many new friends, and we really appreciate their involvement and help.

Although the winery is a hobby with no aspirations to become commercial, we have enjoyed considerable success with awards from the Oregon State Fair, Newport Wine Festival and Sonoma County Fair (see Awards). Our wines have consistently shown well in blind tasting comparisons with a wide variety of commercial wines from throughout the world. The wall space for awards is almost full. We may keep those bottles for ourselves now.

Our primary initial goal was to make Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris in the style and quality for which Oregon is famous, with grapes from Fuqua Vineyard and Roxanne's Vineyard. We added Pinot Blanc to our list, and we have also made Pinot Noir Blanc. Our Pinot Gris has consistently exceeded our original expectations.  Our Pinot Noir has been less consistent, but we still pursue this tough and elusive grape. The scene in Sideways that extolled the virtues and challenges of Pinot Noir was no surprise to us. 

Still, man need not live on Pinot alone. We continue to search for fruit from warmer climates to extend our taste treats. Over the years we have accessed:

·        Cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay from Seven Arches in Sonoma County;

·        Cabernet franc and merlot from Cricket Hill in southern Oregon;

·        Zinfandel, cabernet sauvignon, merlot and chardonnay from Hillside Vineyards in The Dalles, Oregon;

·        Syrah and cabernet sauvignon from Graves Vineyard in Dallesport, Oregon;

·        Syrah and cabernet sauvignon from Mill Creek Vineyards in Walla Walla, Washington;

·        Cabernet Sauvignon from Chandler Reach Vineyards in Alderdale, Washington; and

·        Cabernet Sauvignon, cabernet franc, Malbec, merlot and syrah from Del Rio Vineyards in southern Oregon.

 In 2005, we focused again on fruit from our vineyards as well as from Hillside and Del Rio. We also experimented with some new offerings from Griffin Creek in southern Oregon. We are finding that blended reds often present more complex and pleasurable results with superior profiles that deliver great flavors from mouth entry to lingering aftertastes. Many wineries are extolling the virtues of this vintage. Not us. The poor set in the spring was not the problem. The cold September and the wet October resulted in fruit that lacked the flavor intensity and interest of the 2004’s – at least for us. The wines are in the bottle. They taste fine – but not extraordinary by our standards.

Vintage 2006 includes Roxanne’s Vineyard, Fuqua’s Vineyard, Del Rio Vineyard and Hillside again. We added cab and syrah from Sam’s Vineyard in southern Oregon and a small amount of Tempranillo and Grenache from Washington. Early indicators say this could be a dynamite year. If you like Oregon wine – buy futures for this year!