At a bar in San Francisco in 1998, Erica Orr met winemaker Aaron Pott who convinced her that winemaking was the coolest job in the world. She took a vacation from her lab tech job at UCSF to work harvest with Cathy Corison while applying to the master’s program at Davis. She was hooked and there was no turning back.

Erica honed her craft working at some of the best wineries in the world: Rudd Estate, Cain Vineyard, Domaine Dujac and Yering Station. In 2005, she moved to Washington state and started an independent winemaking consulting and enology business in Woodinville, where she helped wineries like Baer, Mark Ryan, Guardian, Sparkman and others rack up 90+ point scores and now two Spectator Top 100 wines. In 2013, Erica decided the time had come to create a wine all her own. The inaugural and limited release of Orr Wines − 116 cases of old vine chenin blanc − came into being with the generous help and goodwill of the Woodinville winemaking community.

Cheers everybody!  Here's to calling in all my favors!

photo credits : Victoria Wright, Ramin Rahimian, Kyu Han, Katelyn Peil