Daedalus Cellars began in 2000 when Aron Hess and Pam Walden threw caution (and miniscule savings) to the wind and filled one open-top fermentor with Pinot Noir grapes from Phelps Creek Vineyard. The resulting 97 cases of wine were released two years later. Production has grown incrementally each year to the current annual production, which is around 3000 cases of Daedalus and 5000 cases of the second label, Jezebel.
We are still a tiny company and the owners still do a little of everything from cellar work to vineyard work to working in the tasting room.
We began sourcing grapes from various vineyards around the valley and we're still sourcing grapes. We're lucky enough to work with some fantastic vineyard sites, including older sites in the Dundee Hills, our favorite AVA.
The first seven acres of vines were planted on the estate vineyard in the Dundee Hills in 2008. The first harvest from the estate vineyard will be this year, 2011 ... all Pinot Noir.
The focus of our production is Pinot Noir, though we also produce small amounts of Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Grüner Veltliner, Dry and Dessert Riesling. Sourcing from some of the state's best vineyards, we work closely with our vineyard managers, diligently monitoring the vineyards throughout the growing season and bringing the fruit in at the last moment, when it has reached its fullest potential.
In the winery, we closely monitor the fermentations, but trusting nature, we do as little as possible. We employ long cold soaks, which gently build structure from the finest-grained tannins. Employing spontaneous fermentations and minimal gravity-fed handling exclusively helps to build and preserve silky, supple mouthfeel and complex flavors.
Our vineyard sites allow us to harvest balanced fruit at full maturity: bursting with flavor, with modest alcohol potential and--most importatnly to us--the natural acidity that wines require to accompany food properly and to age gracefully. We recommend that you cellar our wines for five to ten years to get the most enjoyment from them. If you drink them earlier, we suggest that you decant them. The aeration will improve the aromatics, and the depth of flavors that you will experience.
The name Daedalus comes from Greek mythology, by way of James Joyce, Aron’s favorite writer. Stephen Dedalus appeared as Joyce’s alter ego in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and again, with his wings clipped, in Ulysses. In the myth, Daedalus was an inventor, most famously of the Labyrinth at Knossos, a stylized version of which is represented in our logo. Unfortunately, he was also later imprisoned in his Labyrinth, along with his son Icarus. They managed to escape, with wings Daedalus crafted of wax and feathers. Only Daedalus made it; Icarus succumbing to hubris and flying too close to the Sun. The wings are featured on our bottle labels. We chose the name, the myth if you will, because we see in it what we think Joyce saw: the freedom that can be gained in creative pursuit, and the cost at which it can come, especially if you don’t remain humble.
“This race and this country and this life produced me, he said. I shall express myself as I am.”
(Stephen Dedalus in Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.)
This quote that appears on our front labels refers both to Pinot Noir as a grape that is particularly expressive of its terroir, and to the personal philosophy of Daedalus Cellars and our commitment to natural winemaking. We make wine because we are passionate about it. Aron pursues a style in which he believes, and if other people like it enough to buy it, all the better. We hope you enjoy our wine as much as we do.
