Second generation winemaker Cody Wright earns his own credentials, respectfully attributing it to his vineyard sources.
Cody Wright has been experiencing wine since he was seven-years-old. Son of heralded winemaker Ken Wright (formerly of Panther Creek Cellars, proprietor of Ken Wright Cellars) and stepson of sparkling wine guru Rollin Soles (formerly of Argyle Winery fame, now ROCO Winery), Wright has been building his own colorful background as winemaker/owner of Purple Hands Winery in Dundee, Oregon.
With his journey beginning back in early the 2000s, Wright has seen it all, from the installment of crops to the producing and selling of wines. “My brother and I grew up in the winery and in the vineyards our whole lives,” Wright says. “All through high school we were still always in the wineries and vineyards. My brother and I, and some of our friends, were my dad’s full-time crew.”
Wright spent years developing his wine resume and learning from the best, beyond the childhood memories of running through vineyards and leaping over forklifts. After receiving two degrees in environmental science and environmental geography from the University of Oregon, he immediately jumped in and took a winemaking internship in Australia. He returned home to work a harvest with his father at Ken Wright, eventually moving into running the white wine production before returning to the Southern Hemisphere and working a vintage in New Zealand. After studying Chardonnay, Merlot and Pinot Noir for months in a separate time zone, Wright came back to his roots in Oregon, bringing with him his jet-setting vintage experiences and studies.
Shortly after his return in 2005, Wright began working for his father and producing his own wine on the side. “It was kind of ‘the apple not falling far from the tree,’” Wright says of his small lots of Syrah, Merlot and Pinot Noir he made at the family winery. “People really liked it… Everyone kind of convinced me to do it. After spending so many years back to back making wine, the name Purple Hands seemed fitting.”
Purple Hands’ initial production quickly outgrew the space at Ken Wright Cellars and Wright moved into ROCO’s facility, where he not only was Soles’ assistant winemaker but also had the ability to make as much wine as he wanted to for his brand. Here, he says he felt his production was limitless and it proved to be fruitful: he received his first 92-point score from Wine Spectator magazine, at the age of 28.
Although his family connection and resources didn’t hurt the process, Wright says he started Purple Hands on just $5,000 of his own money. He even lived in a single-wide trailer on a farm to ensure all of the money he was making was going toward his brand.
“If I was going to pursue my own little dream and passion, it was going to be on my own dime,” Wright says. He took out a line of credit and devoted himself completely to the brand. “When we started to do [this] in 2011, the 2012 vintage turned around and got some of the highest scores out of Oregon for that year. Everything we made was 93 points Wine Spectator, 91s and 92s, and since then it has been on that same steady pattern.”
Wright and his wife and partner, Marque, continue to hone their craft each year, attributing much of their success to the grapes sourced for their wines, like Dundee Hill’s prestigious Holstein Vineyard and the praised Freedom Hill Vineyard in the Eola-Amity Hills appellation.
“It’s built around how we see the grape, how we pick, how we do everything sustainably and everything unfiltered,” Wright says of his vineyard-driven production and ethos. “We’ve really developed our own vision and what we’re trying to show off through unfining and unfiltering, making sure that we ferment everything native. I think we’re even bringing a whole other level of quality to the game.”
Even the physical winery and tasting room are minimalist, like Wright’s intervention, focusing on vineyard-specific wines in a modest and approachable space. The natural wines are produced to showcase the vineyards and the fruit; in a way Wright says gives back to the vineyard and builds a connection to the quality of the site. For Purple Hands, the vineyard is paramount.
“I think we need to uphold the fact that great wine starts in the vineyard and it doesn’t start in the winery,” Wright says. “With a lot of talent and skill, you can make great wines in the winery, but if you’re not taking care of your sites, if you’re not amending your soils, if you’re not creating the most healthy environment on the farm and if you’re not passionate about growing the most healthy food… [We are] following a little bit more of our quest of being good people and growing healthy food, and not making commercialized wine and tons of it. I want to continue to make wines that I really like and, if I do that, then I think it will be good.”
