Women in Wine: An Interview with Annie Shull, Raptor Ridge

Raptor Ridge: An Interview with Annie Shull

This is a series of interviews intended to capture the wine moments happening in Willamette Valley and beyond. 

This week, I spotlight Annie Shull, Proprietor and Director of National Sales, Marketing and Distribution for Raptor Ridge Winery in Newberg, Oregon.

If you’re not familiar with Raptor Ridge, grab a bottle. They make some of the most vibrant, beautifully crafted wine in the Willamette Valley. I had an opportunity to interview Annie and she is quite an inspiration…

Annie, what did you do before establishing Raptor Ridge and what do you love most about the wine industry?

Scott, my husband, founded Raptor Ridge in 1995 while we both worked at Sequent Computer Systems, a small company that spun off from Intel in the ’80s and produced very fast, very large servers for large corporations. I developed marketing and training materials, curriculum, computer based training, and project managed a large portion of the product website in the mid- to late ’90s, through 2000.

What do I love about the wine industry? I love the variety of challenges I encounter and the enthusiasm, drive, and focus of wine industry people. From the foresters, to the barrel makers, vineyard workers, winemakers, sales teams, distribution reps, to the chefs, sommeliers and retailers, they all have passion for what they do. People do not get into this industry for money or fame. If they do it right, it’s all about drive and passion, and an appreciation for craftsmanship.

When you started Raptor Ridge in the mid-nineties, were there many women involved in the Oregon wine scene? How have things changed since then?

We are very fortunate to have some great pioneering women in the Oregon wine industry who have served as amazing mentors along the way. Susan Sokol-Blosser, Nancy Ponzi, Pat Dudley, Diana Lett, Sue Horstmann, Leda Garside (just to name a few), are a handful of wonderful women that have been involved in the Oregon wine scene.

And over the years, many strong female winemakers and business owners have continued to emerge and inspire me with their passion and grit—Anna Matzinger, Lee Bartholomew, Kelly Fox, Lynn Penner-Ash, Luisa & Maria Ponzi. And finally, we’ve been recent recipients in Oregon of some amazingly wise and talented women who have uprooted from decades of rich experience in other fields and other geographies and blessed the Oregon wine world with their presences: Eugenia Keegan, Ellen Brittan, and Donna Morris.

I am equally impressed with the young crop of 20-something sommeliers, chefs, and distribution sales associates out there – confident, focused, and incredibly knowledgeable about all things wine and food. I wish I had been so well versed at their age. They will all go far!

You source grapes from a number of different Oregon vineyards. What does each bring to the bottle? Is there one particular vineyard you favor in regards to uniqueness of the fruit?

Each vineyard brings its own signature; nuances of soil, microclimate, clone, and artistry of the vineyard manager to make our cuvées (Willamette Valley series, Reserve, Trig, and Flight Club Select) and our single vineyard bottling (Shea, Meredith Mitchell, Olenik, Gran Moraine, Estate Adalfo’s Block, Harbinger, Bellevue Cross). This is literally the palette of paint, rack of spices, and floral notes (insert copious floral analogies here) we use to decorate our canvas, and season the pot…

Favorites? This is where I have to let you in on the fact that my dogs and my wines are as close as I will ever get to progeny…

So, asking me that is like asking who my favorite child is.

Here is the closest I can come:

I personally favor cool vintages, and my favorite stand-alone vineyard designate in cool vintages is Shea.

As a blending tool and backbone to our reserve, I enjoy what Meredith Mitchell vineyard brings to the party.

And I am a gushing proud parent when you get me talking about our own estate fruit. We were not sure of its potential until the first vintage made it into bottle (2006) and we are quite proud of the authentic Oregon style Chehalem Mountains Laurelwood soil grown wine brings to the table: earthy, plumy, with a nice zippy cherry, and balanced acidity, even in warmer years. Okay, cut me off..

What makes the Willamette Valley region so special for growing grapes?

For the wine drinker who appreciates and celebrates the diversity that our vintages bring us in Oregon, the Willamette Valley region offers an amazing tapestry of flavors, aromas and structure. If a person is looking for the same thing from vintage to vintage, bottle to bottle, they should look elsewhere. How funny, I focused on diversity studies on college. I guess that fits.

What are some of the challenges Willamette Valley faces, in terms of growing grapes, making and marketing wine? Where do you see Oregon 10 years from now?

Oregon came late to the party relative to California, but I think we have played an amazing job of catch up thanks to the foundational work of people like David Lett, David Adelsheim, Sue Horstmann, Pat Dudley, Terry Casteel, Mark Vlossak, Nancy Ponzi, and Harry Petersen Nedry, who have all been instrumental in getting the word out to think of Oregon when they think of New World Pinot noir.

The International Pinot Noir Celebration (IPNC) and Oregon Pinot Camp (OPC) were an integral part of this successful messaging. I think it will only get stronger in the next ten years, as we mature more as an industry. We’ve learned a lot in 40 years of cool climate Pinot production. We share our learnings with each other at venues such as Steamboat, and the products just keep getting better and better. We need to hold on to this collaborative spirit. That’s one of my main missions—I won’t let us loose this spirit as long as I am living.

What advice do you have for a woman wanting to get involved in the wine business today?

1. You better be passionate about the wine industry, because it is glamorous about 2% of the time and damn hard work for 98% of the time. It really boils down to farming and sales. And the money is not very good for a very long time, until your skills or your brand are firmly established. Scott and I like to say it took us 17 years to become an overnight success.
2. This is a competitive environment. It may look fun and relaxed, but don’t kid yourself.
3. Know what you bring to the table. Are there skills that you already have that will help build and augment our growing industry?
4. Pitch in. Be a part of the collaboration, start by volunteering to really get your hands dirty and make sure that you are up to the task.
5. Check your ego at the door. We’re pretty down to earth in Oregon, and we’re all pretty friendly. We’re proud all right, but not arrogant.

Annie, thank you for such an inspirational and insightful interview! And by the way, I am a sucker for anything you put in the bottle, especially anything that has Meredith vineyard fruit in it…Just say’n!! Thanks for the memories.