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ABOUT MILBRANDT VINEYARDS - OUR PEOPLE
Jerry MILBRANDT
Co-owner
While technically not a native Washingtonian, Jerry Milbrandt is about as close as you can get. He was born in Portland,
Oregon in 1948, but moved to the Quincy area of Eastern Washington at the age of six. "Dad and Mom bought 160 acres
for $40 an acre. They had saved half of the money and borrowed the balance from Grandpa. Upon arriving we staked
out our homestead and planted a border of trees for definition, shade and protection. We lived in an army surplus trailer
and tent for the first winter, then built a concrete block home."
Jerry first became aware of wine in 1969 while stationed in Frankfurt Germany. "I drank many wonderful Rieslings while
in the army. Over the next three decades I continued to taste, explore and learn about wine."
In 1997, after witnessing the high quality of wines being produced in Eastern Washington, Jerry and brother Butch got
into the grape growing business. In 2005, after selling their fruit to some of the state’s most prestigious wine producers,
they decided to launch their own label.
"Washington has the best growing conditions in the world and we’ve worked hard to find some of the best sites in
the state. We have cool high-elevation sites for our whites, resulting in wines with great minerality, acid crispness and
forward fruit. Our reds are planted in the warmer areas, creating wines that are deeply colored, ripe and generous."
Jerry and his wife Janie have six kids between them. They have been bitten by the travel bug (no relation to phylloxera)
and recently enjoyed a barge trip down the Rhone River with a French winemaking couple.
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