Pleasure from Payne

Winemaker Kate Payne Brown is a triple threat

By Greg Norton

“Think globally, act locally” isn’t merely a mantra but a lifestyle for Kate Payne Brown. Raised by “New Yorkers in Salt Lake City,” her vintner experiences include working in both Australia and Burgundy. She combines her broad worldview, collaborative nature and commitment to sustainable practices with her roles at the recently opened Ambar Estate and Vinovate Custom Wine Services in the Dundee Hills. Her passion for sparkling wine emerges in Dolores, a labor of love she shares with husband, fellow winemaker Griffin Brown.

New Vision

Biology and chemistry studies at the University of Oregon drew Payne Brown to the state. Originally her goal was an optometry career. While working at an eye clinic in Beaverton, a deeper interest in wine was kindled by volunteering at a Portland urban winery. Around the same time, she met Griffin on a blind date.

Later, a Nevada-bound motorcycle tour with Griffin and his father surprisingly revealed more wine-world vistas. Payne Brown remembers a fellow traveler mentioning a “grape consultant” acquaintance who “travels all over the world consulting on wine and grapes.” She was intrigued such a job existed.
Although now remembered only as a “friend of a friend,” Payne Brown credits him with further opening her eyes to the global possibilities of working in wine. “He had this unknowing, pivotal role in my career.”

The encounter led Payne Brown to apply to the University of Adelaide’s competitive Master of Oenology program in Australia, which admits only 20 students annually. “To be thousands of miles away from everything; to focus solely on one pursuit was such a gift,” she said.

The decision to head “down under” accelerated the couple’s plans: “I was accepted into the program in December; my husband proposed in February; we married in June and left for Australia three weeks later. My entire life changed within the course of six months.”

Return To Oregon

After her graduate studies at Adelaide, the two returned to Oregon as interns, intending to work again in Australia after harvest. However, the internships led to permanent positions. Payne Brown was hired by Anna Matzinger, then winemaker and general manager at Archery Summit in Dayton. She spent nearly six years there as assistant winemaker.

“She really proved her worth through her actions and contributions,” recalls Matzinger, who values Payne Brown’s keen tasting skills. “Her ability to kind of ‘crystal ball’ and imagine what the wines could be, then come up with ways in which that could happen. It was really fun to see her talents develop, and a joy to taste with her.”

Greek-born Kyriakos Kynigopoulos, a prominent Burgundian wine analyst, frequently visited Archery Summit and enlisted Payne Brown to work alongside him in the U.S. and France. Their association made possible multiple trips to Burgundy and Champagne, where she established relationships with vignerons. “I learned a lot from that,” she said, thankful for Kynigopoulos’ “wonderfully gentle way to lead and be thoughtful about winemaking.”

The globetrotting job mentioned during that long-ago Nevada trip had ultimately found her.

Next, she worked nine years as the reserve winemaker at Stoller Family Estate. Payne Brown led a small team of three, producing the brand’s premium cuveés and launching its sparkling wine program.

Stoller’s current winemaker, Evan Rose, (hired by Payne Brown) recalls her meticulous attention to detail and commitment to teamwork. “One of the beautiful things is how people’s palates are always different,” he observed. “She was very thoughtful and respectful of those she worked with, whether our small team or upper management.”

Rose values the “little Kate” looking over his shoulder, encouraging him to pause and “take it to the next level, really fine-tune things, and give the wines the respect they deserve.”

Ambar Estate and Vinovate

A role in shaping two new Dundee Hills businesses recently enticed Payne Brown to address fresh challenges.

Following a global legal career in mergers and acquisitions, which included representing publicly traded California wineries, Rob Townsend and wife, Pam Turner, moved to Oregon and founded Vinovate Custom Wine Services and Ambar Estate.

Opened in 2023, Vinovate’s 24,000 sq. ft. winery, 50,000-case barrel room and 43-acre sustainable vineyard deliver “grape-to-bottle” services for premium, small-lot brands, for both still and sparkling wines.

Nearby, Ambar Estate, focused on Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and sparkling wine, is the Willamette Valley’s first Regenerative Organic Certified vineyard. A new Japanese-inspired tasting room and hospitality complex designed by Signum Architecture overlooks the organic and biodynamically-farmed grapevines.
Townsend realized recruiting a talented winemaking team was essential to the ambitious intentions and investment of the two new businesses. His lifelong friend, Scott Baldwin, owner of De Ponte Cellars, suggested a meeting with Payne Brown.

“Pam and I had coffee with her,” he recalls, immediately finding her “warm and at the same time professional, curious and engaging– and a delightful person to spend time with.”

Payne Brown joins Bryan Weil, formerly of Alexana Winery, in producing the wines at Vinovate and Ambar. Working to expand the two endeavors deepens her respect for the land and crafting wines with a specific sense of place.

She describes tending Ambar’s new 20-acre vineyard as “beginning a conversation. For me, as a winemaker, my philosophy should always be the site before anything else,” she said.

The estate’s regenerative organic certification involved a commitment to meticulous vineyard practices while promoting biodiversity. It also extends to social welfare, evident in providing vineyard stewards with higher wages than the industry standard.

According to general manager Julie Mettille, the pay rate is based on a living wage survey they conducted. “How much they need to pay rent and put food on the table for their family,” she explained, “not merely an arbitrary number that seems fair to us.”

If Payne Brown’s concentration on Ambar’s vineyard resembles a conversation, the extensive variety of fruit at Vinovate’s custom crush facility presents her with a vinous babel. She welcomes the challenge of supporting the company’s growing list of wineries, noting “working with many clients and vineyard sites provides a broader view.”

Call Me Dolores

Payne Brown’s love of family, enthusiasm for sparkling wine and global perspective represent the heart of Dolores, her small-production project of traditional method sparkling wine and Willamette Valley Pinot Noir.

The name is a multilingual wordplay honoring Payne Brown’s mother, Charlene Payne. A descendant of Filipino and Hungarian immigrants, she is fondly remembered as an adventurous soul who journeyed to Spain in the 1970s. There, she acquired the nickname “Dolores,” since Payne [pain] translates to “dolor” in Spanish.

Naming the brand coincided with the 2016 death of Payne Brown’s mother. “In that haze of grief, I remembered this conversation with my mom about the time she lived in Spain,” she recounted. “I really grabbed on to that in the moment… I needed it to have this homage to my mother but also an air of adventure and creation to it. So, that’s where it was born.”

The inaugural releases defy boundaries by including sparkling Pinot Gouge Blanc, a genetic mutation of Pinot Noir discovered in the Burgundian vineyard of Henri Gouges in the 1930s. Propagated there by Gouges, the rare variety eventually made its way to Oregon, where a few acres are planted. While other producers craft still wines, Payne Brown produces a singular sparkling wine.

“I always have loved sparkling wine from my time working in Australia and going to school there,” she affirmed.

Dundee And The World

Payne Brown’s two tenures at iconic Oregon wineries, combined with her education in Australia and consulting work in France, helped her become a local winemaker with a global outlook.

“Tasting with [Kynigopoulos] in Burgundy and now with my clients in the U.S. puts me in a really unique position to look at wine from many distinctive angles and approach problem solving from a different way,” she notes.

“Kate not only brings a sparkle to conversations and engagements, but also passion for things that matter immensely to my wife and me,” said Townsend, citing her efforts to help Oregon develop a more diverse, sustainable wine industry. “One that will have even more reasons to occupy a place on the world stage.”

Greg Norton is a freelance writer in the Pacific Northwest with a broad background in non-profit communications and the arts. He studied journalistic writing through the UCLA Extension and has traveled to wine regions around the world. Greg is a Certified Specialist of Wine and received the level two award from the Wine and Spirits Education Trust.  When not writing about wine, he can be found pouring it in a tasting room or wine bar near West Linn, where he lives. Read more by Greg at www.onthevine.blog.