Q&A-List

Galley & Garden | Birmingham, Alabama

Birmingham is quickly becoming the burgeoning capital of the New South with its explosive culinary scene, revitalized historic districts and charming Southern culture. Helping fuel the renaissance is the highly regarded Chef James Boyce and wife and partner Suzan of Galley & Garden — a part of the Boyce Restaurant Concepts. The city’s newest destination for modern American-French-inspired cuisine — with a Southern twist — Galley & Garden is located in the historic Merritt House, highlighting the juxtaposition of past and present. Alongside its innovative cuisine, the restaurant features an impressive wine list with bottles from around the world, including an outstanding selection from Oregon. Galley & Garden deservedly won an Oregon Wine A-List Award in 2016.

Q&A with Jesse Jewell, GM of Galley & Garden

What makes Oregon wine unique?

I’ve always found it interesting that Oregon is looked down on from California for its “inconsistent climate” because all I see is a longer growing season, and the skills to turn that hard work into amazing wine.

What do your customers generally know about Oregon wines? 

The Birmingham market is remarkably well-informed about Oregon wine. The “blame” can be directed at a few people in the city, whose retail shops have encouraged many different Oregon Pinot Noirs over the decades, and who annually hold a “Pinot Camp.” The last numbers I saw showed Birmingham as the second largest Oregon Pinot market per capita. The choices we get really do outweigh other Southeastern cities (i.e. Atlanta, Nashville).

Name the last bottle(s) of Oregon wine super-impressed you.

That would be a tie between Alexana’s “Terroir Selection” Pinot Noir and Evening Land’s Seven Springs La Source Pinot Noir. The former for the depth it offers at the amazing price point, and the latter for its supreme elegance and gentle complexities. It’s no wonder Evening Land hit so high on Wine Spectator’s last cycle.

What would you like our readers to know about Birmingham? 

As I mentioned above, the city gets a very large share of Oregon wines and enjoys them thoroughly. I don’t imagine anyone leaving Oregon to go somewhere else and drink Oregon wine, but we do offer a great cultural scene as well as a dining scene, which has been growing at an amazing pace over the last decade. Between that and the low cost of living, I’m happy to call it home.

Oregon Wine Press and Oregon Wine Board present the Oregon Wine A-List Awards, recognizing restaurants across the world that show enthusiasm for Oregon wine and a deep appreciation of the diverse regions, varietals and producers of Oregon.