Episode 7 Sam Parra - Founder & Vintner of Parra Wine Co.

To toast Oregon Wine Month, I sit down with Sam Parra, founder and winemaker of Parra Wine Co., to explore his inspiring wine journey. Sam shares the unique story behind his small-batch operation, including sourcing grapes from across Oregon and Washington, crafting wines without a tasting room, and building a brand rooted in cultural heritage. 

We sip and chat about some of his standout wines, including his Tempranillo from Zenith Vineyard in the Eola-Amity Hills AVA, and his unique Tomalo Frío, a refreshing stainless steel Tempranillo infused with cinnamon tea and hibiscus. Fun fact: Sam is the first domestic Latino wine brand owner to hold a wine formula approval for this creation! Inspired by the flavors of agua fresca jamaica, this chilled wine brings bright, tart notes of hibiscus, rhubarb, and pomegranate, perfect for a sunny spring day (and amazing with a splash of bubbly water).  

We also dive into Sam's well-deserved recognition, including being named to Wine Business Monthly’s prestigious “Hot Brands” list, one of just nine selected across the U.S. and the fastest to make the list within his first two years in business. With features in Wine Enthusiast, Forbes, Oregon Wine Press, and a regular spotlight on KOIN 6’s “Wine Wednesday,” Sam’s wines are gaining attention nationwide.

Pour a glass, soak up the sunshine, and join us for this rich conversation about passion, perseverance, and the power of great wine. Cheers to Oregon wine!

Connect with Parra Wine Co at https://www.parrawineco.com 
Find Sam on Instagram and YouTube @parrawineco

Shout Out to Koin 6: https://www.koin.com/local/wine-wednesday-refreshing-wine-cocktails-from-parra-wine-co

Shout Out to: https://newdealdistillery.com

Thank you for listening! Connect and collaborate with Realtor Rashelle on any of her social media platform pages > https://linktr.ee/RealtorRashelle

Transcript

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Welcome to the Realtor Who Wines podcast. I'm Rashelle Newmyer, your hostess with the most as a student of life, a connector, a passionate wine enthusiast, and your local favorite guide. Join me as we explore the vibrant Pacific Northwest. Savor the finest wines and champion the spirit of entrepreneurship. Each episode, I'll sit down with inspiring guests, supporting business ownership and uncovering the stories that make this community unique. So grab a glass of wine, settle in, and let's embark on a journey of discovery and connection together. Cheers. Hi everyone. Welcome back to the Realtor Who wines podcast. I Rashelle Newmyer, your hostess with the mosts. And today I have Sam Para with parra wine Co with me. I'm very excited. I can't wait for you to hear his story. It's super interesting. And by the way, his wine is amazing. Cheers to you. Cheers to this beautiful sunny spring day. Yes, that is a beautiful day in Oregon. And cheers to Oregon wine month. Yes! Cheers to Oregon wine month Sam, do you mind just giving a brief introduction of who you are? And maybe a brief introduction to the Wine Co two? Of course. Yeah. So I'm Sam Parra. I operate on a very small scale. I purchase all my grapes. I operate in a cooperative. And in the cooperative, the only thing allowed in there are my vessels. What holds my wine? My my barrels, my stainless steel tanks. My steel drums. Once the wine is bottled, it has to leave the cooperative. Just like myself there. I have no access to a tasting room. I will talk later about my pop ups. Yeah, I do update my calendar quite a bit, but on my branded logo. This is, my branded P logo. Parra in English and Spanish es para and parts of Chile. But more of the origin is in northern Portugal, northwest Spain. Para means vine. The three ridges on the roots the third generation, the wine business. Oh my gosh. So storytelling on the branding. Yeah. Most of my grape contracts are here in the Valley. I have not shied away from purchasing grapes in Washington, where my Cabernet Franc is from, and also grapes from southern Oregon. Rogue Valley. Yeah, I do like that you source your grapes from all over. So you said third generation. So will you talk a little bit about how you grew up in the business and then transitioned to being a part of the business? Oh, yeah. Of course. Yeah. Born and raised in Saint Helena, California. Very small town, population of 5000. Population all 105 of us in my graduating high school class, my grandparents came to work through work visas. It was a program started, and, during President Eisenhower during World War two, it lasted all the way through the 50s. That's when my grandparents, great aunts and uncles, the program was bracero. It was work visas integrated in some states. What citizenship programs and what in one of those states happens to be California. And my grandparents worked their entire careers and vineyard work. Oh, wow. Yeah. The next generation. I do have two uncles, that have two business partners in LA. Their brand is Venus Unidos. And then you have myself, the third generation, but along with other family members that are, more on the administration and hospitality side and Napa, but I am the one doing this solo, here in the beautiful state of Oregon. Yeah. And you've received quite a few, I don't know if I want to say awards or recognition for sure. For you talk a little bit about that, like how you've been recognized as a winemaker, the accolades in general. Yeah, I feel one, that really stands out at the beginning of my brand. The the website is wine business.com. The publication is a wine business monthly magazine. They select nine brands throughout the U.S.. I was the fastest one to make it in two years of business to that hot brands list. That definitely, you know, spread the word out. For the wine industry in general as a whole. Yeah. For that article coming out, I received emails from wine regions ranging from Missouri to Michigan, where folks are checking in and asking if I offer an industry discount and, you know, asking for the shipping rates. Yeah. But in general, after that, yeah. You know, on a national level, it's been one enthusiast, Forbes magazine. Yeah. Yeah. And then regionally, you know, Oregon Wine Press, but very consistent with Koin. Six wine Wednesday. Which, know that the segment is out now. Oh it is great. We'll have to. Yeah. Put that a link in the video too. When people are watching YouTube they can also link over to watch that. Exactly. That would be great. Yeah. So how you and I met actually is through social media, but our social media loves social media, right. I had posted something about wine tasting. Sam had commented on it, and I was like, oh, it's Palanca. And so I started checking him out. And then Covid happened and a lot of tasting rooms are closed. People, obviously, businesses were hurting and were a big passion of mine is helping small businesses and making sure mom and pop shops survive, in general. And then especially during the tough time like Covid, I'm also a social butterfly, which is why I wanted to do the podcast is talking to everybody. So I had this idea like once stores were open, but it was like everybody had to be spaced out and all this stuff. What have we did? A shop, small event in Aurora, Oregon, where all the stores are spread like spread out, and I could invite clients and they could all shop and help the little stores there. And I reached out to Sam and I was like, would you like to, like have a wine table there and sell wine? And that was and 21. Yeah. Or actually, I think it was the winter of 2020 because I was just barely because it was around like, Christmas time because I was also trying to help those businesses. But anyways, yeah, I've known you since, and I've loved your wine since, and I've just enjoyed watching your journey over the last few years here and like how it's grown and everything. And for the support. Yeah, yeah, very happy to support you. And of course, when I thought of doing this wine cost or this wine cost, this podcast, you were one of the first people I was like, oh, I have to have salmon because you just have such a cool story. And then because you don't have a storefront, I just want to also give you a platform to like talk about your wine with people. So talk to us a little bit about what you brought today, but then also some of the wines you don't have with you today too. Now, of course. So one would be, Tempranillo. I've been sourcing this since 2019 from Zenith Vineyard, located in the Eola Amity Hills Ava, there out of West Salem, and then off with the same varietal. The base of this wine was made. It's all stainless steel in addition of cinnamon tea. And then hibiscus was in a mesh bag. And anytime you're adding anything to a wine, you submit a wine formula. So I'm very proud to say I'm the first domestic Latino wine brand to own a wine formula. This is tomato frio, which means drink it cold. We do have it on ice. I actually suggest also about 2,030% addition of bubbly water. But today, for this beautiful sunny May day, the ice and is hitting the spot right now. Yeah, it's super refreshing. And it tastes great without the sparkling water. But I bet with sparkling water be. Really? Yeah. And then folks see the bottle and they say, oh great, you're making a sangria. And I right away I say, no, no, you know, sangria is leftover wine usually cut up fruit? Make it sweet. This is, and just, more to really pay homage to a drink. I truly love of our Fresca Jamaica that you find a lot of taquerias the purpose of, hibiscus, to preserve how tart this is. It's, flavors of rhubarb. Pomegranate? Where, again? Usually with sangria is going to the sweet side. And as you're tasting this, it's a dry, tart wine. Yeah. Like, oh, it's not very, Yeah. Sweet enough, but it's not overly. See, I don't really very highest sugary sweet wines. Right. This is delicious. No thank you. What was your thought process behind this? Because, like, somebody might see these two together and be like, oh, this is made by the same person. Like, so you have this kind of wine and this kind of wine. What made you want to do this? Kind of, a more, a more of the inspiration of the Aqua Fresca. How Miche embracing culture. Also, you can see how light the bottle is. It's true. Cab. The price point is a bit different. Where that's in the that's in the mid 20 range where this is $40 retail. One of my, high end premium wines with my P logo where this, my latest placement of this wine, for example, is at Timberline Lodge. Oh, wow. Versus, the tomato. Oh. Can be more, places, such as Latin fusion restaurants. There's actually a distillery in Portland. Shout out to New Deal. The celery. Where on their on their many lists. They actually called it tomato fuerte, which means drink it hard. Oh my gosh. They because they come up with their own mixture of adding the tomato frio on ice. But they added it with one of the spirits they make cool. They have the freedom to create as they wish. I'm just happy it's on the list for the guest star by again. Near deal. The celery there near, the event space raid on salmon. Oh, okay. Yeah, that's. I think that's still kind of somewhat southwest Portland. Yeah. Yeah. So so, yeah. With that being said on your website, is there a list of different restaurants or their releases where people can buy it? Yeah, yeah, definitely key on my website without having a tasting room, I always update where to find my wines. Yeah. You're going to see all the cities, or even small towns in Oregon. All the accounts will be in alphabetical order of where to find the wines. It's not it's not going to list what specific wine will be at these places, but that that the wines are sold there in general. And I don't. Oh, sorry. That's right. Because you make small batches young, you make different varieties at different times. So you're I have certain things available. There might may only be a seasonal wine. Correct. And also more important is my pop up, schedule on my website just to find the, the, the place, at the date and time, I always joke that, is, quite easy to assassinate. You can you can find me. You can find me fairly easy just on the website. Just go to the pop up schedule on Find Me. Yeah. I do like that you're out in the community a lot. And you like. A lot of times it is Sam at the events, pouring wine. I know that you sometimes partner with teams, and you have people that pour for you, too, because you can't be everywhere at once. But there's a good chance if you go to the website, you might see him, the man himself at the pop up too. Yes. That's great, I love that. Yeah. What do you have coming up as far as wine? Like, what are you working on right now, like any certain variety, or are there certain grapes that you're wanting to source or something in the future? One recent one is, I reside in in Dallas, Oregon, and a grower there, Jeff Haven, have one vineyard has, Blough, Frank cash. They're very, very long. Word. It's an Austrian varietal in Germany is Limburger, but it's just a delicious, juicy wine. It's, definitely, satisfies the palate of a gourmet lover. Oh, sure. And also, just being released as a bone dry rosé of that varietal. Oh, nice. As well. So keep an eye out for that for my, late spring, you know, early summer. Now that the weather's turning, the rosé season is, you know, upon us now. Rosé, rosé all day, which I which I have canned in the past as well. Yeah. That has been a great chef. The previous, vintages, where I move, I had to take a small amount of wine, to get can and, gets force carbonated that has, been a blessing for the company to have new accounts such as taquerias, breweries. Big shout out to Occidental Brewery there, there on the Lombard, neighborhood near the Lombardi Bridge in Portland. Because at these places, that sell very little wine, it's, not beneficial for that company to have bottles open, especially, red wine on the counter that's going to oxidize within so many days are on the can. The beauty about the can is just one person or a couple or three folks that you know, they'll give them the glasses, they'll pop of that can and enjoy the wine there where they don't have to be worried about an open can and the counter because there's no such thing since they're selling the can directly in one purchase. Yeah, well, and depending on the venue to then they don't have to worry about corkage fees or anything like that. Then go under full transparency for me, I've actually taken your wine and the can campaign, which has been amazing because it's not always easy to take a bottle of wine camping so you can but and I've also taken it to the beach. So it's been amazing. Yeah. So those are just from personal use. You have the you purchase the very first one you had your, your, your, I like a holiday, your holiday market at Lake Oswego. Yeah. A couple of years. Yeah. I think it was two years ago. Right. But yeah, like you're saying with our history, that was a, a beautiful site and, and the antique store. Yeah. What was your friends there. Well, well ten and Paisley was there and then three daisies is right next story. Both of those are Aurora and actually ten and Paisley will also be on the podcast later this month too. Excellent. Yeah. They're the ones that are moving. They are. They've already moved. They moved from Ocala campus. Yeah. Yeah. They're just. Yeah. Charming buildings. And thank you so much. For the support. That was a great turnout. Which I continued with that idea with professionals that I met on in the community and saying, hey, if you ever do, you know, open houses or private parties and kind of just more shift to be the, the wine vendor. Yeah. For the event. Yeah. No, I love that you offer to do that one thing. I also really think is savvy of you and I appreciate of you is when because you don't have a storefront, right. You will text me and say, hey, this wine is out now. Are you interested? I'll even drop the bottles off, right? Or something. Cool. I love that you do that because I'm like, oh yeah, bring me six. Yeah, right. For like a day. For those of you that don't know, I like to gift wine a lot to to my real estate clients. And I like to gift obviously local wine when I can. So I think that's really smart. And it just also shows how connected you are with their clients to like, you already know if certain wine comes out or you. He also knows I live in Newburgh, and so when he's at that restaurant in Newburgh, he'll text me in the morning and be like, hey, I don't know if you're going to eat dinner tonight, but I'll be at social goods or. Right, down the street, you know, one of the taco shops, things like that. So now if I'm a free, I always open. And if I'm not, then I'm a seal. But I appreciate to knowing when you're going to be around, especially in my neck of the woods. And I'm sure you do that for other clients as well. No, I think for for a small business owner, I think it's just more a matter of, the comfort level or you know, how, well, you know, a person where, a big success of my company. Is that out of state shipping or private clients, but locally, whether it's through lengthen or Facebook or Instagram or, or email notification or as you said, just even I know your number, just texting. And I always been, you know, consistent in planning with just with, like ourselves having just really busy schedules in general where you're planning so many far steps ahead of time. You know, it seems like almost every single day. I'm not sure that's so sure. So you mentioned the co-op for somebody that wouldn't know that, like if they were just totally, a beginner and like, or in the wine industry. Can you talk a little bit about what you mean when you say you belong to a co-op? Oh, yeah. I should have facility. Of course. Yeah, a co-op means is a cooperative. Yeah. They own all the heavy machine and general, the the sorting table, the press. Yeah. So it's like, barn that you go to. Oh, it's. Oh, no. Oh, it's it's a, it's a commercial building. Yeah. And you basically have the contract, you know, you don't necessarily have your own space. And all cooperatives operate very different. There. It's just more in contract by tonnage in general. And most of them will tell you just what minimums they have in general as well. I will say at the very first one that I began in McMinnville, was very lucky to start with, you know, such a small amount of tonnage where I feel the flexibility is back for the area band that beer, wine and spirits, the, the alcohol industry as a whole is in a really rough patch right now in general, but basically in a cooperative. Yeah. You just you have a contract by tonnage or the larger cooperatives, like the prime example and Carlton, the Carlton Winemaker Studio, those clients, at the production level they're at, I'm sure they have their actual own section where they not only can they have actual barrels, but and in the back of the barrels are the actual tanks that they use there in harvest that they bring out that they own individually. But again, where I'm at is just what holds my wine. The vessels itself. So I went from the start and McMinnville. Then I went, for 2020, 21 and 22, I was in Amity, but I also big I was also producing at the now cooperative, in McMinnville in 2022 as well. And full production was 23 and 24 where I'm at now. Okay. So you just have like I keep moving. Yeah. Well, so you purchase a grape so you have the grapes and then they're delivered delivered to the cooperative. You have so much time to make it wine and get it into the vessels. Yeah. And then once it's bottled. Yeah. The wines fermented then is stored whether I'm going to have it in steel or barrels and then it slips away. Okay. And general and then where do you, do you bottle it there too. That's the, that's the beauty about where I'm at. Not not the can wine that is so facility offsite. And then for forced carbonation for the full seven is that is that a place called Castiel and McMinnville that does force carbonation on, the beauty about not, worrying about the investment of traditional champagne was method is that with an investment of of champagne method, you are not going to have any revenue of that specific wine coming back to you until 5 or 6 years down the road where with forced carbonation, you you make the wine and the fall. Yeah. And you're bottling and it's being a forced carbonated by the beginning of February. Oh, wow. And a week later you can be out selling the wine. The process is gentle. And again, you have something with bubbles. And again, it's not traditional champagne method, but it's in the category of a sparkling wine. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. How? When you got into winemaking, did you learn from your family like your uncle? Oh, yeah. I was like that. And then did you also get education outside of family, or is it all, all your educations from watching your uncles and other people? Everything's been in winemaking journey and Napa and Sonoma with friends and family, everything, here, hands on as a business, you send off your wine samples to a lab. There's actually one here in Newberg. I use the one in McMinnville in general. And you go off the numbers from that. So no, I did not. I'm not trained. And a degree of enology for winemaking. Yeah, but in general, for winemaking, you have to know your numbers and what you're doing. And the science part. Yeah. Well, as a student of life too, like, I don't know. Oh, there you go. I have to go to, like, a school to learn something, but like, obviously learning from your family and and watching and then trial and error is always one thing too. Do you ever do anything with your uncles in California? Like, do you guys ever do, like, a co-brand together or mixed together or anything? We've spoken about that. More of the tribute wine in general. And it's just been a discussion for now. But I feel for down the road, if, I plan to spend more time in California, that would be an option for down the road where, you know, the these are the plug. They are based on single vineyard wines. So maybe I don't have to just focus in Oregon and make some great single vineyard wines from different parts of California. Do they have like a tasting room too, or are they like you where they do pop ups and things like that? They are extremely lucky where they have access to a place in Carneros, the very southern part of Napa, where it's, like a pergola set up and a property where they have outdoor alfresco. Oh, cool food events. That's geared more for the wine club. The incentive of joining their wine club. Years ago, they were in a cooperative in downtown Napa before, the lease was up and that was not renewed due to a new hotel. They moved and that area of Napa. But that that was about 2016, 2017. That's been a hot minute. And since then they have now partners, longtime friend of ours that do really well and sells in Southern California. And I have a feeling that might benefit them with much more larger population. A place where the wine lovers, can spend more means on, on higher price point wines, like, like here in the Valley. It's really hard to get into the luxury market price point area. You know, you have to be, tasting. It seems like an a cave or a really fancy big, big winery. Yeah. In general, so, yeah, it's just a whole different market here in Oregon. Yeah. Well, and it is a different this is not to, like, say anything negative about California, but when you talk to people that go wine tasting, they're, like, intimidated to take a wine tasting in California because I feel like it's a little bit more studious, like you have to be able to speak to the notes and the undertones and all that. Now, like, I just want to drink wine. I feel like in Oregon it's a little bit more laid back. But because of that, the luxury wines, people don't see that true difference because I know I was like well versed in wine to know, like, oh, like this bottle is worth $60. And this is why it's a $60 wine, right? This is a $25 wine kind of thing. So I could see how that would be a challenge here for sure. If someone came up to you and said, I really want to get into winemaking, what advice would you give me? Like, what is one thing that you would tell them, like off the cuff, let's dive in and do the work. Internships at wineries? Yeah, that's a great yeah. You can apply here in Oregon. And then guess what? In the southern Hemisphere, you can, go work the harvest. There. And and winter. Oh, really? And the late winter in the southern hemisphere go off to New Zealand or Australia or Chile or. Yeah, for sure. And I think what's something cool about your business is that you can you're proven that you can make amazing wine and not have a storefront, not have like a winery per se, that people visit. But like, you make a great wine and then you also get it out to the public really well. And so what kind of advice would you give to somebody that's like, has that mindset of, oh, I have to have a storefront or I can't be in business, right. Now, thank you so much. I feel myself having experience and distribution. It's, definitely with the production side. It's a lot of exiles spreadsheets, like, say, really organize and, try to connect with folks that are in distribution and find the steps of what to do, where you're first stopping into a business without even any open bottles at all. You just stop in, try to meet somebody, briefly, get their business card, and and get the heck out of there brick and mortar and let them go back to work. Yeah, basically step one, step in and say hello. Yeah. And then from there email them and follow through, either with a call or stopping in person. Again, if they don't respond to set up an appointment, something where the email might have fell through or they're busy. It's just one step at a time. You follow through. So make the appointment and you finally get your one chance to go there. And you know, you better have your your your brand story ready yourself. Everything. So be prepared for what they ask about the wine. Yeah. It would be nice for you to see what other brands they have. They're like, you know, if you have a certain price point and, and they're carrying much more of the mass produce wine from the brands of Pacific Northwest. And you see certain price range in the $40 and, and above of very few bottles on the shelf. You just may want to pick other boutique, smaller wine shops in general. Yeah. But then also a lot of folks don't realize, you know, when folks have asked me, hey, can I buy your wine at Bi-mart or Safeway? And I'm like, you don't get it. Like those places. Just buy directly from a distributor, right? Like all small companies start out being selfish tributed or they're lucky enough to connect with a small distributing company, mainly out of Portland where they're at. But it's all just steps and baby steps. So for the sales part. Yeah. For sure. Yeah, I think that's really good advice. What other varieties? As someone went on your website right now, what wines are currently on your website that they could order to be shipped to them? I will say this for, for the e-commerce side on my website. It's actually managed by Northwest Vines. Okay. They're, they're an internet company out of Eugene, so he does have my previous rosé. He has my current Gamay, I think, my Cabernet Franc. Let's be frank about it. Yes. I love, my previous white bland and my previous Chardonnay. All my new releases. Just join my mailing list online. I customize the emails directly to everybody. That's amazing. Yeah. Or, to, to like first buyers in a way, you can say, like, yeah, certain groups of emails that I send out. Yeah. Well, I really appreciate you being here before we sign off today. Are there any cool events coming up for you we could see you at or catch you at? Definitely. The events happening through the nonprofit Family building blocks and Salem. They're on Cork Festival is, coming quickly in the middle of May. Okay. It's a beautiful location of Bren. Ma, have you been there? I have not burn ma winery and West Salem. It it is. It is a ticketed event. A lot of great food. Wine producers. I've even seen some breweries there as well. And it's a fundraiser. It's it's a it's a fundraiser in general. So Friday is a walk around where food and, I'm there my third year in a row. I don't get to sell on site, but it's a great event to support people. And on Saturday is their actual, gala. Oh, where I, where I donate, I donate wine for folks to enjoy. And all the wine that you're enjoying at the Saturday event, you know, a whole gala full on, you know, multiple course, thinner live auction. But I'm only there there. On Friday, I will also be at, the Corvallis Wine Walk is really fun. Oh, cool. Yes. And, one of the oldest wine shops in Eugene is Sundance Wine Cellars. They're off Hilliard, a very busy street with great stores. And that area of Eugene and, and coming, near, booking a date is a great wine shop in Pacific City called PC. Poor. So again, talk about finding me everywhere from the coast, you know, from Eugene to Portland. So again, those are the events that, just, that I can think about that. Yeah, they should definitely support and, but again, the Corvallis Wine Walk, just stop by and say hello. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. Thank you so much for joining me today and sharing a little bit of your background and your history. And definitely thank you for sharing the wine. I always appreciate it. So good to see you. Likewise. Thank you for the invitation. This opportunity. Yeah. Happy to have you. Cheers. Thanks for tuning in. Hope to see you next week.