The Fizz #40: Melaney Schmidt, winemaker at Landmass Wines is forging her own path in Cascade Locks
In this issue, Melaney and I talk about her journey to winemaking, her love of the science behind wine, and how her identity as a queer woman impacts her work.
For the 40th issue of The Fizz, I spoke to Melaney Schmidt, winemaker at Landmass Wines in Cascade Locks, Oregon. Melaney and her partner Malia are on their fifth year of making wine from Oregon and Washington fruit. They moved up to Oregon from Los Angeles after falling in love with winemaking during an internship at Illahe Vineyards.
In this interview, we talk about Melaney’s background in the beverage industry and how she worked her way into winemaking through internships and college chemistry and winemaking courses. We also talk about her love of sparkling wine, and how her identity as a queer woman impacts how she presents Landmass Wines to the world. Melaney’s passion and work ethic is palpable throughout this interview, and I’m so excited to see her and Malia take the wine world by storm.
Margot: Can you tell me a little bit about your wine history and what prompted you to become a wine maker?
Melaney: I’ve been working in food and beverage for a really long time. I started off my very first bar job at an Applebee's in a small California town. My first foray into beer, wine, and cocktails wasn’t very high caliber, but it was very methodical. I worked at bars through college and had friends who worked at really cool restaurants, and I would just ask them “hey, if you’re ever hiring, let me know”. This was when craft cocktails were first coming up in L.A.—2005/2006. I had a friend who worked at this really cool bar and he encouraged me to go work there.
They had a wine program there, but I didn’t know anything about wine. I kind of felt like wine is for rich people, wine is for fancy people—that’s not my background. I started bartending there and then eventually one of the managers was leaving and she told me that I should step up and start managing the bar. I didn’t know how to build a wine list, but she was really encouraging.
I started taking classes with the Court of Master Sommeliers, and when I took over that program, I had to reach out to some of our wine reps. Who were the people who are selling wine into this restaurant already? I emailed this woman, Crystal Williams, and I expected her to show up in a suit and tie and a rolling bag, you know. In walks this woman—she's young, she's covered in tattoos, she's smiling, she's super friendly. That was the first time for me that I felt wow, wine can look like this.
I was writing the wine list and studying with the Court, but what starts to happen is that you realize—I could read a book on winemaking, but I need to have my hands in it, because there was no way I was going to retain that information unless I was fully absorbed in it. I was buying wine from Oregon and I just reached out to an Oregon producer [Illahe Vineyards] and said hey I love your wine, and they said well, you should come up and see what we do.
My partner and I went and we actually spent a day at this winery. They let us sleep on the property, which was incredible. It was just the most beautiful experience. You wake up and there's an old black lab pawing at you telling you it’s time to go. People are showing up to work and they’re smiling and all the fruit comes in and it smells incredible. It was completely team oriented and all about community. I just remember thinking okay, I don't care about being a sommelier at all. I want to do this. I want to learn how to make wine.
So I asked Malia—do you want to move to Oregon and learn how to make wine? She was like, yes. Yes I do. I think that sounds great. We just sold everything, left L.A., moved to Oregon, and worked harvest with that same vineyard. I was asking probably a thousand questions a day. The owner, Lowell Ford, pointed me to a community college with a winemaking program and said hey you’re really interested in this, you should go do it, and we’ll sponsor you.
What's really cool about the community college is they have a program where it's a vineyard or a winery sponsoring you. It makes it so you can actually go to school. The community knows we gotta get kids into the program, but we have to make it within reach. I can't say enough good things about the program.
Margot: That’s amazing. What’s that college called?
Melaney: It’s called Chemeketa Community College. I did that program for two years and it was completely eye-opening because it's actually very chemistry heavy. I was actually going to Portland Community College at the same time and taking chemistry classes to get up to speed with what the class required out of me. The more science you know, honestly the better your wines are.
Margot: That's wild. How did you work with Illahe?
Melaney: They were wonderful. They took Malia and I in. It was really nice to work next to your partner, because we're learning at the same time, but it really helped us figure out our interests and our strengths and they really supported them.
Margot: So you both essentially apprenticed for them?
Melaney: Yeah, an internship is maybe more accurate, because I had no idea what I was doing. They are so welcoming to first year interns or people just excited about wine. It was the best situation we could have asked for for a first time experience. Malia went on to work for them for two more years, two more harvests while I was taking classes.
Margot: Can you take me through between when you were taking classes and working at Illahe to starting your own label?
Melaney: After harvest we moved to Portland. I remember being really amazed that there were these lush gardens in front of every farm. I drove by this tiny farm and went home and Googled it. The first picture that pops up is all these tattooed badass women, and I could just tell, okay this is definitely a gay farm. I emailed them and introduced myself and asked if they were taking volunteers. They said yes, and I was working with them for a couple of months and told one of the organizers that I was apprenticing to be a winemaker. She said oh I have a friend who is a winemaker and I should put you in touch because I know he needs help.
That was Corey Schuster of Jackalope Wine. Corey was really awesome because he took me out of the educational stuff and into real life. In school, you’ve got all the bells and whistles and nothing is rushed. Corey really opened my eyes to what real winemaking looks like. He knew at the time that I wanted to make my own wine. He introduced me to somebody who had some Grenache in Southern Oregon. Basically while I was working for Corey, I was also making my own wine. That was really generous of him letting me making wine in his facility, letting me tap into his knowledge. He was just a complete open book—here’s where I get my labels, where I buy my grapes. It was great.
The first year it was “can I make wine?”. The second year it's like “can I make wine and sell it?”. The third year it was “can I make this viable?”. Now it’s “how do we make a life out of this?”. It feels really good because for the first time, we sort of feel like, yeah, that was the right choice.
Margot: That growth must feel amazing. Are you currently in your own facility or do you share a facility?
Melaney: We're in our own facility, but we don't own the building.
Margot: That’s awesome. How did you get to a place where you're able to do that?
Melaney: We've been in the Willamette Valley this entire time, and our buddy Jasper Smith owns Son of Man Cider. They make wine in Cascade Locks and he told us that the building he works in, which is subdivided, had availability. We called the city of Cascade Locks, and we realized that for what we pay in the Willamette Valley with five other winemakers—we could afford in Cascade Locks on our own. It’s actually closer to our house, too!
Margot: What a wonderful drive, too. That area is so beautiful. It seems like you’re focusing quite a bit on sparkling winemaking. Why is that exciting for you?
Melaney: Yeah, definitely. Sparkling wine is our core focus. We make a lot of different sparkling wines, everything from pet-nat to methode champenoise. There’s something about sparkling that is completely mesmerizing to me. The science part of my brain is fully activated. My dad is a mechanic and there was always something tinkering in the garage. He’s a motorcycle mechanic, but he’s hella nerdy.
Sparkling, I think, sort of taps into that part of me that is my father's daughter. I want to figure out the math behind this. It's highly technical and there’s really no room for error. It can either explode, or it’s flat and not exciting. So there is this incentive to achieve as close to perfection that you can, but there's also this element of really beautiful surprise. When we lay down bottles, I hope I checked all the boxes! I hope in three years, the wine tastes good, that it’s correct.
Margot: I love sparkling wine—it’s so versatile! Looking at the wines that you make, you have a real diversity of grapes going on—it’s not just Oregon Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Is that important to you or is it kind of like, hey, you know what, we're just using whatever we can get our hands on?
Melaney: It’s kind of both. This year Malia said oh cool we have all of our fruit in, and I said oh I forgot to tell you we’re getting some Gruner in that I want to play with. I think because we are still relatively in the infancy of our brand, I'm still just so excited about how different grapes evolve in the bottle. I’m still trying to extend the varietals that we use. We had 18 different lots this year, which is a lot to manage.
I would say for the champenoise sparkling, we're super traditional—Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. I’m really excited about Tempranillo, Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc. That’s where my heart is, but I still do these off the cuff, one-off varietals. It always feels like “okay what’s next?”.
Margot: That’s just a great way to describe the freedom that American winemakers have here, where you get to pick and choose and play with different grapes and different styles every year, and people embrace that instead of yearning for consistency.
Melaney: That’s actually why we chose the name Landmass—we get to work with all these people in Oregon and Washington, and all of those landmasses are different.
Margot: Absolutely. Now that you're in the Gorge, are you going to be looking for more Gorge vineyards or are you trucking your fruit around?
Melaney: We’re almost fairly 50/50 this year between Underwood Valley and the Willamette Valley. The Underwood Valley is so insane because it's so windy. The disease pressure is really low. It's really interesting. Clusters from the Willamette and clusters from the Gorge—you can’t believe it’s the same fruit because it looks so different.
Margot: As a queer person myself, I’d love to talk to you about how you’re presenting on social media. I know winemakers who are queer and who are out, but when you go on their winery profiles, you wouldn't ever know. They don't talk about it at all and that's their choice and I respect that, but you're very vocal on your Instagram about your queerness. Was that a deliberate decision for you or did it just come naturally?
Melaney: I definitely think that it was a conscious decision. Malia and I have been together for almost nine years. The first year that I started it, Malia definitely played a supporting role. She had a different job at the time and we were still trying to figure out if this is feasible. Then when we started becoming more involved in the wine world, we were like, no, we definitely are doing this together. I actually had a lot of friends who, when we first created the website, said I love your website, but it does not come across that you guys are together at all.
We said you're right. There are a lot of people that don't know us, so how would they know? I actually feel like in the last couple of years, I just made it more of a point to be like, yes we are two women who are together. I don't know if I want people to buy our wine just because we’re gay, but I definitely don't want people to not buy our wine because we're gay. If you're not going to support what we do because we're a couple then I don't really need you to buy my wine. We should be out there telling more people that we’re together.
Margot: That's awesome. There's something about being authentic in that way in the wine industry that's so important to help our community realize hey, this space is for you also. Look, there are lots of queer people in the wine industry that are doing great and they're having fun and it's awesome. You can also do this. I think that's really refreshing to see.
Melaney: Definitely. We worked almost exclusively with straight white people and straight white men. There wasn't necessarily always space at the table for queer women. Malia is half Filipino—if you're not going to make room for us at this table, we're going to build our own table. When we moved to the Gorge, we really thought, we're going to go do our own thing. We can't be like hindered by all this.
Margot: What has the wine culture been like for you as a winemaker? Going from working in restaurants and working in bars to being a winemaker in this new segment of the industry, how has that change been for you and where do you see opportunity for the wine industry to grow and get better?
Melaney: Things have changed because I think buyers are getting younger. With the help of social media, finding a community that matches your ideals or sense of identity is much easier now. I feel like there's support for people out there, like for queer people who like wine. That seems like a no brainer to me, but ten years ago, five years ago, could it have been scary to go to a wine bar as a queer couple? Yes.
I just feel like as wine drinkers are getting younger, they're sort of setting this inclusive tone. This isn't like how I had feared when I first started my wine journey—this isn’t just for rich straight white people. When I drop off cases, I see staff wearing rainbow pins and they/them pins, and that’s just a great feeling. That to me is really exciting, and for us to be a part of it—I just think it’s really cool.
Margot: It definitely does feel like the tide is changing, which is amazing. Has there been any frustration in getting into winemaking for you?
Melaney: There've been some instances where I've worked in spaces with other winemakers and they will try each other’s wines. When I say, do you want to try something I made, it gets quiet. I distinctly remember this moment where I was working at this winery and there were these two male winemakers there and they would try each other’s wines regularly. I remember getting up the courage to put myself in the conversation. I'm a paying tenant, we're all making wine. I remember asking, do you want to try this wine? One of them straight up just said “no, I’m good”.
I don’t know if they were irritated that I was trying to be a part of the boys club or whatever, but I just remember thinking wow, that’s how it’s going to be? One of those people, we crossed paths again a couple of years later, and I said oh, I haven't seen you in a while, a lot has changed! He was like, “yeah, you're just in a lot more debt now”.
I just felt like, wow, they just really want to shut you down. On the flip side of that, I've had some wonderful mentors like Anthony King, who runs The Carltons Winemaker Studio. We've only known each other around two years, but I can call him and ask his opinion. Say one of my barrels is moving slowly. I can call him and ask what you do in this situation? How high should my level of concern be? He’s always really kind, and at the end of the day, we're both trying to sell wine to the market so he could easily say I'm not going to tell you, I had to earn my 25 or 30 years. Instead, he just says come on in, let me tell you exactly what I’ve seen, what my experience is. There are some people who are just nasty and all you can do is prove them wrong.
Margot: Yes, exactly. I love that. What motivates you in your winemaking? Where do you find your joy?
Melaney: Joy definitely comes in the form of a small sample of a barrel where Malia and I look at each other and just say damn, that’s good. We're just all smiles because I think there'll always be this level of healthy anxiety when I make wine. I feel very responsible for the wines that I make because I don't grow my own fruit. These growers have spent literally a year taking care of these wines just to sell us this fruit, you know? I feel a strong sense of responsibility to take what those farmers grow and turn it into something really beautiful. It really excites me when I feel like I've done a good job.
Margot: That’s an amazing perspective to have. Thanks so much for taking the time with me. I can’t wait to meet you both in person and try your wines!
You can support Melaney and Malia by buying their wines at Landmass Wines. Follow them on Instagram to stay up to date on releases and events here.
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