St. Innocent Winemaker Evening Wednesday, February 5th, 7pm
Category | Wine |
We Invite you to join us for a special evening with Mark Vlossak, Owner and Winemaker of St. Innocent Winery, one of Oregon’s most decorated wineries. Mark founded St. Innocent, Ltd. in 1988 and is Winemaker and President to this day. He also served as winemaker for Panther Creek Cellars from 1994 through 1999. At the 2001 Unified Symposium for Viticulture and Enology, Vlossak represented Oregon on the International Focus on Pinot noir panel.
Mark Vlossak had an unusual upbringing. His father was a wine educator and importer who instilled his passion for wine in Mark at the tender age of seven years old. Mark’s mother trained under a master chef and prepared meals to accompany the wines they were tasting. Together, his parents showed him the beauty of the partnership between food and wine and how one served to elevate the other. Mark began St. Innocent Winery in the Willamette Valley in 1988 and quickly established himself as one of the premier winemakers in the area, finding sites that had potential to produce wines with a true sense of place. Today, under Mark’s leadership, the winery continues to produce outstanding wines from esteemed sites within the Willamette Valley. Our estate vineyard was planted in 2018 and we expect to harvest our first fruit in 2022. Vickianne Vlossak’s daughter Makenzie has spent the last several years working harvests in Oregon and Germany and is training with Mark to eventually take over the reins at St. Innocent. Their winery produces critically acclaimed Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc, and Riesling, along with a small program devoted to sparkling wines, produced in the traditional method.
2014 Wine Advocate Wine Personalities of the Year!
Mark Vlossak, Willamette Valley, Oregon - A Wine Advocate Hero in 2002, Mark Vlossak continues to grace consumers with the finest Pinot Noirs Oregon has fashioned to date (one of his wines at Panther Creek earned the highest score Robert Parker ever gave an Oregon wine and his offerings at St.-Innocent Winery have received the highest scores I've attributed to Oregon). As if that were not enough to earn high praise, Vlossak also deserves thanks from all wine-loving consumers for maintaining extremely fair pricing – many of his 2002s, for example, were the finest Pinots I tasted in that highly successful Oregon vintage yet were some of the cheapest wines in my report. Vlossak's dedication to quality and his commitment to delivering value to his customers is exemplary.