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Day Wines 'Isla' Vermentino
Day Wines 'Isla' Vermentino
Grapes — 100% Vermentino
Region — Applegate Valley AVA, Southern Oregon
Tasting Notes — Pale gold with a bright, energetic clarity. Lemon oil, ripe citrus, papaya, and coconut on the nose, with macadamia nut and a distinct saline lift underneath. The palate is racy and plush at once, all crisp fruit-skin texture and expressive minerality, finishing salty, zesty, and long. Moderate in alcohol and vivid in acidity. Brianne describes it as sunbathing on a beach with a piña colada in hand, which is both accurate and hard to improve on.
The Wine — 100% Vermentino from Layne Vineyard in the Applegate Valley, one of Southern Oregon's older sites, planted in 1975 by Roger Layne back when planting a vineyard down there was considered a genuinely eccentric thing to do. The vines sit at 1,600 feet on alluvial topsoils over granitic bedrock. That combination of vine age, elevation, and dramatic diurnal temperature swing is exactly what gives this wine its unusual double character: tropical generosity and searing acidity in the same glass.
Vermentino is the flagship white of Corsica and a stalwart of coastal Italy, and it turns out to be startlingly well suited to this pocket of Oregon. The wine is fermented and matured in large-format 500L and 288L barrels, which build texture without leaving any oak signature, then bottled without fining or filtration.
The name is personal. Isla is Brianne's niece, Claire Isla.
Farming — Day Wines works exclusively with growers committed to soil and vine stewardship through biodynamic, organic, and sustainable practices. Brianne describes these partnerships as the backbone of the business rather than a supply chain, and she has worked extensively with Layne Vineyard across a number of varieties over the years. Confirm the specific certification at Layne with your rep.
Winemaking — Native yeast fermentation, minimal handling, no fining, no filtration. Aged in 500L and 288L barrels. Sulfur is the only addition, kept low. Brianne's house approach across the range is consistent: spontaneous ferments, minimal punchdowns, rare pumpovers, and only tiny amounts of new oak anywhere in the cellar.
The Producer — Brianne Day founded Day Wines in 2012 with 125 cases of Pinot Noir from a friend's vineyard, and has built it into a roughly 5,000 case operation making a startlingly diverse range of wines, most of them in tiny quantities, most of them single vineyard, and nearly all of them from certified organic or biodynamic fruit. Her conviction is that the real character of Oregon wine lies in the diversity of its growing regions rather than in any single grape, and her sourcing map reflects that: Applegate Valley in the far south, Yamhill-Carlton in the north, and a scattering of AVAs in between.
The result is a portfolio that runs from Pinot Noir and Gamay through Dolcetto, Tannat, Syrah-Viognier, sparkling Malvasia, and this Vermentino, which has quietly become one of the wines people seek her out for. Her tasting room outside Dundee, called Day Camp, is one of the more relaxed and genuinely fun places to drink wine in the Willamette Valley.
Drink It With — Grilled sea bass, halibut, or snapper, shrimp in any form, clams and mussels, Caprese salad, ceviche, or a hot afternoon that needs a wine to match.
Day Wines 'Isla' Vermentino
Grapes — 100% Vermentino
Region — Applegate Valley AVA, Southern Oregon
Tasting Notes — Pale gold with a bright, energetic clarity. Lemon oil, ripe citrus, papaya, and coconut on the nose, with macadamia nut and a distinct saline lift underneath. The palate is racy and plush at once, all crisp fruit-skin texture and expressive minerality, finishing salty, zesty, and long. Moderate in alcohol and vivid in acidity. Brianne describes it as sunbathing on a beach with a piña colada in hand, which is both accurate and hard to improve on.
The Wine — 100% Vermentino from Layne Vineyard in the Applegate Valley, one of Southern Oregon's older sites, planted in 1975 by Roger Layne back when planting a vineyard down there was considered a genuinely eccentric thing to do. The vines sit at 1,600 feet on alluvial topsoils over granitic bedrock. That combination of vine age, elevation, and dramatic diurnal temperature swing is exactly what gives this wine its unusual double character: tropical generosity and searing acidity in the same glass.
Vermentino is the flagship white of Corsica and a stalwart of coastal Italy, and it turns out to be startlingly well suited to this pocket of Oregon. The wine is fermented and matured in large-format 500L and 288L barrels, which build texture without leaving any oak signature, then bottled without fining or filtration.
The name is personal. Isla is Brianne's niece, Claire Isla.
Farming — Day Wines works exclusively with growers committed to soil and vine stewardship through biodynamic, organic, and sustainable practices. Brianne describes these partnerships as the backbone of the business rather than a supply chain, and she has worked extensively with Layne Vineyard across a number of varieties over the years. Confirm the specific certification at Layne with your rep.
Winemaking — Native yeast fermentation, minimal handling, no fining, no filtration. Aged in 500L and 288L barrels. Sulfur is the only addition, kept low. Brianne's house approach across the range is consistent: spontaneous ferments, minimal punchdowns, rare pumpovers, and only tiny amounts of new oak anywhere in the cellar.
The Producer — Brianne Day founded Day Wines in 2012 with 125 cases of Pinot Noir from a friend's vineyard, and has built it into a roughly 5,000 case operation making a startlingly diverse range of wines, most of them in tiny quantities, most of them single vineyard, and nearly all of them from certified organic or biodynamic fruit. Her conviction is that the real character of Oregon wine lies in the diversity of its growing regions rather than in any single grape, and her sourcing map reflects that: Applegate Valley in the far south, Yamhill-Carlton in the north, and a scattering of AVAs in between.
The result is a portfolio that runs from Pinot Noir and Gamay through Dolcetto, Tannat, Syrah-Viognier, sparkling Malvasia, and this Vermentino, which has quietly become one of the wines people seek her out for. Her tasting room outside Dundee, called Day Camp, is one of the more relaxed and genuinely fun places to drink wine in the Willamette Valley.
Drink It With — Grilled sea bass, halibut, or snapper, shrimp in any form, clams and mussels, Caprese salad, ceviche, or a hot afternoon that needs a wine to match.