The Call of the Wild Columbia Gorge 🌲

  Embarrassingly, I grew up in Oregon and have been to Hood River countless times…but had never stayed overnight. I know. I’m ashamed. But after spending this last week there shooting another episode of Her Way, I finally get it: the Gorge is magic. Jaw-dropping natural beauty, sweeping, wind-swept vistas, incredible food and wine, and fearless humans yearning for adventure. Here is a peek into our whirlwind week in this wild and untamed land...

Sunday: SOÇA in White Salmon

Our small-but-mighty all-female crew arrived on Sunday and checked into the Hood River Inn Best Western, which I want to shout out to because they have been hugely supportive of this project and offered us an amazing group rate. If you're planning a trip to the Gorge, this is absolutely where you should land (it is not your average Best Western). River-side pool, hot tub and sauna; an incredible restaurant (literally called The Riverside), where windsurfers glide by as you sip your craft beer and Gorge bubbles; and the most central and convenient location possible!

We got the cameras rolling at Soça Wine Shop and Bar  in White Salmon owned by the incredible Bethany Kimmel (more on her in a sec). Since we hosted the round table conversation there later in the week, we needed b-roll of the place in action: food being plated, wine being poured, happy guests etc. The place is hyper-local and effortlessly cool—filled with culty bottles, natural wines from all over the world, and a menu that changes with whatever the farmers drop off that day. It reminds me of my old spot Thelonious Wines in all the best ways!

 Monday: Off the Grid with Bethany of Color Collector

Day 2, we went deep into the woods to visit Bethany Kimmel at her home and winery. She’s the sole force behind Color Collector, the only producer I know of (outside Beaujolais) who works exclusively with Gamay.

Bethany lives on 20 acres in a solar-powered tiny home with her dog Birdie on the forest’s edge with the coyotes, cougars and a composting toilet. She farms her meadow-like vineyard solo, plants head-trained vines, and uses intense cover cropping. Her micro-winery has 10 old barrels, a vintage forklift from the 1950s (that she services herself), and absolutely no frills. She makes multiple expressions of Gamay: carbonic and crunchy, serious and age-worthy, and even a bright and joyful rosé. She’s tough as nails and does everything herself. We were so inspired!

Tuesday: Sparkling with Landmass

We spent the next day in Cascade Locks with Melaney Schmidt and Malia Myers, the dynamic duo behind Landmass Wines. As a creative and queer duo, they firmly advocate that wine is for everyone. They challenge the pretension that still shadows the industry and create wines that are inclusive, playful, and unpretentious.

They’re also the only producers I know making all four types of sparkling wine: traditional method, charmat, forced carbonation, and pét-nat. I got to jump in on the bottling line for their  lip-smacking sparkling rosé Heavy Glow  and then sip it with them by the river and hear their story. Two women, doubling production each year since 2018, doing it all themselves and building a brand that is beautiful inside and out.

Wednesday: Roundtable at Soça

We hosted our  Roundtable back at Soça, featuring four Gorge-based badasses:

• Teddy Schill of Lushington Wines, known for small-batch sparkling.
• Shahnnon Elizabeth Head, who makes Estelbrook, natural wines aged in amphora and named after matriarchs in her family.
• Carly Laws, a former Portland sommelier now making high-quality canned wine called Freetime—a sustainable, practical, and premium approach to wine for active lifestyles.
• Julia Bailey of Loop de Loop, a deep thinker and expert on Gorge terroir who reminded us how wildly diverse and undefinable this region is.

We had a rousing discussion on the extreme and varied  terroir of this diverse region. The Gorge loses 1–3 inches of rainfall per mile as you head east, creating insane microclimates and huge changes in soil types. These women are truly making wine on the edge—farming in the wild, adapting to extremes, and proving over and over that this region is not for the faint of heart.

Wednesday Night: A Gorge Wrap Party

We celebrated early (since we drove straight home after Thursday’s shoot) with a beautiful dinner at Celilo, a hyper-seasonal restaurant in Hood River that lived up to the hype. Salmon rillettes, curried cod, mango-habanero empanadas… it was fresh, flavorful and eclectic and all paired with a locally-focused wine list.

Then we went salsa dancing at a local cidery, because why not??

Thursday: Magic at Hiyu

Our final shoot day was at the fabled Hiyu Wine Farm with China Treussimer. China  co-owns Hiyu and is part artist, part farmer and part nymph.  She watercolors all of Hiyu’s dreamy labels, tends to the pigs, goats and chickens, and directs their highly unusual and integral farming program—the full name is Hiyu Wine Farm. She takes natural farming to an extreme: no pesticides, no chemicals, not even tractors. Just scythes (yes, they mow a 15 acre vineyard using scythes), lacto-fermentations, permaculture, edible forests, and biodynamic-like composting pushed to the limit.

We strolled their gardens and tasted Espina, a wine China dreamed up after watching Pinot Gris vines grow through an elderberriy tree beside a pears, blackberries and a patch of wild primrose. So she fermented them all together to create a wild, floral, part-wine, part-cider hybrid that somehow worked—and embodied the wild, creative and highly unique spirit of the entire week.