STANWOOD, Wash., Oct. 7, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Since 1870, a Washington couple’s family has been making premium white wines in the Franconian wine growing region of Germany. Now they’ve established Öömrang winery and distillery near the town of Stanwood, one hour north of Seattle, to bring their passion for German white wines and clear fruit brandies to the Northwest.
"The climate reminds us so much of Franconia," said Edmund Stöcklein, whose boyhood image on the Öömrang website shows him harvesting grapes next to his grandfather. While most of Washington’s grape and wine industry is located in the arid eastern part of the state, Stöcklein says their 85-acre farm overlooking Puget Sound sits in the rain shadow of the Olympic Mountains peninsula, at the Cascade foothills, making the site ideally temperate. "The property benefits from the adiabatic breezes off the peninsula, along with its fertile river basin soils," he explains.
But the most unique feature of the Öömrang estate is that it supports both a winery and a distillery. Winemaker and distiller Christine Stöcklein learned her craft working side by side with the Stöcklein relatives in Oberschwarzach, Germany. Current production includes Siegerrebe ("victory vine" in German) and Müller-Thurgau, all now exclusively estate grown grapes. Additional white estate plantings of Kerner and Sylvaner are currently in their first year of harvest, and the Stöckleins plan to plant three German red wine varieties next spring. Their clear fruit brandies, or eaux-de-vie, are available in Bartlett pear, raspberry, cherry, apricot, donut peach, plum, blueberry, and a berry blend. This year they are also introducing an aged apple brandy aged in toasted Franconian oak barrels.
Mrs. Stöcklein imported all her winemaking and distillation equipment from Germany, and she makes her eaux-de-vie according to traditional methods, emphasizing slow and low temperature distillation, to preserve each fruit’s intense aromatics and texture.
The Stöckleins chose Öömrang Hüs as the name of their property, modeled after the traditional farming estates of Germany’s northern coastal islands. The Öömrang name pays homage to the German island of Amrum in the North Sea, just off the coast of Denmark. Öömrang is the island’s name in the old North Friesian dialect, which remains culturally preserved and still spoken on the island. Christine Stöcklein’s father also worked on such farms prior to immigrating to the U.S. in the early 20th century; the name of their wines and eaux-de-vie pays homage to this strong immigrant family heritage. The ties to tradition continue into today: both families travel back and forth each year between Franconia and Washington to help in their respective wineries and distilleries.
Öömrang Hüs in Stanwood, Wash., with its private residences, winery, distillery, wine cellar, warehouse, vineyards, chapel, and orchards, is not open to the general public. The limited production wines and eaux-de-vie can be purchased, and more information found online, at the Öömrang website: https://www.oomrang.com/.
Contact:
Rusty Eddy, Wine & Spirits Spoken Here
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(707) 272-9351
SOURCE Öömrang Winery
