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HOME / OUR BRANDS / YOUNATHAN

The love of food and wine brought Suzy Younathan and Gonzalo Hernandez to what today is the Younathan Wines.

Younathan is a town in current day Iran, then Persia, where Shiraz used to grow and wine was first made.

A couple that has been together for more than 25 years, started in Chicago, Illinois, opening a restaurant called Phlair in 1999.  With Suzy as the chef and Gonzalo as the sommelier, they had the chance to learn about an industry that had put wine at a higher level during the turn of the century in the U.S.A. market.

Suzy, originally born in Iraq, arrived in Chicago with her family during the Iran-Iraq war.  Gonzalo, born and raised in Argentina, arrived in Chicago 1992. He found something he dreamed of for years; tasting wines that at home were considered gems, unavailable for the foreseeable future in South America. Wines from Bordeaux, Burgundy, Piedmont , Ribera Del Duero, not even Chianti or Rioja were available till recently (if you're lucky to find them) in that market. He also found that California, which was not recognized as a quality wine producer region abroad, was in reality already a high quality wine state.

In 2003, they had the opportunity to move to Miami, where they naturally stumbled into the wine industry working under a select wine project. This was the first step in focusing into a particular wine variety that then planted a foot in the market, Pinot Noir. A successful movie called Sideways helped make the regular consumer change path and begin purchasing a wine that had never been that popular before in the United States. Since then Pinot Noir put Oregon with Willamette Valley in the high end wine map.  This is due to it being a variety that needs moderate cool climate with meticulous farming throughout the year to ripen at the right time allowing the grapes to develop at their best for harvest season. Research brought Suzy to meet a magnificent producer of organic and biodynamic wines 260 Demeter Certified.  This family was originally from Iran and started their business 25 years ago in what today is McMinnville AVA, Willamette Valley Oregon. Suzy strongly convinced Gonzalo to start the project and together they found and created Younathan Wines. First label being Younathan 70/30 Pinot McMinnville AVA, by blending percentages of different Pinot Noir rows of the vineyard with different daily sun exposure as well as different Pinot Noir vines coming originally from Pommard and Dijon in Burgundy, today they have an elegant Pinot Noir. Younathan 70/30 Pinot has 12 months in oak and 4 years in bottle, presents excellent balance and soft intensity, with delicate flavors and aromas of blackberries, dry cherry, prune and a huge potential for high complexity evolving in the next 3 to 6 years.

Only 495 cases were bottled.

USA

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OREGON

Yamhill - McMinnville AVA in Willamette Valley, Oregon

Wines

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YOUNATHAN
PINOT NOIR

Biodynamic. Blended multiple clones for this soft tannin pinot noir.

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