Page 118 - Southern Oregon Magazine Fall 2021

chow | wine

we each arrived at independently. We basically called each other that we opened in a struggling area, during a pandemic no less, shows
at about the same time and said ‘Are you interested in doing others that Phoenix has potential. Catalyst also is now an example of
this?’ ‘Yeah, I actually wanted to talk to you about that!’ shares how a collective can succeed in Southern Oregon.”
Joseph Chepolis, winemaker for Sound & Vision. Chepolis’
wife Carmen Nydegger, is also a founding partner of Catalyst
and the tasting room manager.
Catalyst Wine Collective
4495 S Pacific Hwy, #340, Phoenix
Myer adds that, “This is really where our diversity is our strength. We 541-897-0144
feature a lot of different wine grapes with a lot of different flavor pro- www.catalystwinecollective.com
files and that really translates in our wine sales. Over time, our experi-
ence has been that things basically even out across the wineries. And
ultimately, we trust each other. This could never work if we didn’t.”

REBUILDING AND EVOLVING IN THE ROGUE VALLEY
For Myer, the goal of opening a collective tasting room in Southern
Oregon was something that clearly could be easily achieved in a mat-
ter of time. The northern part of the state is home to the Carlton
Winemaker’s Studio in the Willamette Valley, which features a rotating
collection of more than a dozen different wines. So, the opportunity to
taste a number of local wines clearly appeals to both locals and tourists
with limited time or lots of curiosity.

Chepolis adds that opening a shared tasting room is not the easiest
thing to do from a bureaucratic standpoint. Folin concludes, “The fact

HAPPY COWS

MAKE BETTER BEEF

Our animals are raised in a low
stress environment, on open
green pastures in the Southern
Oregon sunshine.

Taste the difference in our naturally
happy, grass fed beef!

www.boxrbeef.com

116 www.southernoregonmagazine.com | fall 2021