American Wine Story

Featuring winemakers ranging from luminaries to newcomers, American Wine Story is an inspiring feature documentary about those who chase their American Dreams with a bottle in one hand and a corkscrew in the other. This film is a visual feast for wine aficionados or anyone who’s been tempted to travel the road less taken.
Come see us to experience the result of the incredible community support and love we have received over the years! You can check out all of our current offerings and reserve your table here: www.brookswine.com/monthly-menu/.
While you are visiting our website, consider adding the American Wine Story DVD to your cart: www.brookswine.com/product/am... An excellent gift for the wine enthusiasts and budding vintners in your life!
▬ FAQs ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
• Where can I watch the full documentary? The full-feature film is currently available right here on Brook's KZbin channel!
• Who appears in American Wine Story? This film features many figureheads of American wine: Drew Bledsoe, Dick Erath, Pascal Brooks, Alan Baker, Katherine Cole, Jay Selman, Mike Officer, and other winemakers and industry insiders from around the country.
• Where was American Wine Story filmed? While the primary focus of the film focuses on winemakers and families in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, the documentary was filmed in CA, OR, AZ, WA, VA, MO, and KS.
• Is Brooks Wine still family-owned? Yes! Brooks is still owned and operated by Pascal Brooks and Janie Brooks Heuck. The winery just celebrated its 25th anniversary of making wines and 50th anniversary of growing vines!
• Where is Brooks Wine located? Brooks Wine is located in the heart of Willamette Valley in Amity, Oregon.
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• Our 1% for the Planet recipient, Kiss The Ground, produced an incredible documentary about regenerative agriculture in 2020. Watch the trailer here: • Video
• Be sure to also check out the trailer for their newest film, Common Ground (2023). • Common Ground document...
▬ Links ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
• Website: www.brookswine.com
• Facebook: / brookswines
• Instagram: / brookswinery
▬ Director's Statement ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
Behind every bottle, there is a story. Wine writer Jancis Robinson famously said, “wine is geography in a bottle.” It’s that and so much more. Every vintage is a time capsule that tells the tale of a year’s worth of weather. Winemakers will mark vintages: the year their children were born, the year it hailed before harvest, and the year they lost someone they loved.
When Jimi Brooks passed away just weeks before the 2004 harvest, only 38 years of age and just at the point his business was beginning to look like it might turn a profit and begin his goal of creating a legacy for his eight-year-old son, something amazing happened on the heels of tragedy. His story didn’t end with his death. Instead, he was rediscovered by his own little sister, Janie, and in the process she also rediscovered herself as she came to meet the other winemakers whose lives he touched. This film tells Jimi’s and Janie’s stories and weaves them with dozens of others in the wine industry who started their lives over in wine.
This project has its roots in curiosity. After hundreds of visits to wineries and a few stints in vineyards on the commercial side of the business, I was starting to understand that people who live by the seasons are amazing storytellers. When Truen Pence and I were kicking around ideas for a new documentary project over lunch one afternoon in 2010, not
quite understanding what we were getting ourselves into, we thought: hey, winemakers are fascinating, and vineyards are beautiful, so let’s get started.
So we assembled a team of filmmakers who were up for anything and hit the road. More than four years, seven states, seventy interviews, and three crashed RC helicopter camera platforms later, we finally found the heart of our story on a country road outside Amity, Oregon, not far from where we began our quest to learn what makes American winemakers tick.
And behind that bottle, there’s often the tale of the other life: the career left behind. So many people in the business, especially in newer and emerging wine regions, came from somewhere else before discovering wine. And that became the common thread of our story.
In American Wine Story, we’ve tried to scrape the surface of this treasure trove of narrative, lacing the tales with stirring landscapes (vines, like people, love the most beautiful vistas) and a look behind the scenes of how sunlight is captured in bottle form, and eventually uncorked as the fuel for a thousand new stories around tables lit with conversation and laughter." - David Baker

[@NancyStewart-ih8jp]

Fabulous film! Appreciate the overview of several wineries; most notably Brooks. Janie has done a phenomenal job of keeping Brooks intact and moving the winery forward in award-winning ways!

[@brookswine]

Thank you! ❤️

[@svfrohnmayer1673]

Brooks Winery is so special and Janie has done an amazing job . Great place to visit and have lunch with friends.

[@brookswine]

Thank you! ❤️

[@richardcollins586]

We don’t see a lot of wine from Oregon in London, though I went to the Evening Land ‘Seven Springs’ tasting recently. Lovely evening.

[@brookswine]

We love Evening Land! Great wines. Reach out to Ester Wines, they distribute Brooks wines in the UK. Cheers!

[@richardcollins586]

Thank you 😊. I’ll reach out to them. I’ve seen Domaine Drouhin Cuvée Laurène, so will try that Oregon Pinot noir as well.

[@jonaber6246]

Great story. Great wines.

[@brookswine]

Thanks! ❤️