In the Autumn of 2020 we, Niccolo Coturri and Tess Bryant, founded Piquenique Wines: a winery at our home on San Juan Island. We make farm designate fruit wines from organically farmed orchards and vineyards, without the addition of sugars, yeasts, or sulfites. We work with apples, grapes, pears, quince, plums, medlar, and blackberries, sourced from orchards, farms and fields on San Juan Island, Waldron Island, and in Everson, WA.
As a small link in the chain of homestead farming on the San Juan Islands, we hope to do our part to help preserve the San Juan Islands’ vital farming history through the caring of historic orchards, and the propagating of new, responsibly farmed plantings. In addition to seeking out historic island orchards, we have partnered with three farming families to plant orchards and vineyards with both heritage genetic material and unusual grape and apple varieties suited to our local climate, with an eye towards the effects of climate change on the Western Coast of the US.
Niccolo Coturri is a fourth generation natural winemaker. Nic worked for the family winery in Glen Ellen, CA for as long as he can remember. In 2009 he started Sonoma Mtn. Winery. In 2019, he left to begin work in the Pacific Northwest.
Tess Bryant has been working in the wine business since 2009 when she worked her first harvest at Hirsch Vineyards in her hometown of Cazadero, CA. In 2018 she started Tess Bryant Selections, an import and distribution company focusing on natural wines from Australia.