Brandon Moss - Assistant Winemaker
Brandon grew up in the Walla Walla Valley on a small family farm. His family cultivated plum trees and also raised a wide assortment of farm animals from cows, chickens, pigs, and even a goat. Farm life wasn't really for him so off he went to Oregon State University to take dental classes. After four years of smelling people's bad breath, however, he realized that his true passion was not dentistry. He wanted to create those stained teeth not clean them!! So he switched his major to fermentation science with an eye to becoming a winemaker (yes, this got him closer to the farm life he thought he had left behind). He graduated Oregon State in 2006 with a degree in Food Science, an option in Fermentation Science and minors in Business and Chemistry.
In 2006, he went to work for King Estate Winery in Eugene, OR. Working harvest gave him a very well rounded introduction to the wine industry - from both the winemaking and business angles. Shortly after finishing harvest, Brandon booked a flight to New Zealand and went to work at an enormous contract winery in Marlborough, called Indevin. At Indevin they processed around 15,000 tons of Sauvignon Blanc grapes. To put that in perspective, this is about 225 times more tons of fruit than we processed at Gramercy Cellars in 2008. It was amazing to see how a winery that big was operated and it gave him a chance to use the latest and greatest technology.
After harvest was finished in New Zealand, Brandon made his way back to Walla Walla to work in the appellation where new and exciting wines were being produced. Once back, he joined Gramercy Cellars and Waters Winery to work harvest in 2007, which eventually turned into a full time position as Cellar Master for the winery. At the beginning of 2009 Brandon became the Assistant Winemaker for Gramercy Cellars which has introduced him to a whole new aspect of the wine industry. His goal is to help Gramercy Cellars to produce the best wines coming out of the Walla Walla Valley. Brandon is actively training to take the Wine Cellar Olympics Gold Medal from Pam in 2009.