Choosing a life well lived
Ocelli (ah-sell-eye) Cellars is the realization of the choices of John & Sirpa Peacock. We chose to follow our dreams and live a life well lived, a future of enjoyment, and a passion for sharing these great things.
Choosing Wine As A Career:
As Sirpa was preparing to graduate from college with a Sociology degree, she faced a crossroads. Social work didn't appeal to her, and she wasn't interested in pursuing psychology. That's when John shared some advice he'd been given: find something you'd do every day for free, then figure out how to get paid for it. Sirpa's response? "Well, I like wine."
After researching jobs in the wine industry, she started as an admin and wine buyer at a wine bar in Tualatin, then moved to the tasting room at Archery Summit. Almost 20 years later, she's now the Director of Sales and Marketing at Appassionata, home of J Christopher Wines, and Vice President of the Board for the Chehalem Mountains Winegrowers.
Choosing Wine As A Hobby:
With Sirpa working full-time in wine, we felt we needed to really know the local scene. Weekend wine tasting became our thing. Exploring the Willamette Valley showed us how different wine can be between producers, vineyards, and vintages. John, being an analyst, started asking questions about what created those differences and a passionate hobby was born.
When we married in 2010, we honeymooned in Walla Walla and quickly fell in love with the area because of the diverse wines (no Pinot Noir!) and the small-town winemaking community. We've visited at least a couple times a year since, becoming friends with winemakers running their own small brands.
That same year, John had the chance to help a winemaker friend during harvest, sorting fruit at Ayoub Wines. He's been back every vintage since, beginning his hands-on journey into winemaking.
Choosing To Start A Winery:
During a 2013 trip to Walla Walla while barrel tasting with a winemaker friend, John made an offhand comment: "One day it would be great to own a winery." He knew it wasn't the romantic notion from movies—it's hard, physical work. Our friend's response caught him off guard: "Ok, let's do it! I've got lots of barrels here. You figure out what you want to do, and I'll sell you a barrel or two to get started."
We spent the rest of that trip deciding if we really wanted this, and if so, how our brand would be different. We landed on focusing on a single variety: Grenache. We wanted to carve out our own niche and be 1 of 1 instead of 1 of 1,000 in the Willamette Valley.
We worked with that winemaker from 2012 through 2016. After harvest that year, we wanted to get more hands-on and move production closer to home. We found our current winery space in 2018, and 2019 was John's first vintage making wine on his own.
Choosing To Move To Wine Country:
COVID-19 turned our world upside down in March 2020, but there was a bright spot: John's job went fully remote. Suddenly, we could explore moving out of the suburbs. We'd always talked about moving to wine country someday, but John’s office jobs kept us tethered. We'd also been learning about industrial food systems and didn't like not knowing what went into our food.
We started looking for property where we could farm and grow our own food. We found a 2.5-acre place and moved in at the end of 2020. Five years later, we have a flock of 30 laying hens, raise chickens and ducks for meat, maintain an enormous garden, and supply our neighbors with locally grown food.
Choosing To Live A Life Well Lived:
From the start, the plan was always for John to leave his full-time job when the winery could provide an income. For 10 years he'd say "in 5 years I'll retire to just work for the winery." Over that decade, especially after John took over winemaking, the passion grew to the point where he was driven to find a way out of corporate life.
In January 2023, that choice finally happened, though not as planned. John was laid off, and we faced a decision: continue with an unfulfilling career that paid well or leave it all behind for the dream we'd held onto for 10 years.
Now, instead of spending all day on a computer or in meetings, John's in the winery, at wine events, or working on the farm. The work is harder than ever, but more rewarding than anything we imagined.
Why Wine?
Wine is more than just a beverage, there is a story behind each bottle, and it is the great connector between people. The uniqueness of each bottle of wine that comes from grape variety, vineyard location, growing season, and winemaking technique has fascinated us since we first got into wine. That fascination has grown to the point where wine is a large part of our life, from our monthly wine tasting group to the trips we take for our vacations. Wine for us is a borderline obsession.
Why Grenache?
The complexity and nuance of the Grenache variety are immense, and there is a great variation of style. While Grenache is a relatively familiar grape variety, it is distinctly different from the more common focuses of the northwest, like Pinot Noir in the Willamette Valley or Syrah and Cabernet from Washington. Grenache can be delicate and pretty, elegant and rich, or more structured and intense, and this range of styles lends to the variety to being a great one to create and build a brand portfolio with. As far as we know, we are the only winery in the northwest focused solely on Grenache. Our goal is to take a look at the various vineyards across the northwest producing Grenache and give them a touch of dedication and focus and make 100% Grenache from each of the sites we can.
Why Ocelli?
When brainstorming ideas for the name of the winery, we wanted the name to be associated with our surname, Peacock. Naming anything is a tedious undertaking and this was no different. The obvious options were already taken, so after learning far more about peacocks than we would care to admit, we came across a diagram of the various types of feathers, and saw the term ocelli when referring to the tail plumage. Ocelli are spots that look like eyes, like those of butterflies, ocelots, and the tail feathers of a peacock. After lengthy consideration, we felt that this name truly fit our brand and we had discovered our name.
