Audeant

Audeant is a relatively new winery founded in 2016 by winemaker Andrew Riechers and proprietor Teal Walker. This limited-production winery crafts top-tier Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Rosé in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. At this early stage, only four wines are made, totaling about 1,000 cases. The wines are produced at Lingua Franca’s new facilities in the Eola-Amity Hills and closely align with that team’s philosophy and quality.

Andrew Riechers, who grew up in Eugene, Oregon, the second largest city in the state after Portland, is a young winemaker with notable experience. He has worked in some of the finest wine regions and learned from the best producers.

He began his career in Santa Barbara, studying both enology and viticulture. Andrew started by assisting in the production of bulk wines in a large facility. Here he realized that there was much more lovely work out there in the wine world. Soon after that realization he became the cellar master at Summerland Winery. Later, he became the first employee at Sanguis, where his idealistic approach to winemaking was nurtured.

After four years in California, Andrew returned to Oregon, drawn by the greenery, rain, and distinct seasons of the Willamette Valley. He assisted his friend Jim Prosser at JK Carriere Wines for two years before venturing to Ted Lemon’s project Burn Cottage in New-Zealand.

In 2010 he moved to Burgundy, where he worked for Claire Naudin at the famous Domaine Naudin Ferrand. At that time Claire Naudin was on the forefront of the natural wine movement. Andrew learned a lot of natural winemaking techniques during that period and besides that he explored several famous wine regions in France.

Upon his return to America, Andrew pursued his dream of making Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in Oregon. He spend five years as the assistant winemaker at the legendary producer Antica Terra with winemaker Maggie Harrison. This experience, according to Andrew, was life-changing, as Maggie's discerning taste and commitment to hospitality left a lasting impression.

Andrew: “At Antica Terra, we were drinking a lot of special wines from all the tiny corners of the world to further our understanding and appreciation.” He describes Antica Terra as a “curious place,” an environment where the team was encouraged to seek out the answer to the question: What’s possible?”

However, he also started dreaming about his own winery. In 2016, Andrew met Teal Walker at Antica Terra winery, where Teal, already a fan of the wines, bonded with Andrew over multiple hours of wine tasting during her first visit to the Willamette Valley. After several visits, Teal decided to partner with Andrew, and Audeant was born. Riechers would oversee winemaking decisions, while Walker, with her high-tech background, would focus on the business. They named their brand after the Latin concept of taking risks as part of an adventure, symbolizing their approach to winemaking and vineyard sourcing.

Audeant sources grapes from vineyards like the Seven Springs vineyard, originally planted in 1983, which has produced some of Oregon’s most iconic wines for example the Evening Land wines from Sashi Moorman and Raj Parr. They work with one halve hectare of Chardonnay that is biodynamicaly farmed without irrigation on the south ridge. Other vineyards they source from are: Cherry Grove, Luminous Hills and Nysa. They also recently acquired an estate on Parrot Mountain, at 300 meters high, with the first grapes harvested in 2022.

Despite its young age, Audeant's wines have received high acclaim from publications like the Wine Advocate and Vinous for their classically produced, elegant wines. At the Decanter World Wine Awards in 2021, the Audeant 2017 Pinot Noir received an impressive 97 points, earning the only platinum medal in the Oregon wine category, and standing out among the top-rated wines from the world.