Iterum

Joe Dobbes is a long-time Oregon native, business owner and entrepreneur who continually strives to innovate within the Oregon wine industry. Joe started his winemaking training as an apprentice at Weingut Erbhof Tesch in West Germany in 1985. After spending two years with Elk Cove Vineyards in Oregon, he then worked the 1988 vintage in Burgundy, France under the tutelage of two luminaries: Christophe Roumier of Domaine G. Roumier and Dominique Lafon of Domaine des Comptes Lafon.

Returning to Oregon in 1989 Joe shared the vintage at Eola Hills Wine Cellars in Rickreall, Oregon with Ken Wright and then produced the 1990 wines after Ken moved on to focus on his own project. In 1990 Joe was recruited to take over winemaking for new ownership at Hinman Vineyards in Eugene, OR. He quickly turned around the image of the brand and created a second reserve label while winning numerous best of show awards and garnering many accolades through 1995.

After consulting for Willamette Valley Vineyards during 1995 and into 1996 Joe moved to Salem and took over as Willamette’s head winemaker where he made his mark at a large, publicly held winery which he refers to as his “graduate school” producing distinctive and exciting wines through 2001.

In 2002 with $50,0000 in his pocket Joe started his own multi-faceted winemaking company, Wine by Joe, LLC. in Dundee, Oregon. In addition to the Dobbes Family Estate luxury wines and Wine by Joe brand, the company makes wine for many US and major wine companies and brands under custom winemaking agreements. He utilized $225,000 of $250,000 of an equipment startup loan and $50,000 of his own money and remarkably grew the company to be the second largest producer of Oregon wine. He did this profitably from day one paying cash on all expenses and operating without a line of credit for the first 5 years.

Wine by Joe grew to be one of the largest wine brands in Oregon and was named the “Number 1 Hot Brand” in the United States in 2011 by Wines Business Monthly. The company continues as one of the larger and successful wineries in Oregon.

After 15 years at the helm of his company and wearing many hats, Joe maintained 50% ownership of the company, and stepped aside in 2017 essentially semi-retiring to form Dundee Mobile Bottlers. Today he continues to focus on growing the company with two mobile bottling lines.

In 2018 Joe did not have enough to do and felt he had not yet produced the best wine of his life, so then realized a dream by purchasing a 21-acre vineyard property and estate home on the west bench of the Amity-Eola Hills of Oregon’s famous Willamette Valley. After many years of overseeing the making of large quantities of wine he is laser-focused on his organically grown vineyard and the vinification of top-shelf, highly distinctive Pinot Noir and Chardonnay of limited quantities from his Orchard House Vineyard under the brand name Iterum.