hooray for you wine co.

Gregory Cantu and Christopher Sky were each self-taught sommeliers at two different restaurants in Portland, Oregon. They met while working as maître d’s at the International Pinot Noir Celebration in McMinnville. They found they had much in common. They are both Colorado natives, fans of Loire Valley wines, and they share the same sarcastic, irreverent sense of humor.

They became friends and began spending their free time helping with harvest at small wineries. Cantu also devoted an entire harvest season to working at a winery. In the summer of 2017, they were sitting in Sky’s backyard Cantu recalls, “We were drinkin’ some Rosé, and we were like, let’s make some Rosé, and then we did.”

They started the next day with Cantu, lining up a ton of cabernet franc grapes and renting space for their winery. Cantu is also the managing partner of a wine distribution company and Sky works at Le Pigeon and operates a gay dance party that pops up monthly.

The pair are not afraid to experiment with techniques that have made their wines stand out from the crowd. They save lees (dead yeast cells) from the previous chardonnay vintage to mix with the current wine. It adds a desired texture to the wine. They also use an unusual technique that introduces oxygen before fermentation to prevent future oxidation.

The wine’s name came from a line spoken by Dorian Corey, a drag performer in a documentary on New York City’s 1980s ballroom culture. He said, “You don’t have to bend the whole world. I think it’s better to just enjoy it. Pay your dues, and just enjoy it. If you shoot an arrow and it goes real high, hooray for you.” Artist Anne Connell designed the eye-catching label for Hooray for You’s labels.