Elena Rodriguez Is Diversifying Oregon’s Winemaking Industry

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Elena Rodriguez is diversifying Oregon’s wine industry. The award-winning winemaker and innovative viticulturist runs her family-owned biodynamic organic winery—Alumbra Cellars—in Dayton, Oregon. She chose the name Alumbra for the business as she wanted to “shine a light on the work being done in the vineyard and my Mexican roots,” she explains. “Alumbra means to shine or ignite a light in Spanish.”

No one in the Rodriguez family had previous experience in the viticulture industry. Elena’s father, Baudelio Rodriguez, crossed the border six times from Durango, Mexico, to the Pacific Northwest to find work. Eventually, the family purchased the land in 1996, and in 2005 Baudelio decided to grow grapes despite not drinking alcohol nor having any intention of making wine. At the time, he planted around ten acres of grapes. Today, the family farm where Elena and her siblings were raised has fourteen acres of pinot noir and one acre of Riesling.

Baudelio grew up working on his family’s ranch and had experience working with fruit crops, including avocados, oranges, and mangos. Vineyards were new to him. The land he purchased on the valley floor was commonly used for agricultural products—not growing fruit for wine. Baudelio was ahead of the curve and soon after the Willamette Valley wine industry took off in the early 2000s. He sold grapes to many winemakers despite not speaking English.

In 2014, Elena and her brother Leo Rodriguez took over the vineyard operations of producing grapes and selling them to winemakers. Previously, she had a career in nursing before returning to the family farm to help run it—a decision she made because she wanted to honor her parents’ efforts to establish the vineyard. By 2015, Elena started making home wine herself for fun and then began making wine for Alumbra in 2018. She reminisces on how she had no clue what it would take to make a bottle of wine and quickly realized the amount of work required.

At first, she was shocked by how white males dominate the wine industry. “I do my best not to let imposter syndrome get in the way of being who I am. Just because I don’t look like the majority of the industry, doesn’t mean my experience isn’t valid,” emphasizes Elena, who is currently Alumbra’s president and winemaker. “There are people that will never respect me for who I am as a Latina winemaker. There are others that have shown their kindness and have gone out of their way to support me.”

Working with her family for the past decade has been both challenging and rewarding. “Joining the family business has changed the course of my life,” she says. “We’ve grown closer through the hard times and have learned that no matter what we’ll always love each other regardless of business.”

Elena is dedicated to creating more opportunities for Latinx folks in the wine industry. She sits on the board of Asociación Hispana de la Industria del Vino en Oregon y Comunidad, a nonprofit educational program for vineyard workers which provides viticulture education to vineyard stewards in the Willamette Valley. “Unfortunately, we don’t have much Latinx representation as owners and in higher positions in farming and especially in the wine industry,” she says. But she also notes that if she can do it, so can other Latinx folks interested in joining the wine industry.

“I’m intentional in collaborating with other Latinx vintners, winemakers, and growers,” she continues. “If there’s an opportunity to partner with a new Latinx winemaker, I will. We’re all in this together, and the only way we can pave the way for more is to share our experiences and help each other up.”

One exciting collaboration in the works is with Latina winemaker Cristina Gonzales, and Elena believes it is the first wine to be made by US Latinas working together.

Elena’s legacy as a Latina winemaker is just getting started. “I see legacy as an ever-changing tangible. I didn’t start out thinking that I’m a trailblazer but being the only Mexican American woman that manages a vineyard and makes wine in Oregon is special. I’ve cracked open the door and hope some will open it further,” she says. “I hope Alumbra leaves a rich impact of creating a safe space for the Latinx community to be unapologetically themselves.”