Melissa and Jon LeBars — the sweet, funny, and tenacious couple behind the Punch House say growing up, wine wasn’t really a “thing” for either of them.
“We were in our 20s and I managed the ice cream shop and he worked at the coffee shop next door and he would come and buy and ice cream from me every day and then come back and get more toppings in the same day, so it was a really cute, over ice cream every day,” Melissa LeBars says.
They connected over music, big dreams, and eventually, wine.
“We’ve always wanted to do something, own our own business, always wanted to do something great and amazing, wine was on our minds, going to school and going to wineries to seeing how everybody did it, we just wanted to do that,” says Jon LeBars.
“We started this as avid wine tasters and you can’t help but just start dreaming and we just fell in love with the never ending subject of wine. As soon as you think you know everything, you can just keep diving again,” says Melissa, “started with carboys at our place, our first vintage was 2017, one barrel, barely fit through the door of our a-frame outbuilding on our last property. That was round 1, we’ve just pushed to double every year. It’s just the two of us, we have really awesome helpers for events, but we do everything and we double where we can and last year, we sold out of all of our wine except for one vintage.”
Jon worked at several wineries, behind the scenes and front of the house. He learned what to do, but he says more important, he learned what not to do.
He says some of the best schooling was in the Rogue Valley, at Kriselle Cellars.
“I kind of sought out Kriselle because I liked their wine and I wanted to make really high quality wine and so what better way to work with something who does that. I always liken it to the movies, if I wanted to go make a movie, I would go work for Spielberg or Lucas or something like that.”
They both say they learned a lot from other wineries and tasting rooms and were excited to put their own spin on their own space.
They found that space about three years ago and couldn’t pass up the views.
“I feel like it’s serendipitous that’s how it worked out, it was definitely rough when we got it, we’ve done a lot of work and we have more dreams to bring to life here,” says Melissa, “it’s breathtaking up here, I just feel like you are literally driving up and out of the fray, coming up onto the hill, take a deep breath, this is beautiful.”
Jon makes the wine on site and buys fruit from across Oregon. There’s just one rule.
“It has to be French, because we’re French so we use French varietals, French oak barrels and we do it in a simple way.”
And the name on the label? Jon explains, “punch is another word for juice and if we do everything correctly, that juice turns into wine. And in a lot of French places, you’ll see champagne houses, or chardonnay houses, so year, it kind of stuck. And we didn’t want The Punch House to be about us we want it to be about this idea that you can come and have this nice experience and great wine and it’s not connected to somebody.”
They make less than 1,000 cases a year, but are continuing to grow, altbough they don’t want to make a lot of wine.
Quality matters more here than quantity.
“It’s really just the respect of the things you’re using, the grapes, the place you get them from, the people. And also, we respect the people we make wine for,” says Jon.
And after a 15-minute or so interview, that’s what it all comes down to.
The people.
“We love it. Everyone that comes up our driveway, they’re like our little people, we take care of them, they come sit down, we serve them, if they get up to get their next tasting, we feel like we’ve failed, because we just want to serve everybody,” says Jon.
Melissa agrees, “it’s so fun hearing a deck full of people just laughing and and having a great time. It’s super heart-warming, it’s working, you know.”
And to get there we had to drive our truck and trailer on a ferry fairy and then go this is Melissa and John labars the sweet funny tenacious couple behind the punch house it has this really feminine quality to it so like rose and maybe some raspberry on the nose we’ve
Got Rogue valino Noir W valino and then we’re also doing a GSM this year so we have some gr sounds like they’ve been slinging and talking about wine for decades right nope they’ll tell you it wasn’t a thing growing up in fact neither John nor Melissa drank when they
Met we were you know in our 20s and I managed to an ice cream shop and he worked at the coffee shop next door and he would come and buy ice cream from me every day and then he’d come back and buy more toppings in the same day so it
Was a really cute uh over ice cream kind of meeting smooth John I know smooth it worked it worked it did work they connected over music Big Dreams and eventually wine we’d always wanted to do something own our own business we’d always wanted to do something great and
Amazing and so wine was was on on our our minds and then going to school going to Wineries and seeing how everybody did it and we just wanted to do that we literally started this as just Avid wine tasters um and you can’t help but just
Start dreaming and we just fell in love with how amazing it is like The NeverEnding subject of wine like you even as soon as you think you know everything like you can just keep diving again started with like carboys at our place um our first legal vintage licens
And bonded vintage was 17 it was like one barrel the bin barely fit through the door of this cute little A-frame out building on our last property I mean it was that was round one right and so we’ve just like pushed to double every year and you know it’s just the two of
Us I mean we have really awesome helpers for events but we’re doing everything and so we just double as we can and last year we sold out of all of our wine except for one vintage John worked at several wineries behind the scenes in front of the house learning what to do
But he says more importantly learning what not to do he says some of the best schooling was in the Rogue Valley at cressell Sellers I kind of sought out cressell cuz I liked their wine and I wanted to to make really high quality wine and so what better way than to work
With somebody who does that um I always like it to to the movies if I wanted to go make a movie I would go work for Spielberg or Lucas or something like that they both say they learned a lot from other Wineries and tasting rooms and were excited to put their own spin
On their own space which turned out to be this property discovered 3 years ago during a crazy housing market where they had about a week to think it over and make an offer before anyone else could I feel like it was serendipitous that that’s how it worked out um it was
Definitely rough and we got it you know we’ve we’ve done a lot we still have so many more dreams to bring to life here it’s breathtaking up here and I feel like you literally you’re just driving up and out of The Fray right you’re just
Coming up onto the hill and you take a deep breath and just like oh this is beautiful John makes the wine right on sight and buys fruit from across Oregon Pino Noir from the wamit and Rogue valleys sael Blanc sarra granach there’s just one rule yes so it has to be French
Um because because we’re French so we use French varietals um and we use French Oak barrels and and we just do it in a really like simple simple way that theme rolls over to the name you’ll find on their labels punch is is like another
Word for juice um and and if we do everything correctly that juice turns into wine and um in a lot of French Places You’ll see like champagne houses chardet houses um so yeah just kind of stuck and and we didn’t want it to we didn’t want the
Punch house to be about us we kind of just want the punch house to be like this this idea that you can come and have this nice experience and good wine and and it’s not connected to somebody they make less than 1,000 cases a year each year continuing to grow although
They don’t want to make a lot of wine quality matters more here than quantity and it’s really it’s really just like the respect of the things that you’re using the grapes the places you get them from the people and also we respect the people that we make wine for and after a
15minute or so interview that’s what it all comes down to the people we love it we everybody that comes up our driveway um they’re like our little people and we just take we take care of them they come sit down we serve them um if they get up to go get their next
Tasting we feel like we f cuz we just want to serve everybody and it’s so fun hearing um a deck full of people just like laughing and having a great time it’s like super heartwarming it’s it’s like the whole point so it’s working okay 2023 Ros of ganache really light color