PORTLAND, Ore. — After serving overseas, three local veterans joined forces and created a winery of their own -- a winery so small, only one of them is a full-time employee.
Ben Martin, Paul Warmbier and Ryan Mills created Dauntless Wine Company four years ago. They use profits from the business to donate to veteran-friendly charities.
Martin said having training as a Marine is an advantage.
"I mean, it’s like 'Semper Gumby,' always flexible! Those tools I learned in the Marine Corps, that mind set really helps with this,” he said.
Martin is (so far) the only full-time employee. Warmbier is a high school English teacher in Dayton, and Mills is a firefighter in Southeast Portland.
Dauntless Wine Company uses equipment borrowed from other vineyards, but Martin wants his own place. It’s expensive so he’s looking for investors.
All three spent time in Iraq. Martin was on the front lines during the 2003 Invasion of Baghdad.
“We invaded in green chemical suits. All our vehicles were green. It was the most hodge-podge invasion I could imagine,” he said.
After his time in the service, Martin returned to the Willamette Valley where he’d grown up, but he struggled to fit in.
“I felt like that was probably the biggest problem. Not being able to really identify or associate with my peers," Martin said.
Like many veterans he found the slower pace of normal life after war, boring.
“Nothing matches that intensity, especially in the Marine Corps," Martin said.
Martin met Warmbier at Portland Community College and the two kicked around the idea of making wine.
“I was like 'OK, let’s do it,' you know. Neither one of us had made wine before. I’d brewed once in my life. But it took time to figure it out,” Martin said.
They brought in Mills who also served in Iraq and the company was off and running.
“Every day, I feel like some new door opens up or some new contact is made. It’s building steam and building steam and building steam. It’s like, when is it going to get to the stratosphere?” Martin asked.
Four years after their launch, Dauntless is still small by industry standards.
“We’re not big enough to be small," Martin joked. "We have a personal relationship with every barrel, you know? We know what every barrel is doing. We don’t lose sight of the wine. The quality stays high."
They bottle about 1,500 cases a year.
The dream is to grow the business big enough to buy their own estate, then invite other military veterans to visit, building friendships and a sense of belonging by working the fields and learning the business.
“It’s in sight. You know? It’s not within arm’s reach yet, but it’s there. We’re getting there for sure,” Martin said.
They are getting noticed. In 2016 the publication “Wine Press” named them Persons of the Year.
And last year, their 2016 Trebuchet was awarded a gold medal for Oregon Pinots at the New York International Wine Competition.
It all helps.
“I feel like there’s this kind of divine intervention just kind of patting us on the butt along the way—just getting us to where we need to go for sure,” Martin said.
As word gets out the orders are coming in. Many want to support the cause.
“Yeah, we definitely get calls randomly from vets all over the country—saying, 'I don’t drink wine but I want to buy your product.' It's growing for sure,” said Martin.
The company already donates to area veteran benefits, mostly providing wines to be auctioned off.
“I love it. It's like I don’t want to drink anything else. My wife and I at home, we joke around, we don’t want anything other than our wine!” he said.
While he’s building a company to help other veterans find a place to fit in, Martin can’t escape the fact that making wine helped him find a new call to service.
“I’m much more relaxed these days. I feel more of a sense of, I guess, a mission, a goal. Something to live for,” he said with a smile.