White Rose Estate posted the following message to Instagram last night:
“We regret to announce that Jesus (Chuyin) Guillen, passed away last evening after his brief battle with cancer.
Friends and admirers who wish to assist his family in this difficult time can donate to a GoFundMe campaign set up in his honor: www.gofundme.com/Jesus-Guillen
You can also participate by purchasing some of the families wine: www.guillenfamily.com/shop”
I was hoping that someone else would post the unfortunate news overnight, but alas I’m the bearer of bad news.
We have visited White Rose Estate a few times over the years and I have always enjoyed the wines. I didn’t realize it, but evidently Jesus started as a vineyard worker for Patricia Green Cellars, continued as a vineyard worker for White Rose Estate and ascended to the head winemaker position at White Rose Estate.
I never met Jesus Guillen during my visits, but I’m an admirer of his hard work, dedication and beautiful wines. My utmost condolences to the Guillen Family, the White Rose Estate Family and friends during this difficult time.
James Lyon
Oh no. How very sad. I met Jesus a number of times. He was a really nice guy with a lot of ambition and talent. My condolences to his family.
I had to look back in our records to see if Jesus had indeed worked for us at one point. If he did it was almost certainly between 2000-2005 as, due to the company’s initial set up there were technically two companies (one that ran the winery and one that ran the vineyard). The latter was dissolved in 2005 and the records for it would exist only on paper somewhere at this point. I did the payroll back then (thank the stars that is no longer the case) and I can see his name written in our vineyard manager’s handwriting in my mind’s eye but I am not 100% sure.
It is sad. He was pretty young in the grand scheme of things. While the influence of Hispanics in the wine and vineyard business in Oregon is obviously significant he was the only Hispanic that I am aware of (take this with a massive grain of salt as I am only vaguely aware of most of things and goings on up here) that was the hired winemaker for any winery let alone one that has been around for nearly 20 years.
Patty and I did manage White Rose Vineyard at TM from 1994-our departure and the vineyard actually came with us to PGC in 2000 but was ultimately sold that spring. We bottled a White Rose wine at TM from 1996-1998 and certainly would have bottled the ‘99 had we been around.
While I don’t know Greg Sanders (owner) at all it is nice to know that the vineyard and winery ultimately fell into the hands of someone who worked their way up as Jesus obviously had. If we were somehow helpful in that journey I am proud to have been a (certainly) tiny part of his path.
The news is especially sad as today is the 1 year anniversary of learning of Patty’s passing last year. I will think of both individuals as much as I can today.
Jesus was a lovely man. In a business full of snakes and flakes Jesus easily stood out as a nice guy who made excellent wines.
Here is his family’s go fund me page: Jesus Guillen, organized by Barbara Sanders
Here is a link to his wines: https://guillenfamily.com
Here is a link to White Rose: https://whiteroseestate.com
Here is a note on his abilities: https://www.winemag.com/40-under-40-2018/
He is survived by his wife and ten year old son. Cancer killed him quickly and it is deeply saddening. Please help where you can, thank you.
Rusty Gaffney is reporting Vista Hills is selling Guillen Family wines on Nov 24 1-4pm. All proceeds go to Jesus’ widow and son. Classy move from the Coppola family as new Oregon wine owners. https://twitter.com/princeofpinot/status/1060675704461971461?s=21
Thanks James for posting this. I didn’t know Jesus well but I loved that guy. I went to see him a week ago today and was hoping for a miracle. He was pretty morphined up but I told him I had a lot of questions to ask him and we agreed to talk more soon enough. Drank the ‘14 Damien this week in his memory, will definitely be loading up on more Guillen wines as the bottles we’d traded are mostly gone. So sad, what a great guy.