Open Soul's founder, Jordan Hostetter, grew up at the end of the road — in Joseph, Oregon, at the foot of the Wallowa Mountains, a place of 10,000-foot peaks and the deepest canyon in North America (Hell’s Canyon). His parents moved there from the East Coast because his dad wanted to pursue his dream of being a cowboy. That pioneering instinct has shaped everything Jordan has done since.
His path to wine was anything but direct. Summer restaurant jobs and a mathematics degree from Wheaton College led to managing a destination lodge at the edge of Joseph Creek Canyon where he helped build the wine list. This was the initial seed that would someday grow into a passion for wine.
In 2006, a chance phone call from a cousin landed him on a White House advance team planning events for the First Lady, and then presidential candidates. Through all of it, the thread he kept following was a heart for hospitality and creating special experiences. The art of collaboration and making people feel something. Of creating an experience so well executed that the effort behind it disappears.
When the West Coast called him back in 2013, a tip from his mom pointed him toward Walla Walla Community College’s Viticulture and Enology program. He drove to Walla Walla from Seattle, toured the school, and decided to apply before he got back in the car. The science spoke to the math-trained side of his brain. The craft spoke to his artistic side which had never quite found a place to land.
The years that followed were an education in every dimension of the wine world within the Walla Walla Valley. His first harvest was at Tamarack Cellars practicing endless punch downs. At Doubleback, Drew Bledsoe’s celebrated winery, he went from harvest intern to Director of Operations and Distribution, learning what it means to build a trusted luxury brand. At Abeja, he developed the kind of high-touch tasting experiences he knew he eventually wanted to create for his own label. As General Manager of XOBC Cellars, Brandi Carlile’s winery, he drove Airstreams to concert venues and learned what happens when music, story, and wine meld in exactly the right way.
In August 2023 he was ready to start a project of his own. Open Soul’s first vintage was made in close collaboration with consulting winemaker Kate Payne Brown as the guide. Kate is a top Oregon winemaker whose help was foundational to the brand’s infancy and whose influence on Open Soul’s style continues to be felt. Jordan has since stepped fully into the winemaking role.
Open Soul’s production home sits in Milton-Freewater, the Oregon side of the Walla Walla Valley, a wine region that crosses state lines and defies easy categorization, much like the wines we strive to make. A future estate vineyard is part of the vision. Opportunity for a very special piece of land is already knocking.
Our Philosophy of Wine
The wines that have moved Jordan most have never been the loudest in the room. A soulful wine doesn’t require bigness and complexity, it requires honesty and elegance. Some of the best wines in the world are white. Some of the most memorable are sparkling. At Open Soul, we apply this philosophy with hand picked and hand-sorted fruit, whole cluster processing, neutral oak, and a deliberate restraint with new oak.
We invite you to pull the cork and open soul.