Wanting as big a crowd as they could get Carol hand-wrote 1,000 invitations to locals to come to the Grand Opening of the winery. At that time there was only a dirt road from The original idea was to sell grapes to the thirteen to fourteen other wineries in Washington State (remember now there are over 1,000 wineries in WA state) but soon they had the idea to create their own winery named “Champs de Brionne”, which translates to “Bryan’s Fields”. Thus in 1984 the first Familigia Vineyards harvest was ready for picking. It takes a grape vine three to four years to produce enough grapes in quantity and quality to pick for wine. Soon they were hooked on their new home state and could think of no better place to raise their four kids. They also loved the adventurous, youthful spirit of its residents. Neither Vince nor Carol knew anything about WA State, nor had ever thought of moving there but they soon fell in love with its beauty in the mountains and on the water. Vince enlisted as a Navy doc and spent time abroad, upon his return the navy sent him to the Bremerton Naval base in Washington State. Focused on many financial and legal aspects of running a business as well as selling Familgia grapes to other wineries and one who loves to prune the vineyards.Ī move to the greater Chicago area for both Vince & Carol in their teens, college studies, a marriage, medical school at Northwestern University to become a neurosurgeon, children and then the Vietnam War. An incredibly intelligent, hard worker who is the bedrock of our family and Familgia Vineyards next door. In her younger years Carol Bryan grew up in Indiana. Some might think that was an unusual or lofty goal for a city boy but childhood dreams have a way of sticking with you and resurfacing later in life when you need them, if you let them. Sometimes though as he stared at his lone bean plant out his bedroom window he day dreamed of large open spaces, owning a backhoe and becoming a farmer. He would often play stickball in the alley below his apartment. Growing up in Brooklyn Vince loved the pulse and energy of the city. From this a great love of music was born, which later will influence our Cave B founders, Vince & Carol Bryans, founding of the world famous Gorge Amphitheatre and our Stage B Amphitheatre, but that is for later in the story. It also meant hauling his accordion down the stairs of his apartment to the subway to Manhattan for weekly accordion lessons to make his Nonna happy.
This meant lots of family meals with pasta and wine at the table. a half Italian, half Irish young boy living his early years in Brooklyn, New York, in an apartment directly next door to his Italian Grandparents who immigrated from the Puglia region, near the city of Bari in Italy. Let us start here at the very beginning of our story with Vince Bryan Jr.
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