Winemaker Notes
Critical Acclaim
All Vintages
Our winemaking is based on instinct and science, taste and intuition. Everything is done by hand, and we allow indigenous yeast to work its magic as we guide it all with our obsessive attention to detail. Our barrel aging routine is traditional 18 months in French oak and we lees stir for 9 of those months and the Pinot Noirs are then bottle aged for another six months before release. We have no money, no life, except for our wines, our family and our friends whom we work to bruising and exhaustion, and we all love every minute.
Home of some of the planet’s most amazingly elegant and expressive Pinot noir, the Willamette Valley is a pastoral, mixed landscape of green, bucolic rolling hills, dramatic forestlands and small, independent, friendly wine growers. As a leader in environmental stewardship, the valley has some of the nation’s most protective land use policies, with two-thirds of its vineyards farmed sustainably and over half, organically. While the valley claims a cool, continental climate, and is heavily influenced by the cold, moist winds of the Pacific Ocean, its warm and dry summers allow for the steady, even ripening of Pinot noir.
The potential of Willamette Valley Pinot noir continues to attract the investment of serious growers and winemakers both locally and from abroad, as naturally the finished wines bring accolades from professionals and enthusiasts. With a range of styles from delicate dried cherry, raspberry and hibiscus to stronger notes of truffle, mocha, plum and spice, a fine Willamette Valley Pinot noir is a perfect expression of both character and grace.