Winemaker Notes
Raptor Ridge's Tuscowallame Estate is one of only 29 growing sites for Grüner Veltliner in North America. Scott Shull embarked on the journey to make an American version of this Austrian star after a delightful and enlightening experience dining on Thai food and quaffing Austrian Grüner Veltliner while on a market visit to the midwest. True to its original inspiration, this wine is a fantastic compliment to spicy, exotic fare as well as a delightful companion to seafood and more delicate continental dishes such as flaky white fish, pork, and chicken. Weightier and more textured than its Alsatian counterparts, the Raptor Ridge Tuscowallame Estate Grüner Veltliner is an outstanding, well-loved, and continually highly scoring component of Raptor Ridge's story.
Fun to say and delightfully easy to drink, Grüner Veltliner calls Austria its homeland. While some easily quaffable Grüners come in a one-liter—a convenient size—many high caliber single vineyard bottlings can benefit from cellar aging. Somm Secret—About 75% of the world’s Grüner Veltliner comes from Austria but the variety is gaining ground in other countries, namely Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and the United States.
The Chehalem Mountains is a northwest-southeast span of several distinct mountains, ridges and peaks in the northern part of the Willamette Valley. Of all of Willamette Valley's smaller AVAs, it is closest to the city of Portland. Its highest summit, Bald Peak at an elevation of 1,633 feet, serves to generate cooler air for the rest of the AVA and its hillside vineyards. The region covers 70,000 acres but only 1,600 acres are planted to vines; soils of the Chehalem Mountains are a mix of basalt, ocean sediment and loess.