Thoughts

Up until then, our Chardonnay had been sourced from an estate vineyard in the Los Carneros AVA. We were not producing Pinot Noir at the time but remarkably, we planted more acreage of that grape than Chardonnay. I cannot recall the exact reasons for this other than we understood this would be an ideal location as well. It was there that I began to investigate the relationship of multiple selections within a variety to greatly expand upon the number of selections previously cultivated.

Our initial plan in the Willamette Valley was to take an intentional approach to growing and selling grapes, exclusively. Since the valley was already widely recognized as a benchmark for Pinot Noir, we thought it would be sensible to follow that paradigm and focus mostly on Pinot Noir with a small planting of Chardonnay. And yet, we kept thinking about the fact that there were fewer than 1,000 acres planted to Chardonnay in the entire valley in 2010. Certainly there was notable Chardonnay being produced but in very limited quantities. Perhaps the most influential was our location in the Eola-Amity Hills AVA. When you stood on the ground and looking across the east-southeast views of the valley, the vineyard shouted: Chardonnay could be great here too!

We soon reconsidered our initial plans to make Pinot the main effort and decided to plant more Chardonnay. This was in part because there was so little available to wineries but also because of our love for the grape. In short, we set about to create a distinct foundation for both grapes that began with developing 2 acres of Chardonnay and 1 acre of Pinot Noir. Today, that ratio has actually increased slightly to 2.5 acres of Chardonnay for every 1 acre of Pinot Noir. With 20 acres of Chardonnay now planted, we are squarely committed to pursuing more expressive, complex and distinctive Chardonnay with a Burgundian reverence for sense of place.