Vineyards

Oregon’s Willamette Valley is an incredible place to make sparkling wine. Our volcanic and marine sedimentary soils can produce a huge range of flavor profiles. Our geography provides stunning hillside sites with just the right balance of sun exposure and marine influence. And our cool nights help the fruit retain lots of zingy acidity without sacrificing ripeness.

We seek out marginal sites that are especially suited to sparkling. Through their cooler climates and slower ripening, these vineyards create more delicate wines of outstanding quality.

We work with gifted growers and farmers who are committed to farming sustainably—whether organically, biodynamically, or LIVE certified. As of 2019, all our vineyards are herbicide free.

We think it’s the right thing to do. And we think it makes the wines taste better too. 

This tiny three-acre vineyard at the top of the Eola-Amity Hills was originally the Cattrall family farm, founded more than 100 years ago.

Brothers Bill and Tom took over the farm from their uncle when Bill returned from serving overseas in the U.S. Army. Bill was exposed to a variety of European wines while abroad. After he arrived back in Oregon, he realized that the climate had many similarities to great European grape-growing regions—so the brothers decided to try their hand at growing pinot noir.

Bill and Tom began planting beginning in the 1970s, establishing the first certified organic vineyard in Oregon. Their own-rooted vines are a mixture of Wädenswil and Upright pinot noir clones. To this day, the brothers farm everything themselves. The site rests at 750 feet of elevation. Its cool weather, volcanic Jory soils, and late-ripening clones make it an ideal source for sparkling wine.

Planted by Scott Baldwin of DePonte in 2012, this incredibly beautiful vineyard is located on the edge of the Oregon Coast Range at an elevation of 700 feet.

The vineyard is planted with a large selection of heritage clones. These are clones which were originally brought to California in suitcases during the early days of U.S. wine production. They tend to ripen more slowly and hold more acid compared to the more prominent Dijon clones, which were selected for their early and consistent ripening characteristics.

We began working with this site in 2018 and have been delighted with the finesse and character it delivers for sparkling wine.

Moe Momtazi is a real-life legend. He famously escaped Iran shortly after the hostage crisis on a motorcycle with his pregnant wife Flora. After making their way through Pakistan, Spain, Italy, and Mexico, the Momtazis eventually arrived in the U.S. and filed for political asylum.

In 1997 they bought a 496 acre ranch outside of McMinnville and started to plant vines. Today, the property is Demeter Certified, which means it is farmed biodynamically. Moe and Flora’s daughter Tahmiene uses grapes grown on the property to make wine for their own Maysara Winery, and Moe sells about 60% of their crop to producers like us.

Our Momtazi Carbonic Rosé comes from a selection of vines called the Pinot Patch. This block is planted with a variety of pinot noir clones mixed together, which we believe yields more complex wines.

Namaste Vineyard is the home of the oldest chardonnay plantings in the recently minted Van Duzer Corridor AVA (established 2019). This AVA is named for a gap in the Oregon Coast Range mountains that enables cool winds from the ocean to blow into the Willamette Valley each night. These winds help create delicate wines with intense acidity.

Originally planted in 1980, Namaste was acquired by Dave Masciorini in 2002. Since then, he has hired Jessica Cortell, who manages some of the top sites in the valley, to farm the site sustainably and care for the old vines.

Because of the cool weather and old vines, the grapes at Namaste barely ripen enough to make still wine—but that makes it a perfect site for sparkling. We end up harvesting at the same time many other wineries are harvesting grapes for still wine. Extra hang time on the vines helps creates the intense citrus, pomme, and baking spice flavors that underpin our Namaste wines.

Established in 1990 by Peter and Emily Gladhart and cared for by the Gladhart family to this day, Winter’s Hill Vineyard prioritizes land stewardship through conservation. The family aims to create a sustainable ecosystem through preservation of the surrounding oak savannah, animal habitats, and prairie lands. The vineyard has been certified by LIVE and SalmonSafe since 1999.

Six long-term employees perform meticulous vineyard practices—including pruning, training, shoot thinning, crop reduction, and multiple passes of tucking—entirely by hand, without the use of herbicides. The pinot blanc vines are more than 30 years old and reside in volcanic Jory soils at approximately 700 feet of elevation.  

Every now and then, you taste a wine that catches you completely off guard. That happened to us back in 2017, when Ken Pahlow from Walter Scott poured us a chardonnay he had produced from X-Novo Vineyard. The wine beguiled us with its intense complexity. Our imaginations ran wild—how would this vineyard translate in sparkling form? We had to know more.

Shortly after, we were in touch with Craig Williams and his son Gavin, the forces behind X-Novo and X-Omni vineyards.

Like other vineyards in the Eola-Amity Hills, X-Omni is built on a foundation of high elevation, Van Duzer Corridor winds, and volcanic soils.

Beyond its amazing site, what sets X-Omni apart is its focus on clonal diversity. A large number of clones are co-planted in each block, which yields a diversity of flavors and incredible complexity in the wines. The block of chardonnay that goes into our X-Omni Blanc de Blancs includes nearly 20 different clones.

The vineyard is managed by Stirling Fox. Stirling’s holistic approach involves farming sustainably, without the use of herbicides.