THE BEGINNING
The adventure started in 2011 when we stumbled across this incredible vineyard site that was previously farmed for hazelnuts, cherries, walnuts and prunes. Our family was visiting the Willamette Valley in search of the best ground for Pinot Noir, when our route serendipitously took us up Worden Hill and we discovered a "For Sale" sign that had evaded our long running search. We immediately sold our home in North Vancouver, BC to move to Oregon and pursue our love and passion for wine growing and farming.
We fell in love with our new home sweet home, a 10 acre farm perched in the Dundee Hills overlooking the Willamette Valley. The soon to be vineyard had been cleared of the hazelnut orchard and was ready to be planted. Ryan being an Oregonian had long been looking for a great opportunity to return to his roots in the hills of Oregon, and we buy a premier site in the Dundee Hills AVA where we can follow our passion for wine growing.
We kept our daily jobs in the IT industry in order to invest in their vineyard. In 2017 Sofia decided to leave the IT Industry environment and focused 100% in the wine family business. We are excited yet humbled to be in the Dundee Hills, the Mecca of the Pinot Noir. Living few steps from Pinot Noir pioneers such as Jim Maresh, Vivian Weber, and next door neighbor Dick Erath.
In April 2012 we planted our first vines and today we have a total of 7 acres under vine, with just over 6 acres of Pinot Noir and nearly an acre of Chardonnay. Our vineyard is our home and we farm without the use of pesticides and herbicides while leveraging ancient practices to avoid contaminating the soil, our environment, farm workers, guests children and our beautiful dog lava and 3 cats (lovely, Rae and Marshmallow).
In the years when our vines were developing from small tender shoots to sturdy fruit producing vines, we searched the valley high and low for a winemaker to coax the essence of this special place into rich yet elegant wines. Fortunately for us, we found Drew Voit a highly regarded winemaker who's produced some of the most highly esteemed and rated wines from Oregon's Willamette Valley.
THE NEXT GENERATION
We have discovered that tending to vines bears striking resemblances to nurturing our two boys. Both demand abundant care and attention - shower them with love and devote quality time to provide the very best!