Vineyards

During our professional careers, Donna and I were involved in developing and managing products, services and businesses for some of the premier financial services companies in the world. From them we learned what it takes to develop great products. We believe the fundamentals of crafting the very finest wine starts with the vineyard and the fruit it produces. We spent fourteen months walking thousands of acres of vineyards and tasting hundreds of wines from those vineyards to find the sites we believe will produce the elegant, sensuous and balanced wines we want to create.

We chose Oregon and the Dundee Hills American Viticultural Area (AVA) in the Willamette Valley to create our wine. The Willamette Valley is named for the river that runs south from Portland to Eugene.  The protection afforded to the Valley from the rains of the Pacific Ocean comes from the Coast Range to the west, while the Cascade Range protects the Valley to the east.  The area between these two looming chains of mountains and hills has produced an ideal climate for growing Pinot Noir.  Our research led us to this region and, specifically, to the Dundee Hills, known for its red, volcanic, clay loam Jory soils.

In 2015, Winderlea received their Demeter Biodynamic® Certification. We are thrilled to be taking this next step in building our sustainable business model.