2012 Vintage

It is hard to picture more ideal grape-growing weather. On the heels of the late and nail-biting 2010 and 2011 harvests, 2012 got off to a wonderful start. Spring temperatures were mild, with standard cool and wet days interspersed with plenty of warm, sunny days, allowing the grapevines to start the season strong. The summer proved warm and dry with cool evenings. These ideal conditions resulted in optimum flavor development and balanced acid profiles. Harvest started in late September and continued through October with only a few minor showers, enough to knock the dust off the grapes. Windy conditions late in the season concentrated the fruit flavors, resulting in slightly more depth than in the similar vintages of 2002 and 2008.

2013 Vintage

The growing season began splendidly with ample heat. While the season started out very warm and ripe, the harvest was split in thirds by two major rain and cooling events. This yielded three different styles of wine: one big and fruity from the early picks, one subtle and soft from the middle picks, and one flavorful and elegant from the last picks after a long period of drying out in October. All in all, 2013 is an intriguing vintage with varying styles, nearly all with nice flavor development and elegance. Expect short to mid-term aging potential.

2014 Vintage

The 2014 vintage in the Willamette Valley will go down in the record books. We had an early bud break, an early fruit set, early veraison, and an early start to the harvest. The vintage produced historically high yields due to the warm 2013 summer and Mother Earth’s well-timed rains. When yields were carefully monitored, the cool nights and warm days produced concentrated, balanced wines reminiscent of 2012, 2008, and 2002. The hallmark of the 2014 vintage is approachability. The wines please in their youth and will also age gracefully, providing stunning experiences for many years to come.

2015 Vintage

The record-breaking heat of the 2015 vintage produced poised and plush fruit. With thoughtful decision-making in the vineyard, specifically regarding canopy management and crop loads, our vineyards balanced physiological ripeness with sugar and acid levels. The intense summer heat hit peaks that caused vines and fruit to pause their maturation. Consequently, we had some vineyards produce fruit with higher acid levels and lower brix in 2015 than in 2014, a less hot vintage. During the 2015 harvest, the fruit, including seeds and skins, tasted great, and the resulting wines show well today and hold promise as they age.

2016 Vintage

Traditionally, when you look at grape ripeness, you consider the sugar content and the acidity of the juice to decide on a harvest date, but another important and often overlooked aspect is physiological (flavor and tannin) ripeness. The true goal of a grape-grower is to align the sugar, acid, and physiological ripeness so they all coincide. This can be very challenging. However, the long hang-time and mild weather of 2016 meant that physiological ripeness came earlier than acid and sugar ripeness. Thus, many could have picked earlier than expected, as sugar increased and acid dropped quickly at the end, all after flavors had fully developed. It can be very tricky for us Oregonians, who are used to waiting and waiting to get every last bit of flavor and concentration from the grapes in cool vintages, to actually call a pick at the optimal time in warm years. The temptation to wait to pick when the weather is cooperating can potentially be our downfall in warm (2002, 2008, 2012, 2014, 2016) and hot (2003, 2006, 2009, 2015) vintages, sometimes causing wineries to miss that ideal picking window. In 2016, however, many wineries had learned from recent experience, giving us the confidence to call an earlier pick date.

2016 vintage comes on the heels of the opulent 2014 and the structured 2015 vintages. All three vintages produced fruit-forward wines; however, 2016 provides clear elegance and polish with lifted aromatics. These wines will taste great young, but have the stuffing to develop with time. Out of the last three years, we would not be surprised if 2016 drops the most jaws.

2017 Vintage

A wet, cool spring yielded a late bud-break and delayed flowering, leading to a more “typical” Oregon vintage when compared to the previous three. Near-perfect conditions during fruit set produced a large crop, which ripened under hot, dry conditions from late July into early September. Mid-September showers helped recharge soils and balance brix and phenolic ripeness, resulting in harmonious fruit picked during the extended September through October harvest. The 2017 vintage harkens to some of the classic Oregon vintages. We expect it to carry forward the string of impressive vintages.

2018 Vintage

Bloom started in mid-April, a more typical start than in 2014 and 2015. Fruit set was large, requiring thoughtful thinning in the vineyards to maintain balanced ripeness and high quality. Cool weather during fruit set helped maintain vibrant acidity through harvest. May through early September proved exceptionally dry, with a few September showers helping to recharge soils and balance brix and phenolic ripeness. Pick time proved important, as sugars rose quickly in September and October. Mother Nature cooperated by allowing us to pick according to our preferences rather than her schedule due to fall storms. 2018 will certainly prove to be the continuation of the string of excellent vintages that started in 2014.

2019 Vintage

Wildly different than the warm, dry 2018 vintage, 2019 harkens back to some of the cooler, wetter Oregon vintages like 2007. The growing season got off to an average start with bud break in early April. The weather was quite cool early on, initially providing relief from disease pressure due to lower fungal spore and insect counts. After all of the heat in recent years, we were waiting for the weather to warm up, but it never really did. Temperatures stayed cool and mild through bloom, providing lots of tartaric acid, and remained mild through the growing season, preserving plenty of malic acid. Flavors in the grapes were allowed to fully develop while maintaining natural acidity and slowly accumulating sugars. Along with the cool weather came plenty of rain throughout the growing season and harvest. The vines never got thirsty, but also thankfully managed to accumulate the needed concentration of flavors. We encountered some late powdery mildew in August and September as well as grey mold (botrytis) from September through October, which lowered yields slightly, but ultimately had surprisingly little disease pressure given the amount of moisture. The wines have beautiful (even surprising) concentration of color, complex and varied aromatics, refreshing, crunchy textures, and superb balance. Overall, it is a classic Oregon vintage with high acidity, low-to-moderate alcohol, and great aging potential. Most winemakers are smiling from ear to ear, despite the challenges, and we’re in full agreement.

2020 Vintage

After a picture-perfect growing season, the tiny yields produced intensely flavored and brightly acidic grapes, but this growing season quickly took a backseat to the fall wildfires in and near the Willamette Valley. Most of the grapes were not ripe yet and were still hanging in the vineyards when three different wildfires erupted, and a blanket of smoke filled the valley. However, four of our vineyards avoided the impact of smoke. Arborbrook Vineyard was ripe enough for us to pick the grapes just as the fires started, with minimal smoke impact. Momtazi, Lichtenwalter, and Fir Crest Vineyards all avoided any smoke at all.

2021 Vintage

Another roller coaster of a year, 2021 had us on our toes more than once. A warm and dry winter led to an early April bud-break. Continued hot and dry conditions led to a somewhat early bloom at the beginning of June. The end of bloom was met with heavy rains, severely limiting fruit set in certain areas and, in turn, yields. This rain, however, turned out to be a blessing in disguise as afterward we experienced record-shattering heat that the Northwest had never seen before, breaking our daily high record every day from 6/26 to 6/28. The summer was warm and dry, with heat occasionally causing the vines to shut down, delaying harvest until ideal, cooler fall temperatures. It ended up being a beautiful harvest, with some well-timed rains and a delicious crop resulting in tasty wines.

2022 Vintage

2022 was a year of significant uncertainty from the very beginning. Bud break arrived in early April, starting the year a little bit earlier than average. However, in mid-April, we experienced a rare spring frost that killed many of the primary buds in the vineyards. The last time this happened on this scale in the Willamette Valley was in 1984. Luckily for us, grapes have secondary and tertiary buds that act as a redundancy in the event of the primary buds dying. These secondaries are sadly not as fruitful as the primaries, so we thought perhaps we would be looking at a low-yielding year across the board. Luckily, some sites proved very fruitful, though others were extremely low-yielding. Cold weather persisted through April, and we didn’t really get a restart of growth until May. This is historically about as late a start to the growing season as there ever was. When the vines finally started growing, they erupted at a rate that we don’t think we have ever seen before. To ensure we would have enough fruit, we left many shoots on the vines. This, coupled with near-perfect weather at bloom, resulted in quite high yields in some sites. The growing season can be characterized as short and hectic, with high disease pressure from powdery mildew. We started picking at the end of September and were blessed with incredible October weather. Barely a drop of rain fell until October 21st, and our last pick was off the vines and inside the winery literally 30 seconds before the skies opened up and unleashed a torrential downpour. From a difficult start to a picture-perfect ending, 2022 is a classic Oregon vintage with something to offer every palate.

2023 Vintage

2023 was an intense and condensed vintage in the Willamette Valley. We had a late start to the growing season, with bud break occurring in early April. Cool and wet weather followed, pushing bloom into early-to mid-June. Given this timing, we thought we would harvest in late September, but Mother Nature had other plans. After a hot, dry summer, the grapes were ready to harvest on September 12th, and we were done picking by October 6th. Despite the condensed growing season, the wines are full of flavor, with moderate-to-low alcohol levels and great balance.

2024 Vintage

2024 was a gorgeous vintage in the Willamette Valley. We had an average start to the growing season, with bud break occurring in mid-April. Cool and wet weather followed, pushing bloom into early-to mid-June. With this timing, we planned for a mid-September start to harvest, and that is exactly what we got. After a warm and fairly dry summer, the first grapes were ready to harvest on September 16th, and we were done picking by October 15th, with the Amber wine being our last and second-to-last picks. The 2024 wines are plush and flavorful, yet full of vibrant energy.

2025 Vintage

2025 was a banger of a year in the Willamette Valley. It was our second-earliest start to harvest ever, with picking starting on September 2nd and mostly wrapped up in the vineyards by September 26th. It was one of the warmest years on record, yet with few extremes and near-perfect conditions during harvest. A warm and dry spring led to an early bud-break at the start of April; then the growing season was off to the races, without ever really slowing down. Bloom came at the end of May to the beginning of June, setting the clock for a harvest about 100 days post-bloom. With the steady summer heat during the day and cool nights, the berries developed quickly. A few days in the mid-90s at the end of August pushed some vineyards to perfect ripeness closer to 90 days post-bloom. September brought cooler weather, extending hang time and resulting in beautiful, ripe, and disease-free fruit, full of flavor, with moderate sugar and acid levels. The resulting wines are delicious across the board, with excellent balance and great aging potential.