Dundee Hills vineyard rows
— — the long red rows climbing toward the rain.
Not only on a wall.
“Pinot Noir rows climb the red Jory soil above the town of Dundee, with Mount Hood on the eastern horizon when the rain breaks. The hills hold most of the founding Oregon wineries, planted from the late 1960s on the gamble that this latitude could make a Burgundy of its own. By harvest the rows turn gold and copper.
Dundee Hills vineyard rows, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The Dundee Hills AVA sits in the northern Willamette Valley, about 30 miles southwest of Portland, established as a federally recognised viticultural area in 2004. Elevations run from roughly 200 to 1,100 feet above the valley floor. The AVA covers about 6,500 planted acres, predominantly Pinot Noir with Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, and small plantings of other Burgundian and Alsatian varieties. The town of Dundee sits at the foot of the hills along Highway 99W; the wineries climb the slopes above it on Worden Hill Road and Breyman Orchards Road.
Jory is the defining soil. A deep red basaltic clay weathered over millions of years from Columbia River basalt flows, formally named Oregon's state soil in 2011. It runs three to six feet deep on the upper slopes, drains freely, and holds modest moisture into the dry late summer. The Jory belt is what made the Dundee Hills the first serious bet on Oregon Pinot Noir; the same rock underlies most of the AVA's founding estates, including Erath, Sokol Blosser, and Domaine Drouhin.
The harvest defines the year. Bud break comes in late April, flowering in June, and the picking window usually opens in mid-September and runs through October. October mornings often start under valley fog, with the upper rows above the cloud line and Mount Hood visible past the fog deck. The vines turn copper and gold by late October, then drop their leaves through November. Winter is wet and grey; pruning crews work the bare rows through January and February in the rain.