Yamhill County rolling farmland
— — the long green roll before the rain comes back.
Not only on a wall.
“The hills west of McMinnville run in long soft folds — vineyards on the south slopes, hazelnut orchards in the bottoms, sheep on the cooler faces. The volcanic Jory soil, weathered from Columbia River basalt, is the reason Pinot Noir found a home here in the 1960s. By late September the rows have turned copper and the morning fog lifts off the valley one ridge at a time. The Coast Range holds the western horizon and keeps the weather honest. from the studio
Yamhill County rolling farmland, 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.
Yamhill County sits in the northern Willamette Valley, about an hour southwest of Portland, with McMinnville as its largest town. The county covers roughly 718 square miles between the Coast Range and the Willamette River and includes the Dundee Hills, Eola-Amity Hills, and McMinnville sub-appellations of the Willamette Valley American Viticultural Area. The Willamette Valley AVA was established in 1983 and the Dundee Hills AVA in 2005. Beyond wine, the county grows hazelnuts (Oregon produces nearly all of the United States' commercial crop), grass seed, and Christmas trees.
The growing year here is shaped by the rain. From November through April the valley is soft and grey; from June through September it is dry, with cool nights that hold acid in the wine grapes. Harvest runs through September and into October, with Pinot Noir picked first and the white varieties trailing. The fields turn copper, then bare, then green again by Christmas. February brings the first blooms in the hazelnut catkins, and by April the cover crops in the vineyards are knee-high.
McMinnville is the usual base, with Highway 99W threading through Dundee, Dayton, and Lafayette on the way south. The Dundee Hills, just east of town, hold the densest cluster of tasting rooms in the state. The drive to the coast crosses the Coast Range on Highway 18 through Sheridan and Grand Ronde. Weekday mornings outside of harvest are the quietest time to drive the back roads; the gravel turn-offs above Worden Hill Road give the long views down the valley that justify the trip in any season.