My parents, John and Karen Bergström, planted their eponymous 13-acre vineyard, the winery’s first family estate vineyard, in the spring of 1999, three years after they had moved out from Portland where they had raised our family since the 1970’s.  Like many properties in the Dundee Hills, this hillside was once planted to Plums for prune production and then Black Walnuts and then Hazelnuts.  When we purchased it, it had been abandoned for some time and had been taken over by the wild orange poppies, native garlic, deliciously ferocious blackberry brambles and small nomadic families of deer that love to call these volcanic hillsides home.  The property came with a house, a barn, a big old green John Deere tractor and one of the most gorgeous views of the Willamette Valley you have ever seen.  My parents purchased the property seconds after having stepped foot on it and that little twist of fate is what sealed the deal for my family’s uprooting from the city and transplanting to the rolling agricultural hillsides of the Oregonian countryside and we thank our lucky stars every day.

Reminiscent of a terracotta, scorched earth amphitheater, this bowl-shaped estate vineyard is ideally situated in America’s most famous appellation for cool climate Pinot Noir.  Facing due south, the Bergström Vineyard is bathed in the warm sunlight of Oregon’s summer days and is also protected from the cool oceanic winds that come through the Van Duzer coastal wind-gap to the southwest.  So, the Bergström Vineyard has optimum ripening potential and provides our winery with its most powerful yet elegant expression of both Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

Our Pinot Noir from this vineyard has a strong Iron mineral expression reminiscent of smoked meats or campfire grilled game, savory and sweet herbs like Tarragon, Thyme, Mint and floral notes of Roses and Violets.  The Dundee Hills is known for silky, suave tannins and this makes the Bergström Vineyard the perennial iron fist in the velvet glove.   Chardonnay from the Bergström Vineyard is a classic expression of lemon and lime citrus oils and pith as well as orchard fruit aromas and flavors with hazelnut and floral bouquets that are both lively, powerful and very age worthy.

Year planted:  1999

AVA: Dundee Hills

Soil type: volcanic clay on Basalt

Elevation: 350-380

Acres: 13

Density: 2,200-5,000 vines per acre.

Varietals planted: Pinot Noir, Chardonnay

Farming Style: 0% conventional, non-certified BD/regenerative-ecological since inception