La Spirale means “the vortex” which is a universal symbol of creation and formative life-giving forces.  This is the name that we have given to our newest estate vineyard, planted by the Redman family in 2005 and purchased by our family in 2018.  The acquisition of La Spirale allowed Bergström Wines to move away from purchasing fruit and become a 100% estate grown winery, our vision since our first vintage in 1999.  The first commercial vintage from this great terroir was the 2018 vintage. We took over all farming in 2019 and have been converting the vineyard over to our estate-wide regenerative ecological approach since that time, with wonderful results.

Few appellations in North America evoke such sentiment and passion for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay as the Ribbon Ridge AVA. This narrow, ancient, oceanic hillside, only 6 square miles in totality, has been the home to some of Oregon’s finest bottlings of wine.  And although Bergström Wines is well known as our namesake vineyard in the Dundee Hills and our winery sits proudly in the Chehalem Mountains, the majority of the estate acreage we farm lies in the Ribbon Ridge AVA.

La Spirale is a long and undulating, sandy slope facing south and tilting to the west.  This beautiful terroir is framed by forest on three sides and is a complex patchwork of marine sedimentary sands with over 14 identifiable soil types, making this a complicated vineyard to farm.  In the wintertime, when there are no leaves on the vines and the cover crop is sparse on the ground, you can see the sandy soil color change from black to brown to orange, yellow, khaki and white, row by row.  The Pinot Noir from La Spirale is delicate, floral and spicy with a fine silky structure.  The Chardonnay from La Spirale is saline and salty and reminiscent of a sea breeze with citrus fruits, flowers and candies.  In 2019 we grafted Syrah into La Spirale and will see its first harvest in 2020.

Year planted: 2005

AVA: Ribbon Ridge

Soil type: 14 different marine sedimentary soil types on Shale and Siltstone

Elevation: 400-450

Acres: 22

Varietals planted: Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Syrah

Farming style:  0% conventional, non-certified BD/regenerative-ecological since 2019