A New Chapter in Oregon’s Sparkling Wine Movement

Armed with the right climate and grape varieties—and now, the resources—Oregon winemakers set their sights on traditional-method sparkling wines.

written by
Shana Clarke

published
November 20, 2023 - Seven Fifty Daily

As interest in sparkling wine increases in the U.S., Oregon producers are investing more in high-quality, traditional-method sparkling wines. Photo courtesy of Lester Tsai.

With its cool climate and propensity for growing complex Pinot Noir—and increasingly, Chardonnay—Oregon’s comparison to Burgundy is understandable. But in the past decade, sparkling wine production—traditional-method sparkling, especially—has been on the rise. According to Sally Murdoch, the interim director of communications for the Oregon Wine Board, approximately 20 producers statewide made traditional-method sparkling wines in 2018. In 2021, that number rose to about 60 producers—a 200 percent increase. In truth, the number could be even higher; at the Willamette Valley Wineries Association, 94 wineries out of the 240 members self-report being sparkling wine producers.

Oregon’s developing sparkling wine industry coincides with American drinkers’ increasing thirst for fizz. According to Wine Intelligence, there was a 30 percent increase in the number of Americans drinking sparkling wine between 2019 and 2022. Given the stateside trend to consume more sparkling wine, it’s an ideal time to invest in sparkling production, and bring to market another category of Oregon wine.

Starting with the 2023 vintage, sparkling wine will be assessed as its own category in the annual report from The Institute for Policy Research and Engagement at the University of Oregon (IPRE), which previously only looked at data from individual varieties. It’s yet another indicator of the importance of sparkling wine in the state. To get a closer look at Oregon’s exploding world of sparkling wine, SevenFifty Daily spoke with several new wineries and production facilities that are diving into bubbles.

Why Oregon?

In addition to Oregon’s well-established success with Pinot Noir, it could be argued that the rising success of Chardonnay in the state is further contributing to the sparkling boom. According to IPRE’s 2022 Oregon Vineyard and Winery Report, Chardonnay plantings have increased by 14 percent from 2021 to 2022, and the price per ton actually surpassed that of Pinot Noir in 2022 ($2,861 versus $2,712, respectively).

“I do think [the rise of Chardonnay and the rise of sparkling wine are] very much related,” says Bryan Weil, the managing partner and winemaker of custom crush winery Vinovate Wine Services, who cultivates both Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in the Vinovate vineyard. “Chardonnay is a big player that people went pretty bullish on in terms of planting acreage.”

Though acres aren’t yet being tracked across the region, several wineries, including Corollary, Domaine Willamette, and Vinovate, have all planted Pinot Meunier—the third major grape in Champagne—for their sparkling programs. “We’re planting almost 10 percent of our vineyard in Pinot Meunier,” says Weil. “We think it adds this great complexity. As a standalone it is a really fun wine, but also in blends it can really add this great depth of flavor and texture and aromatics.”

The Start of a Movement

Although Oregon—Willamette Valley in particular—was prime for traditional-method sparkling wine production thanks to its climate and grape varieties, the finances and space needed for equipment stymied many aspiring sparkling winemakers. A decade ago, this prompted Andrew Davis to leave his job at Argyle, one of the first estates to make traditional-method sparkling wine in the state, to establish Radiant Wine Company in 2013. After clients create their base wine, Radiant helps with second fermentation, riddling, disgorging, final dosage, corking, and caging. What started with “a handful of peers,” as Davis puts it, has grown to 43 clients. 

Jeanne Feldkamp and Dan Diephouse, the owners of Corllary, represent one of many new wineries who understand Oregon’s unique terroir and climate for producing quality sparkling wines. Photo courtesy of Lester Tsai.

By lowering the barrier to entry, Radiant opened the door for many producers interested in making sparkling wine. Adelsheim made their first commercial sparkling wines with Radiant in the 2014 vintage—a rosé and a blanc de blancs—after experimenting on their own. “We have had an overwhelmingly positive response to our sparkling program in all of our direct-to-consumer channels,” says Adelsheim winemaker Gina Hennen. Their initial 307-case production has ballooned to approximately 1,200 cases annually.

The number of producers getting into the sparkling wine game today “shows a maturity of the industry and a confidence in the product we are making,” says Davis. “If it was just Radiant forever, that wouldn’t evolve into a mature industry around sparkling. I’m very excited to be a stepping stone and to see this sparkling in Oregon in its nascency. But moving forward, there’s got to be more players.”

New Producers and Facilities

One new kid on the block is Corollary, which calls itself a sparkling-only house. They say their all-in approach stems from the region’s potential for producing top-tier sparkling wine. Established in 2017, owners Jeanne Feldkamp and Dan Diephouse currently source from nine growers throughout Willamette Valley, working with sites that are, “high elevation, or have a lot of wind influence, or they’re a cooler microclimate, and always with sustainable farming as the baseline,” says Feldkamp. Corollary then works with Radiant on the production end. Recently, they purchased 57 acres in Eola-Amity Hills AVA and are in the process of planting the land with clones and rootstocks that lend themselves best to sparkling wine production. “That’s going to be an important part of our evolution,” says Diephouse. “How do we craft something that really speaks to the terroir of Oregon and creates amazing sparkling?”

Even well-established estates are investing heavily in their sparkling programs. Willamette Valley Vineyards (WVV) opened a dedicated facility and tasting room for Domaine Willamette, their new sparkling offshoot label, in September 2022. Fruit comes from WVV’s biodynamically farmed vineyards, and cuvées are produced with help from Radiant. Over time, they plan to purchase their own equipment and take the entire winemaking process in-house, according to Terry Culton, the director of winemaking, which will allow more flexibility and experimentation. “We do at least two years en tirage, and we’re doing extended tirage on different lots so that we can start offering five-year tirage,” says Culton. “The goal is to offer some 10-year tirage down the road.” 

Oregon’s sparkling wine industry is poised to take another leap forward with the opening of Dundee’s Vinovate Wine Services in August 2023. The vision is to be a “custom crush facility for high-end, small-lot fermentations,” says Weil. The business model is such that the Vinovate team will manage the entire winemaking process, from crushing through bottling for both still and sparkling wines. But for sparkling specifically, they will also offer partial services that address needs from second fermentation to disgorgement, much like Radiant. In a few years, however, they will expand their suite of offerings: Vinovate is developing its own 40-acre vineyard, with 20 to 30 percent of the land farmed specifically for their clients’ sparkling wine production. 

Vinovate is opening its facility in Dundee with additional services for sparkling winemakers. Photo courtesy of Andrea Johnson.

High Quality—and Prices

While there are some examples of pét-nats and force-carbonated wines coming out of the region, by and large the focus is on traditional-method sparkling wines. It’s not an inexpensive endeavor and the prices of the wines reflect that. But given the quality of these methode traditionelle wines, producers feel confident in pricing their sparkling on par with Champagne.

“It’s expensive to make wine in our region and the prices reflect this reality,” says Hennen. Adelsheim, Corollary, and Domaine Willamette’s cuvées retail between $50 to $75 per bottle, and Davis says some of his clients’ wines reach $100. But Hennen thinks the quality justifies the prices. “[Our price points] immediately place us in a cohort of amazing Champagnes, and we earn our place in that world only by making the highest quality wines possible,” she says.

“To be recognized as a region that is making great sparkling, we need to be able to get some of these wines out to consumers that are outside of the Willamette,” says Davis. “But Oregon Pinot was not built overnight. It took 60 years. But I’m actually surprised at how quickly some of these producers have gotten on board and have lifted their production to a point where they are going to start being sold in markets outside of Oregon, which is what needs to happen to be recognized as a quality region for sparkling. It’s very exciting nonetheless, and it takes this excitement to snowball into something bigger.”

Vinovate Custom Wine Services Grows Team, Clients, Vineyard Ahead of 2023 Harvest

The innovative winemaking hub welcomes Partner and Sparkling Winemaker Kate Payne Brown and Assistant Winemaker Aaron Fox

July 24, 2023
Link to article at WineIndustryAdvisor.com
Link to article at WineBusiness.com

Dundee, Oregon (July 24, 2023) — Vinovate Custom Wine Services, the Willamette Valley’s new premier custom crush winemaking facility, estate vineyard, and enology think tank has announced two exciting new additions to its winemaking team. Leading Oregon winemaking veteran Kate Payne Brown joins the Vinovate team as Partner and Winemaker, and Aaron Fox, previously of Alexana Winery and Stoller Family Estate, has been hired as Assistant Winemaker. Payne Brown and Fox complete Vinovate’s winemaking team, headed by Managing Partner and Winemaker Bryan Weil, who will also lead the custom crush facility’s day-to-day operations.

Located in the heart of the Dundee Hills AVA, Vinovate was founded to satisfy the need for a modern Willamette Valley winery driven by top-tier winemakers and solely dedicated to custom crush wines of the highest quality, an aim further supported by the addition of Payne Brown and Fox.

Kate Payne Brown comes to Vinovate from Stoller Family Estate where she served for nine years as the winemaker of the brand’s Reserve Winery. Payne Brown led the launch of the winery’s sparkling wine program and grew Stoller’s ‘Legacy’ wine portfolio, the finest wines in Stoller’s collection.

At Vinovate, Payne Brown will craft still wines of the highest quality and will oversee the winery’s custom crush sparkling wine program, a unique and in-demand service the Vinovate team is proud to offer its partners. As part of Vinovate’s sparkling winemaking offerings, disgorging equipment, used to remove yeast, and to cork and label wines already through the tirage stage, will arrive later this year. This technology will allow Vinovate to help clients with partially-finished sparkling wines beginning in January of 2024.

Payne Brown is particularly excited to help raise the bar for sparkling wine statewide in her new role: “the Willamette Valley has immense potential to be among the world’s top destinations for sparkling wine,” she says. “Vinovate offers new and established brands the means to add high quality sparkling winemaking to their offerings, something I’m deeply passionate about and looking forward to leading for our clients.”

Also by way of Stoller Family Estate, Aaron Fox joins the Vinovate team as Assistant Winemaker. Fox worked closely with Bryan Weil as Harvest Assistant at Alexana Winery in 2016, and with Payne Brown at Stoller beginning in 2017, where he was hired as Cellar Master and was later promoted to Assistant Winemaker. “It’s an honor to not only join Vinovate, one of the Willamette Valley’s most exciting and innovative winemaking teams, but to do so with a long-trusted colleague in Kate,” said Fox. “I am very much looking forward to the 2023 harvest, to working with Bryan and Kate, and to providing Vinovate’s clients with a seamless custom crush experience.”

Vinovate is nearing completion of its 24,000-square-foot winery, which will be operational for the 2023 harvest. The winery will use only the highest standards in technology and design and feature a two-story, gravity-flow facility with an elevated crush pad and ample climate-controlled fruit chilling areas, allowing the winemaking team to expertly manage concurrent client vineyard picks during the busy harvest season.

In addition to offering custom crush services, Vinovate’s forty-acre estate vineyard is now fully planted, a meaningful milestone in the company’s growth. As part of the winery’s commitment to sustainability and environmental stewardship, Vinovate has embarked on the process of obtaining certification of its Regenerative Organic practices. The facility utilizes solar power, rainwater collection, and wastewater recycling, while vineyard stewards have enlisted the help of grazing animals to clear invasive vegetation, and manage cover crop and grass fields in the place of engine-powered machines. The certification of Vinovate’s Regenerative Organic practices is expected to take three years.

Vinovate’s client roster has grown as anticipation of the September 2023 opening mounts, and new clients join a diverse and respected collection of existing brands, including luxury newcomer Ambar Estate, popular boutique wineries Rain Dance Vineyards and Bellinger Estates, and esteemed iconic Knudsen Vineyards. Weil says in Vinovate’s first year of operation he is intentionally limiting the 2023 client list below facility capacity to ensure exceptional service to Vinovate’s inaugural client list.

“We built Vinovate to change the experience of custom crush winemaking,” he says. “With the addition of Kate and Aaron, our clients will have access to the highest quality winemaking possible. I couldn’t be prouder of the growth we’re seeing in our team, in our client relationships, and in our facilities. We’re perfectly positioned to make truly world-class wines for our clients this fall, and for many years to come.”

About Vinovate Custom Wine Services

Vinovate is the Willamette Valley’s premier winery, estate vineyard, and enology think tank focused on small-lot custom crush winemaking, a method that connects people who want to make wines of unparalleled quality with the expertise, equipment, and resources to do so. Vinovate was founded by longtime contributors to rural Oregon’s cultural and economic landscape, Rob Townsend, Pam Turner, and Scott Baldwin, and celebrated Oregon Winemaker Bryan Weil. Together, they are changing the perception of custom crush winemaking in the Willamette Valley, offering all the collaboration of great custom crush agreements with more cohesion and without the chaos. Vinovate’s state-of-the-art winemaking facility will eventually produce 25,000 to 50,000 cases of still and sparkling wines annually and aspires to be an incubator for best practices in sustainability, diversity, and quality winemaking. Opening in time for the 2023 grape harvest, Vinovate has already announced it will work with historic Willamette Valley producer Knudsen Vineyards, highly anticipated newcomer Ambar Estate, and beloved boutique brands like Rain Dance Vineyards and Bellingar Estates.

Wine Wednesday: Custom crush facility opening in Dundee Hills

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