Vineyard Overview

The soil, vines, weather, and surrounding environment must be carefully considered by the winemaker and vineyard manager throughout the year.

Many important factors are beyond human control. The soil has evolved over millions of years. The climate is variable from year to year, day to day, and at times critical to activities hour by hour. The site, vine and infrastructure selections, once made, are for all practical purposes, and sometimes literally, “cast in stone” for the life of the vineyard.

Cherry Grove Vineyard is in the Tualatin Hills American Viticulture Area (AVA), which is nested in the north west corner of Oregon’s Willamette Valley AVA. The Tualatin Hills AVA is defined by its proximity to the Tualatin River, its minimum 200’ elevation in the foothills lining the river, and its unique mix of sedimentary and volcanic soil layers.

Elevations between 200’ and 600’ are recommended for cool climate wine grapes such as Pinot Noir, Gamay Noir and Riesling, and Cherry Grove Vineyard blocks of these varieties are planted throughout these ideal elevations on south facing slopes of the coast range foothills overlooking the Tualatin river below.

The unique combination of sedimentary weathered siltstone and sandstone above and volcanic basalt below provides wines of distinctive character.

It is the melding of all of these factors plus the skills of the vineyard manager and crew which produce distinctive fruit for the skilled winemaker to transform into the unique taste of their wine.