Fate and Good Fortune. Most good stories have a little of both, and this story is no exception. It actually began fifty-five million years ago when Trisaetum’s estate vineyard was on the floor of the Pacific near an extensive line of submarine volcanoes and fate chose that one such volcano would erupt in that very location, spewing lava through the ocean floor, scattering glassy basalt nodules across the seascape, and leaving a unique mixture of volcanic and sedimentary soil that just so happens to be perfect for grapes. Unfortunately for grapes, the soil was at the bottom of ocean.

In a few years, fortune followed fate when the coastal mountains of the Pacific Northwest squeezed their way through that same lava field placing half of it on the coastline at Cape Kiwanda...and the other half thirty-five miles inland on the east side of the Oregon coast range. This activity left it not only dry, but with the precise combination of soil, elevation, orientation, temperature, and micro-climate necessary to make something extraordinary from two of nature’s most site specific grapes---Pinot Noir and Riesling.

How that unique corner of the world became Trisaetum Vineyards began a few million years later in 1995, the day after James and Andrea Frey were married. Driving from their wedding in Sedona to their camping honeymoon in Yosemite, fate intervened when a mid-June snowstorm blanketed the national park. Their honeymoon destination now closed to the public, the newlyweds sat in the remote town of Ely, Nevada and contemplated whether to turn around and go home, turn right, or turn left. They choose left and ended up in Napa Valley where they spent three days wandering through vineyards, laughing about their misfortune, visiting tasting rooms, touring various wineries, laughing some more about their misfortune, and developing an instant love affair with wine.

Within a few years this love affair of wine matured into a love affair with both Pinot Noir and Riesling. James planted a small vineyard in the couple’s backyard and began taking over various rooms in their home to experiment making wine. After the couple welcomed a son Tristen and daughter Tatum (for whom Trisaetum Vineyards is named), the entire family began to work each year’s small crush, and talk of moving the family to wine country became a more frequent conversation; a conversation that seemed to always finish in the same place, a place beginning to be known as “the area” if you were serious about making serious Pinot Noir, the Willamette Valley of Oregon.

In 2002, James made the first trip to the Willamette Valley in search of the perfect site to start a vineyard. There was little success. He made a second trip. There was little success. By early 2003, Andrea had joined him for a third trip. Again little success...until their last day in town and their last site to view. They drove the windy road to a fifty-two acre parcel in the foothills of the coast range, scratched their heads at the century old farmhouse that stood in dreadful need of repair at the bottom of the property, climbed the four hundred feet of elevation through thickets of blackberry thorns and waist-high fescue that covered the former cattle ranch, read the geologist report, envisioned how a vineyard might someday wind its way down the steep and rocky terrain, and sat breathless at the top of the site watching a storm roll in over the coast range mountains to the west. There was no question that fortune had favored them. This was the place.

After buying the property, fortune again smiled when James’ parents decided it was time to retire and moved into a single room within the farmhouse, began the difficult work of restoring the historic dwelling room-by-room to its original condition, and simultaneously oversaw the work necessary to prepare the twenty-five areas that would become Trisaetum’s first vineyard. A year later, James and Andrea began work on a second home at the top of the property for their family. Preparation for planting the estate vineyard involved mulching twenty-five acres of overgrown berry bushes, ferns, thistle, and hawthorne; relocating the thirteen deer that called the vineyard blocks home to another portion of the property where they wouldn’t be tempted to eat the grapes (a fence helps); ripping and disking and moving load after load of rocks by hand to designated rock piles throughout the property; inserting in the earth the steel pencil rods that would protect the baby vines and help them grow straight and true; and then and only then, planting each vine one-by-one into their chosen place.

After two years, the preparation work was finally complete and twenty-one acres of the Coast Range vineyard were planted in thirteen different blocks of the Pinot Noir clones Pommard, Wadensvil, Dijon 777, Dijon 115, and Dijon 114. The four remaining planted acres were dedicated to Riesling.

Not happy with good enough, later that year, James and Andrea began scouting the Willamette Valley a second time for a vineyard site, this one to compliment their coast range vineyard and to also house Trisaetum’s winery. Unlike the difficulty in finding their first location, when a hazelnut farm surrounded on each side by the estate vineyards of Beaux Freres, Patricia Green, and Brick House is rumored to be coming on the market, you bid on the property site unseen. In addition, you bid on an adjoining parcel that is not for sale, but owned by the same individual, just in case they may want to sell that as well; which is exactly what they did in late 2005, and forty-five days later after a little geological and vineyard due diligence, they closed on the site that now houses both Trisaetum’s Ribbon Ridge vineyard and their 13,000 square foot gravity-fed winery.

In the heart of the Ribbon Ridge AVA, Trisaetum’s second vineyard is composed of gently rolling benches and side slopes ranging from 350 to 500 feet in elevation that were created when the westward-moving North American continent collided with coastal range seamounts. Known as the series of Pittsburgh bluff soils, the only place they have been discovered in this specific configuration is on Ribbon Ridge. After a year and a half of preparation, the Ribbon Ridge vineyard was planted with a combination of six different Pinot Noir clones (Pommard, Wadensvil, Coury, Dijon 115, 667, and 777) on three different rootstocks in a mixture of 3x7 and 4x7 spacing. Five acres of two different Riesling clones were also planted.

Fate and Good Fortune. We certainly believe the story of Trisaetum has some of both. But like any story, some of the best fortune comes from the outstanding people you meet along the way who play an integral role in your success. Like Kevin Chambers of Resonance Vineyards, who responded within the hour to our first e-mail asking for help, consulted on our site selection, and introduced us to an exceptional real estate agent; who happened to be Lisa Neal, who, when she’s not doing an unequaled job helping people find their slice of the Willamette Valley to start a vineyard, runs Coeur de Terre vineyards with her husband Scott Neal, who let us borrow their equipment and answered all our questions about starting a vineyard in the Willamette Valley. And then there’s people like Matt Novak, who along with Luke Pedotti, managed the development of both the Coast Range and Ribbon Ridge vineyards, and who introduced us to our wine and vineyard consultant; who happens to be Josh Bergstrom, who, along with being an exceptional winemaker, turned out to be amazingly astute in the art of winery design; and who introduced us to Greg McClellan who now teams with James to craft the wines at Trisaetum.  Josh also introduced us to Mike Grant of the Grant Company, who took the innovative architectural design of Bruce Kenny, and with the help of Brad Beyer and Jay Rinkes, built an amazing facility for us to craft our wines, and who is constantly coming up with better ways to build a mouse-trap, or in our case, a winery. We’d be remiss if we didn’t again mention James’ parents, Jim & Valerie Frey, who helped carve a vineyard into the coastal hillside when all they inherited to do so was a run-down farmhouse and overgrown blackberry bushes, and who still help out on the property today; and we‘d also be remiss if we didn’t thank Pete & Liz McKinley, who are partners with us in the Ribbon Ridge vineyard and share the passion for doing something great. It may have been fate that brought each of these individuals into our lives, but for these and the scores more we meet as this adventure continues, it has simply been our good fortune.