The Willamette Valley. The pursuit of great wine from two of nature’s most quixotic and frustrating and noble and beguiling and alluring and pleasing and temperamental and down right excellent when done right grapes; that being Pinot Noir and Riesling, is not for those unwilling to take risks. These grapes thrive in only a few select corners of the world as their thin skins demand a cool climate, while their uncanny ability to depict the earth in which its planted seeks complex and distinctive soils, and their need for an extended hang-time makes harvest a dangerous dance each year with mother nature.

Oregon’s northern Willamette Valley represents one of the few places where climate, soil, and entrepreneurial spirit combine to produce some of the world’s best Pinot Noir, and we believe will soon produce some of the world's best Riesling as well. Situated between Portland to the north and Salem to the south, the Coast Range to the west and the Cascades to the east, the area’s marginal grape-growing climate creates a thin line between exceptional quality and bitter disappointment. Even so, the region draws together those willing to risk failure in order to produce something great.

The Coast Range Vineyard. Purchased in 2003 and planted in March 2005, the steep and rocky 22-acre Coast Range vineyard is planted on a 100 year-old cattle ranch located in the Yamhill-Carlton AVA. Once the homestead for the entire surrounding area, the site still houses the original turn-of-the-century farmhouse. The vineyard is planted at a density that is traditional for Oregon with 4 x 7 spacing, resulting in 1,556 vines per acre. Eighteen acres are planted in thirteen different blocks of the Pinot Noir clones Pommard, Wadensvil, Dijon 777, Dijon 115, and Dijon 114. The four remaining planted acres are dedicated to Riesling.

Once under the Pacific Ocean, the soils in the vineyard have been estimated to be approximately fifty-five million years old. In the vineyard, the base Willakenzie soil common to the Coast Range is strewn with intrusive volcanic nodules from the size of baseballs to that of large boulders. Over millions of years, the weathering of these volcanic nodules has produced areas of deep Jory soil within the lower elevations of the vineyard.

 The Ribbon Ridge Vineyard. The 83 acre hazelnut orchard purchased in 2005 is neighbor to some of the very best vineyards in Oregon (such as the estate vineyards of Beaux Freres, Brick House, and Patricia Green). 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 Pittsburgh bluff series of 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 28-acre 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. Two different Riesling clones were also planted in three different blocks over five acres.

Vineyard Philosophy. We consider Trisaetum a vineyard first; believing that to create a great wine requires an obsession about first producing superior fruit from one’s vineyard.  Our wines represent as purely as possible what our estate vineyards have to reflect; as Pinot Noir and Riesling, more than any other grapes, express the specific characteristics of the soil and climate in which they are grown. Farming both organically and biodynamically, we attempt to carefully manage our vineyards, in addition to sustainable farm them, so that we are able to achieve a concentration of flavors and an expression of terroir in our wines.