DePonte Cellars Winery

DePonte Cellars
DePonte Cellars is a family owned and operated winery, set in the heart of Oregon’s Dundee Hills, tucked between Archery Summit and Domaine Drouhin. Winemaker Isabelle Dutartre comes to Oregon from France and Domaine Drouhin to make wine from the DePonte Vineyard's fruit. The vineyard is just up the road from famed Archery Summit and Domaine Drouhin, where Isabelle assisted friend Veronique Drouhin in making 5 vintages of DDO wines.

Isabelle Dutartre

DePonte winemaker, Isabelle Dutartre, spent over 15 years producing critically acclaimed wines in both Burgundy and Oregon, and is acknowledged to be one of France’s leading experts in wine barrels. She now makes wine exclusively for DePonte, visiting several times a year from France, and giving expert guidance to Scott and the cellar crew.

Isabelle started her winemaking career at Maison Drouhin. After 10 years, she joined their Oregon venture, Domaine Drouhin where she worked alongside her close friend Veronique Drouhin to make 5 successive vintages of world class wine.

In 1998, she returned to France to raise a family and became a consultant for a French oak barrel producer. Her extensive knowledge of barrels and the contribution the correct barrel can make to a quality wine is a rare talent that adds to her winemaking skills.

She turned her sights back to Oregon and DePonte in 1999 at the invitation of her friend Buddy Beck.

Buddy Beck

“Vines have grown successfully on this site for over 30 years and we’ve taken the lessons they’ve taught us and applied new farming techniques to match the very best of all worlds – the new and the old, Oregon and Burgundy.” Buddy Beck

The Vineyards

The vineyard includes 3 acres of old vine Pinot Noir and 3 acres of Melon, headpruned Zinfandel-style. Buddy has devised a unique trellising system to open up the canopy and expose the grapes to air and sunlight. With only 450 vines to the acre (modern plantings are around 1450/acre) these ancient vines with their unknown root depth and gnarled trunks are remarkable for their drought tolerance and resistance to disease.

The DePonte Vineyard

The remaining 11 acres were planted to Pinot Noir in 1999 with clones and rootsock carefully selected to provide the best blending potential in the final wines.

In 2002, we refined our vineyard sources to focus on two distinct locations: our own estate fruit, and nearby Saga Hills, 7.5 acres of Pinot Noir located a stone’s throw away, and also planted by Buddy.

De Ponte Winery Pinot noir is bold, ripe, dark, rich, beautifully balanced, a scent of cherry pie with hints of cedar and spices leads to rich, big black berry and stone fruit flavors, with finegraine
...read more

We're fans of Deponte Cellars, and this lower priced second label from them is a real nice value. It's sinple, fruity, and balanced, an easy drinking everyday wine that goes well with a big salad, b
...read more >>

A bright, fruity 100% Pinot Noir Ros?. Fermented with the grape skins for less than 48 hours to give it it's beautiful color, refreshing with hints of strawberry and raspberry nuances on the pallet.
...read more

A really pleasant wine exuding apple and pear aromas with white peach and lemon notes, backed with plenty of racy acidity. Not overly concentrated, the overall impression is one of freshness and clari
...read more

Reproduction of any part of this site prohibited without permission.
For questions or assistance email Customer Service at store@avalonwine.com 541-752-7418