Phelps Creek Vineyard
& Winery
Phelps Creek wines are
made from Phelps Creek Vineyard and other Oregon
vineyard fruit. The winemaker is Peter Rosback,
the owner is Robert Morus.

The Columbia Gorge
AVA is really hitting its stride and grower
Bob Morus’ vineyard
is among the best in the Hood River Valley.
The cool marine weather from the Oregon coast
and valley meets the warm desert air over the
Hood River valley making for a unique cool
weather climate perfect for apples, pears and
grapes. Bob’s vineyard is
on the west side of the valley that in years
past, the pear growers avoided due to the poor
soils. Those soils happened to be just
perfect for growing grapes. Seventy five
feet of volcanic loam, called Oak Grove Loam
make up the majority of the soil, mixed in
with a fair amount of clay. Not a rock
in sight though.

Fifteen of the
60 acres were planted in 1990 with a combination
of Pommard and Dijon clone Pinot noir and
four acres of Chardonnay. An
underlying minerality is a hallmark of this
vineyard in both Pinot noir and Chardonnay. Rosback
has Morus crop Sineann’s Pinot noir blocks
to a ton and a half per acre, which results
in a concentrated wine with notes of blue fruit,
dark cherry and a coco/tobacco notes. The
Chardonnay, cropped to two tons per acre, when
fermented in stainless steel has a bright Myers
lemon quality to it and when oaked, tropical
pineapple notes although Rosback has almost
completely forsaken barrel aged Chardonnay
in favor of 100% stainless steel renditions. Recently
fifteen acres have been leased in adjoining
land taking the vineyard to 30 planted acres.

When the Willamette
Valley was hammered with hot weather in 2003
or wet weather in 2005, the Hood River Valley
and the Columbia Gorge AVA continued to produce
stellar and consistent fruit that rivals
the Willamette Valley. Keep
an eye on this AVA as the wines coming out
of this area will only continue to improve.
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