Hamacher Wines

Eric Hamacher never intended to enter the winemaking business; his plan was to study medicine. But a discussion with a close family friend, a doctor, caused him to question his career choice. As he considered switching his path, many family friends in the wine industry offered their input. One invited Eric to Sonoma to work the harvest.

Eric found the labor fun and enjoyed how everyone worked toward a common goal. The family-oriented lifestyle attracted him, as did the seriousness of the curriculum at UC Davis. It quickly became apparent that winemaking was an intellectual pursuit.

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More About Hamacher Wines

at right, Eric Hamacher on the Carlton Winemakers Studio processing floor

When he arrived in Oregon in the 1990s, he held a degree in viticulture and enology from UC Davis, and extensive winemaking knowledge gained from working 15 vintages numerous wineries around the world. Each winery, be it Mondavi, Chalone, Etude or others helped shape Eric's wine making style, almost all nudged him further and further in his pursuit of the perfect Pinot Noir and, ultimately, to Oregon, Pinot's Promised Land.

These experiences provided Eric with a new winery concept: the multiple winery facility. Eric's theory was that larger wineries with excess space could lease cellar space and equipment to smaller wineries in need of facilities benefiting both wineries. After considerable time and effort on his part, legislation was passed in Oregon and Eric's concept of a multiple winery facility became a reality.

What is important to Eric today is making the best wines he can while having a sustainable life and consistently doing things that are important to him. He and his family live on a 40-acre farm near Gaston in a historic farmhouse that has been in the Ponzi family for nearly half a century.

From the winery:

Winemaker Eric Hamacher founded Hamacher Wines with his wife Luisa Ponzi in 1995. Their objective was simple: to handcraft high quality Pinot Noir and Chardonnay wines. By letting this goal guide the winery, it has, in less than a decade, become one of the most respected and sought after of Oregon's many great producers. The relatively small winery, which produces only 2,000 cases a year, is featured in nearly a dozen markets in the U.S. and exported around the world.

Hamacher Wines produces small quantities of both Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. In each vintage the goal is to craft wines of elegance, supple texture and balance. Hamacher makes his wines traditionally, with minimal intervention and handling, using wild yeast and bacteria, aging for almost a year and a half in barrel before racking by gas pressure, and blending and bottling by gravity.

" My attempt is to sculpt consistently complete wines through close management of the vineyards and careful blending at the winery. I believe the best wines are still made by resisting the temptation to do something. Good grapes with gentle and minimal handling describes my winemaking philosophy."

View of the Carlton Winemakers Studio through piles of "must",
the solid grape seeds and skins left after crushing.
A typical late fall misty rainy day in the Willamette Valley

The "pad" at Carlton Winemakers Studio, where grapes are unloaded, sorted,
and moved via gravity feed into the winery for processing.
Finished practically as the grapes arrived at the dock,
the winemakers report that it performed well during its first (2002) harvest.

View of Carlton Winemakers Studio from Cuneo Cellars
on a misty rainy November day in 2002.