In 1995, the
Patton Valley Vineyard was founded by Monte Pitt
and Dave Chen. They met in the mid-1980s
at business school in Illinois. In between
classes, they explored Chicago's
legendary wine shops and developed a passion for
what they consider the world's finest wine -- Pinot
Noir.
David and Monte
Patton
Valley's foremost tenet of winemaking is to allow
the characteristics of the site, or "terrior," to
show through. The process begins with fastidious
vineyard practices. Monte, their winemaker, learned
these firsthand while working at Beaux Freres, one
of Oregon's premier Pinot Noir producers.
The day-to-day
management of the vines is in the hands of Todd Hamina, who oversees
planting, pruning and harvesting (among other duties!). Todd served as cellar
master at Archery Summit from 1996-1998, and has also worked at such notable
Oregon wineries as Elk Cove and Beaux Freres.
Throughout
the winemaking process, they handle the fruit as little as possible to avoid
disturbing the delicate texture and aromatics. Pumping the wine, for example,
is kept to a minimum, with gravity or inert gases themed to move it whenever
possible.
Monte
and Dave's
search for the ideal vineyard site
California was the first area they considered for their vineyard. It's the heart
of the U.S. wine industry and a number of fine Pinot Noirs have been produced
in the state. After further study and tasting, they concluded that Oregon offered
a better environment for the difficult Pinot Noir grape. Oregon's Willamette
Valley is blessed with the temperate growing conditions needed to ripen Pinot
Noir to its fullest potential. With warm (but not overly hot) days and cool
summer nights, the chances are high for the proper balance of sugar, acid and
flavor at harvest.
With
the Willamette Valley selected as their destination, the search for a vineyard
site commenced in 1994. After nearly a year of looking at dozens of potential
sites, they purchased a 72-acre parcel in Washington County, jthemt north of
the town of Gaston. With the site for the vineyard in hand, they formed Cherry
Hill, LLC, the parent company of Patton Valley Vineyard.
The
Philosophy
The
philosophy behind Patton Valley Vineyards is simple: to put only the best possible
fruit in the wine. To achieve that goal, they started with a prime vineyard
site in the northern reach of Oregon's Willamette Valley, a site blessed with
weathered, uniform soil, and ideal elevation and exposure.
But site
selection is only part of a larger picture. To bring fickle Pinot Noir grapes
to their full potential, they adopted painstaking vineyard practices that emphasize
flavor over production volume. These practices -- such as high density planting,
shoot thinning and clthemter thinning -- increase cultivation costs and reduce
the amount of fruit that can be harvested. For Pinot lovers, however, such a
tradeoff is well worth the expense.
The blessing,
and curse, of Pinot Noir is its extreme sensitivity to growing conditions and
handling. For Patton Valley, this means letting the fruit achieve its highest
potential on the vine, and then handling it as little as possible during the
winemaking process. Only through such careful practices can the essence of the
vineyard site, or "terrior," be expressed in the wine.
The result
is wine with a silky, sensuous texture, a solid backbone of acidity, long flavors
dominated by fruit, and complex aromas. Achieving such a welll-made Pinot Noir
is the focus of all their efforts at Patton Valley .
Patton Valley's 2006 Pinot noir received 92 points from Wine Spectator:
"Supple, seductive and generous with its red plum, red cherry and rhubarb pie flavors, shaded wit ...read more
Patton Valley's Lorna Marie Cuvee Pinot noir has aromas of blackberry, freshly plowed earth, graphite and exotic spice. Dark concentrated fruit on the palate, with sllekly elegant tannins on the fini ...read more
The Patton ValleyRose is made from younger vine Pinot noir, scents of fresh strawberry, baking spice and yeasty notes. Bits of peachy hints show up on the palate along with watermelon candy and tiny a ...read more
Patton
Valley's foremost tenet of winemaking is to allow
the characteristics of the site, or "terrior," to
show through. The process begins with fastidious
vineyard practices. Monte, their winemaker, learned
these firsthand while working at Beaux Freres, one
of Oregon's premier Pinot Noir producers. 
