Raptor Ridge owners Trade High Technology
for deep forest and hand-crafted wines

By Christina Kelly

Nestled atop a heavily forested ridge in the Chehalem Mountains, Raptor Ridge Winery owners Scott and Annie Shull shed their high technology cloaking for a simpler country life. The Shulls share their winery with the Raptors living on their 12 acres.

When Raptor Ridge was founded, Scott worked for Intel during the day, spending the rest of his waking moments, including weekends, on his wines - Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, and Chardonnay. The winery produces a little over 2,000 cases per year.

“We want to stay at the boutique level,” said Annie. “There is something very magical about this place and we want to keep it that way. It is like living in paradise we are so blessed.”

Annie moved from St. Paul, Minnesota to Oregon sixteen years ago, where she met her future husband Scott at Intel. As a marketing consultant, Annie worked a more creative side of the industry, but said she always wanted to have her own business.

“I’ve always been interested in having a family business,” she said. “I have an entrepreneurial spirit, and am a country girl at heart.”

Everything fell into place when she and Scott met. A strategic and business planner for Intel, Scott spent his free time making beer, keeping bees and learning about fermentation science. Prior to meeting Annie, a friend introduced him to winemaking about 11 years ago. He offered his first commercial wine in 1995.

“When I first moved out to Chehalem Mountain, many of my neighbors were wine grape growers,” Scott said. “I started out making wine as a hobby in 1989, then I got bit by the bug. I joined the Westside Winemakers Club, where we would get together for the love of wine.”

After the Shulls were married in 1998, the couple focused on a business plan that allowed Annie to leave the high tech industry and dedicate her efforts to the winery marketing, distribution and planning. In October each year, friends and family come together to help the winery with the crush.

In a state with a reputation for good Pinot Noir, Raptor Ridge stands on its small production and attention to details nurturing, babysitting and coaxing each barrel produced. Scott says his wines have something a little extra his hand-crafted care and attention.

“Friends tell me that there’s nothing like hand-crafted wines,” Scott said. “They have a unique flavor, aroma and texture. Wines made in mass can be lovely, but they miss something. I concentrate on every single barrel in our winery. It’s just not possible to do that when you produce mass quantities.”

Raptor Ridge (so called because the estate is shared with such birds of prey as Red-tailed hawks, kestrels and owls) wines are aged in French oak, and Scott takes a minimalist approach to the grapes. All the grapes are purchased from growers in the area, although the couple hopes to purchase property more conducive to grape-growing in the future.

Several single vineyard Pinot Noir wines come from Raptor Ridge: Meredith Mitchell, Story Moountain, Harbinger, Yamhill Springs, and Shea Vineyards. Raptor Ridge has made a Shea Pinot noir since 1998.

Scott is very interested in terroir the soil together with the climatic conditions of a district or vineyard. Oregon, he says, is a very young wine country, and as such, has not fully developed the concept of terroir.

He points out the fact that Oregon wineries are producing other good wines, besides Pinot Noir, but are not getting as much notice.

“Oregon Merlots and Cabernet Sauvignons are overshadowed by California,” Scott said. “And Oregon Chardonnay gets no respect. Our growers are learning, as we all are.

“We are not yet a wine culture in this country, but over the next 20 years, if things go as they are, there will room at the table for other wines. If there is more room, the romantic part of winemaking will meet with the economic side.”

To keep a steady pace of growth, Annie says the younger generations need to learn wine appreciation.

“Baby boomers aren’t always going to be around,” Annie said. “We’ve got to teach the generations coming up about the appreciation of fine wine so we have an audience in the future.”

The winery is open only by appointment. The Shulls don’t mind sharing a bit of their paradise with those who appreciate the time-consuming efforts of a boutique winery. And, when the fog lifts from the Chehalem Mountains, visitors may get a glimpse of the other families sharing the ridge the noble raptors.

ABOUT RAPTOR RIDGE WINERY

In each vintage year, Raptor Ridge produces about 2000 cases of wines using traditional Burgundian winemaking techniques. High quality is the focus, not higher quantities. Raptor Ridge shares a twelve-acre estate with families of Raptors (buteos and accipiters)- birds of prey such as Redtail Hawks, Kestrels and Sharp-Shinned Hawks. We are nestled atop a heavily forested ridge in the Chehalem moutains 25 miles southwest of Portland, Oregon.

The owners comment: "our foggy ridge is ideally suited to a naturally cool winemaking regime important in capturing delicate aromas and flavors. Our wines age in French oak with racking in synchrony with the full moon. Our goal is to deliver in our wines all of the natural flavor, delicate aromas and beauty offered by Oregon's Willamette Valley winegrowing region".

ABOUT THE VINEYARDS
OF RAPTOR RIDGE

Raptor ridge purchases grapes from ten vineyards in Oregon's Willamette Valley. Shea Vineyard, located between the small towns of Carlton and Yamill in the Willakenzie area, has supplied Raptor Ridge with Pinot noir grapes for ten years. Located high in the Red Hills of Dundee, Murto Vineyard provides some intensely spiced Pinot Noir grown in volcanic, Jory soils. Susan Meredith and Frank Mitchell's Meredith Mitchell Vineyard is located 10 miles southwest of McMinnville, Oregon in the Coastal Mountain range. Soils are a thin Yamhill variety, with broken basalt scattered throughout. Low yields, rocky soil, and pronounced ripeness with driving acidity contribute to a jammy intensity.

Raptor Ridge also makes wines from Coeur de Terre, Bellevue Cross, Harbinger, David Hill, Hawk's View, Stony Mountain, and Yamhill Springs Vineyards.

RAPTOR RIDGE
WINEMAKING PHILOSOPHY

Scott Schull describes his winemaking: "Our winemaking philosophy has two tenets: one committing the winemaker to deep personal involvement with the vines and every barrel of wine; the other balancing science with tradition. Our approach to winemaking focuses as much on the vineyard as it does the cellar".

Winemaker Scott Shull is personally involved alongside growers and field hands in pruning, trellising, cluster counting, cluster thinning, leaf pulling, quality monitoring, and all harvest decisions. Uniquely, during harvest, Scott is in the field picking fruit alongside seasonal workers, and personally transports the wine grapes back to Raptor Ridge were he oversees the "crush." Family and friends are involved in processing the fruit into fermentation vats while Scott personally adjusts nutrients, inoculation, fermentation processes, and wine handling procedures.

It's Scott's philosophy to intervene as little as possible in the miracle of wine, while employing a full knowledge of fermentation science only to avoid diminishment of quality or removal of flaws.