Description

In 1971, Ginny and David Adelsheim purchased the 19 acres that would become Quarter Mile Lane Vineyard. They shared a dream with a handful of families that Oregon’s climate and land could one day produce serious wines. A home was built, vines planted, and in 1978, the first commercial wines were produced. Over four decades, Adelsheim Vineyard grew up with Oregon’s wine industry. Our passion has only gained strength as our early dreams have become reality. Much of the credit is due to a team of talented, driven professionals who have joined us. They know that raising the bar with every growing season requires ceaseless attention to detail Рfrom managing the crop size vine by vine to controlling 180 individual Pinot noir fermenters Рwhile staying focused on the big picture. At our core, we are about crafting wines in a style consistent with our place. We combine traditional and state-of-the-art techniques to produce wines that show elegance, complexity, balance, and richness in their aromas, flavors, and texture. In 1994, Lynn and Jack Loacker became co-owners of our company. They helped us re-envision our company so that we could become financially viable while not losing sight of our dreams. That financial stability has allowed us to expand our vineyard holdings in the Chehalem Mountains (and beyond) and to build a winery in which the envisioned quality can be realized. As our company traverses its fifth decade, there will be changes.
Oregon’s pioneer winegrowers planted using selections of Chardonnay that had been chosen for California’s climate. They were very late ripening Рin Oregon, two or three weeks after Pinot noir. In 1974, David Adelsheim worked harvest in Burgundy and realized that the vines there produced fewer and smaller grape clusters and ripened in tandem with Pinot noir. He suspected that planting clones with these characteristics might be a boon for Oregon’s wine industry. David followed through by helping create a system at Oregon State University that dealt with all the red tape and mandatory quarantines and allowed both Chardonnay and Pinot noir clones to be imported. These so-called “Dijon” clones were eventually released for planting in 1989. As the vines have matured, we’ve found we can produce excitingly rich Chardonnay withminimal influence from oak.