Fullerton Wines
About
The Oregon winery producing single vineyard Pinot Noir from every AVA in the Willamette Valley. Fullerton Wines explores the rich and varied AVAs of Oregon by expressing the distinct personality of each vineyard and vintage in the bottle. Bottling single vineyard pinot noirs from six of the hallmark nested AVAs, winemaker Alex Fullerton highlights the diversity of styles revealed through soil, micro-climate, and vintage variations. Explore this diversity with us via tour, tastings, or wine club membership.
Location Description
Located in the heart of NW Portland, Oregon in Nob Hill near The Pearl District.
Features
- Tasting flights, bottles, classes, private events, meat and cheese platters, tap beer
Additional Information
- Meeting / Conference Facilities:
- Caves:
- Wedding Facilities:
- Picnic Facilities:
- Dog Friendly:
- Winery Tours:
- Wine Tasting:
- Art or Architecture:
- Organic / Biodynamic:
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- Lodging / Bed & Breakfast:
Winemaker
Alex studied viticulture and enology at Oregon State University. Having already developed a substantial understanding of wine production, he took full advantage of his time in the classroom to further explore the art and science of winemaking. “I was able to delve deeper into the subject because of my experience, and more confidently focused on topics that interested and challenged me.” He strives to achieve a balance between his first-hand experience and his classroom knowledge in order to make authentic, age-worthy wines that speak the language of this place—the Willamette Valley.
As with many things, Alex believes less is more. Grapes can make wine naturally, with a little help from yeast of course. This reality, in conjunction with Alex's experience tasting hundreds of fermentations (both inoculated and spontaneous), guides him toward a preference for spontaneous fermentations. Additionally, Fullerton Wines eschews fining, resulting in vegan-friendly wines. Select wines will receive cross-flow filtration if they show they benefit from the process.
Alex's winemaking philosophy emanates from his respect for vineyard sites. Working as a guide, he helps the grapevines produce concentrated, balanced, and healthy fruit. Stylistically, Alex crafts elegant, distinctive, and age-worthy wines with lively acidity, graceful tannins, and a tight core of fruit, accompanied by layered secondary notes. The finished wines speak profoundly while reflecting the vineyard and the vintage. His style also enables the wines to evolve gracefully over time, and pair beautifully with food.
Practices & Techniques
Permanent cover cropping- We employ permanent cover crops in our Estate Vineyard, The Ivy Slope, to manage the vigor of our vines through water competition and to combat erosion and soil compaction through higher soil organic matter content leading to more stable soil aggregates and better infiltration and drainage. We employ nitrogen-fixing legumes in our cover crops when needed by the vines and rely on other cover crops to both make available nutrients to the vines and to scavenge excess nutrients keeping them in our vineyard instead of allowing them to leach away into the groundwater.
Organic fertilizers- While organic fertilizers are not very available to the plants immediately and requiring much more volume for the same amount of nutrients compared to synthetic fertilizers, we love the tremendous amounts of benefits we get over using inorganic nutrients compared with organic nutrient sources, such as compost. Synthetic fertilizer salts can lead to build-up of salts in the soil, which both grapevines and soil structure are very sensitive to. Organic fertilizers such as compost, however, contain many carbon-based compounds that, when added back to the earth, improves the health of soil instead of harming it. Best of all, compost can be made on an individual farm with ingredients from the farm, meaning that you don’t have to purchase a product from off of the farm making it more self-sustainable.
Estate Vineyards / AVA
Our ½ acre parcel of Chardonnay, planted on Susanne and Eric’s property in Beaverton, Ivy Slope Vineyard rests on a very steep slope once covered by English Ivy. 468 grapevines and over 100 roses call the terraced Ivy Slope Vineyard home. The vineyard started with 20 vines of Davis 108 clone, and a year later Dijon clones 76, 95, and 96 completed the planting. The first significant crop was harvested on September 15, 2014. The fruit shows great promise.
Estate Ivy Slope Vineyard in dappled morning lightElevation: 500 to 525 ft.
Clones: Dijon 76, 95, 96, and Davis 108
Exposure: Southeast
Soil: Cornelius
AVA: Willamette Valley
Fruit used in the following wines: Lux Chardonnay (first vintage in 2015)
Apolloni Vineyard
Fantastic attention to detail combines with an excellent north valley site to produce compelling and balanced fruit. LIVE and Salmon Safe certified.
Elevation: 350-600 ft.
Clones: 667, 777, Pommard, Chard 76
Exposure: South/Southwest/Southeast
Soil: Melbourne
AVA: Willamette Valley
Fruit used in the following wines: Five FACES Chardonnay, Five FACES Pinot Noir
Bella Vida Vineyard
Perched high in the heart of the Dundee Hills, this picturesque vineyard provides elegant fruit from the storied Jory soils of the AVA. LIVE certified.
Bella Vida Vineyard in the Dundee Hills of Oregon
Elevation: 600-700 ft.
Clones: 113, 667, 777
Exposure: South/Southwest
Soil: Jory
AVA: Dundee Hills
Fruit used in the following wines: Bella Vida Vineyard Pinot Noir (first vintage in 2015)
Bennett Vineyard
This mid-valley site provides beautifully raised fruit passed from one family to another.
Elevation: 400-500 ft.
Clones: 115, 777, Pommard
Exposure: East/Southeast/Northeast
Soil: Bellpine
AVA: Willamette Valley
Fruit used in the following wines: Bennett Vineyard Pinot Noir, Three Otters Pinot Noir (first vintage in 2015)
Croft Vineyards
Located outside of Monmouth, south of the Eola-Amity Hills AVA, Croft Vineyards organically farms two distinct sites. The main Croft Vineyard sits on a long, gradual, southeast facing slope while the Croft-Williamson Vineyard sits on a steep southwest facing slope. The soils are primarily Bellpine Series with small inclusions of other soil types, such as Willakenzie and Jory. Both Croft Vineyard sites sit within a slightly warmer microclimate protected from the Van Duzer Winds by the Coast Range and surrounding hills. Croft yields concentrated, deeply colored wines with red and dark berry notes alongside aromas of spice, and damp, lush pine forest.
Pinot Noir hanging in Croft VineyardCroft-Main
Elevation: 400-500 ft.
Clones: 115 and Pommard
Exposure: Southeast
Soil: Bellpine
AVA: Willamette Valley
Croft-Williamson
Elevation: 500-600 ft.
Clones: Wädenswil
Exposure: Southwest
Soil: Bellpine
AVA: Willamette Valley
Fruit used in the following wines: Croft Vineyard Pinot Noir, Five FACES Pinot Noir
Fir Crest Vineyard
A dry farmed and LIVE certified vineyard in the western Yamhill-Carlton AVA, we source from one block of 30-year-old vines and one block of 23-year-old vines for our Fir Crest Pinot Noir. This site produces Pinot Noir akin to a wise sage speaking profoundly and melodiously. The well-draining sedimentary soil derives from ancient sea floor—a stunning site all-around.
Elevation: 250-400 ft.
Clones: 115 and Pommard
Exposure: South/Southeast
Soil: Willakenzie
AVA: Yamhill-Carlton
Fruit used in the following wines: Fir Crest Pinot Noir, Five FACES Pinot Noir
Keleri Vineyard
Situated about a third of the way up Bald Peak in the Chehalem Mountains AVA, Keleri Vineyard houses 3 blocks of Pommard Clone Pinot Noir, and a small section of Chardonnay planted to a smattering of different clones. The classic red Jory soils yield bright, red fruited wines with stunning structure and pure flavors.
Elevation: 600-700 ft.
Clones: Pommard, Dijon Chardonnay, and Wente Chardonnay
Exposure: South
Soil: Jory
AVA: Chehalem Mountains
Fruit used in the following wines: Five FACES Pinot Noir, Five FACES Chardonnay, Three Otters Rosé
Lichtenwalter Vineyard
On the western slope of the south-facing Ribbon Ridge sits the lovely Lichtenwalter Vineyard. Here Willakenzie soils, derived from ancient sedimentary seabed, coax black fruits and concentrated spices out of the wines.
Phoebe in Lichtenwalter Vineyard in the Ribbon Ridge AVA of Oregon
Elevation: 350-400 ft.
Clones: 777
Exposure: South/Southwest
Soil: Willakenzie
AVA: Ribbon Ridge
Fruit used in the following wines: Lichtenwalter Vineyard Pinot Noir, Five FACES Pinot Noir (first vintage in 2015)
Momtazi Vineyard
A Biodynamic vineyard in the McMinnville AVA, the site benefits from long, warm days. However, it is also one of the first vineyards in the Willamette Valley to cool down every evening due to its proximity to the Van Duzer Corridor, which funnels cold, coastal winds into the valley. We source from four blocks: 777 clone from the very heights of the vineyard, a steep block of 115 on the hillside, 113 from the bottom of the slopes, and 114 from around the pond at the northeastern part of the vineyard. A mix of sedimentary and volcanic soils, Momtazi Vineyard provides ripe flavors of dark berries and Eastern spices, backed by firm tannins and lively acidity.
Biodynamic Momtazi Vineyard in the McMinnville AVA of the Willamette Valley
Elevation: 500-800 ft.
Clones: 115 and 777
Exposure: South/Southeast
Soil: Sedimentary/volcanic
AVA: McMinnville
Fruit used in the following wines: Momtazi Vineyard Pinot Noir, Five FACES Pinot Noir
Mystery Vineyard
High in the Eola-Amity Hills, this vineyard and winery owner rarely sells fruit. When they do, producers cannot state the source. What you can know is that the fruit we receive from this Mystery Vineyard consistently produces world-class Chardonnay.
Elevation: 700 ft.
Clones: Dijon 76
Exposure: Southeast
Soil: Nekia and Jory
AVA: Eola-Amity Hills
Fruit used in the following wines: Lux Chardonnay (first vintage in 2015)
Awards
http://www.fullertonwines.com/press