- Mist settles on our Coast Range vineyard during harvest
Purchased in 2003 and planted in March 2005, the steep and rocky 22-acre Coast Range Estate vineyard is planted on a 100 year-old cattle ranch located in the southwestern corner of the Yamhill-Carlton AVA. Once the homestead for the entire surrounding area, the site still houses the original turn-of-the-century farmhouse.
After buying the property, James’ parents decided it was time to retire and moved into a single room within the farmhouse, began the difficult work of restoring the historic dwelling room-by-room to its original condition, and simultaneously oversaw the work necessary to prepare the twenty-five areas that would become Trisaetum’s first vineyard. A year later, James and Andrea began work on a second home at the top of the property for their family.
- Layers of basalt rocks found at the Coast Range Estate
The vineyard is planted at a density that is traditional for Oregon with 4 x 7 spacing, resulting in 1,556 vines per acre. Eighteen acres are planted in thirteen different blocks of the Pinot Noir clones Pommard, Wädensvil, Dijon 777, Dijon 115, and Dijon 114. The four remaining planted acres are dedicated to Riesling.
Once under the Pacific Ocean, the soils in the vineyard have been estimated to be approximately fifty-five million years old. In the vineyard, the base Willakenzie soil, common to the Coast Range, is strewn with intrusive volcanic nodules ranging in size from baseballs to that of large boulders. Over millions of years, the weathering of these volcanic nodules has produced areas of rocky Nekia and deep Jory soils within the lower elevations of the vineyard.
