Willamette Valley Vineyards announces a new planned Winery in Dundee Hills

Willamette Valley Vineyards, Inc., a leading Pinot Noir producer in Oregon, announced that it plans on building a new winery in the Dundee Hills close to the Company’s new boutique, dedicated sparkling winery at Bernau Estate Vineyard. 

This new winemaking facility is intended to become the Company’s primary location for the production and bottling of the Company’s various brands, and is expected to be built on 40 acres in the Dundee Hills AVA adjacent to Highway 99 that the Company purchased four years ago. “We believe this property is well-suited for supporting the production and bottling of the multiple brands of our enterprise including Willamette Valley Vineyards and additional quantities of our Domaine Willamette méthode champenoise sparkling brand, which we expect to launch in late Spring of 2022,” stated Winery Director Christine Clair.

Company founder and CEO Jim Bernau explained “Our winery in the Salem Hills has served us well over the past 34 years, but we believe we have simply outgrown its original design. We produced 175,000 cases at this winery last year on-site and are expecting continued increases in demand in the coming years as our restaurant and retail placements expand and our planned new winery restaurants are built in local communities. We felt that we needed a new, more modern production facility in order to meet this anticipated increase in demand.”

The Company has engaged Steve Martin Associates of Sonoma County, California to assist in the planning, design and development of this winemaking facility.

The Company has also announced that it is looking for candidates to fill a newly established Director of Winemaking and Vineyards position that will report to the Company’s Winery Director. The Company’s Director of Winemaking and Vineyards is expected to be responsible for the operations of the Company’s wineries and vineyards, which currently includes a team of 65 full and part-time employees and consists of 16 vineyards owned or leased by the Company totaling 490 producing acres. The new Director of Winemaking and Vineyards will also be expected to develop new estate vineyards and produce new brands and products, as well as oversee the planning, building and development of the planned expansion facility.