Brittan
Brittan
Oregon, USA
Brittan
COUNTRY
United States
REGION
Oregon
sub Region
Willamette Valley
Appellation
McMinnville AVA
Climate
Moderate Maritime
WineMaker
Robert Brittan & Emily Terrell, Associate Winemaker
FARMING PractICes
Organic
WEBSITE / SOCIAL
https://www.brittanvineyards.com/
The History
Robert Brittan left Stags’ Leap Winery in Napa after 16 years as Winemaker and Estate Manager to fulfill his dream of making Pinot Noir and Syrah from unique sites in cooler climates. His winemaking career began in his dorm room at Oregon State University, where he was a physics and philosophy major.
With 45 years of experience growing grapes and making wine, he brings a significant amount of viticultural and winemaking knowledge to Brittan Vineyards.
While Robert oversees the vineyard and winemaking, his partner in life and business Ellen manages the business operations for Brittan Vineyards.
Ellen has always had a passion for food and wine, so after spending the first twenty years of her career working in Financial Services, she finally decided to give up the corporate world to do something she would do even if she didn’t get paid to do it.
The Philosophy
It took years to find the ideal site on which to grow Pinot Noir but after an exhaustive search, Brittan Vineyards began on an 128-acre hillside in Oregon in December 2004.
At that time, there were 18 acres of existing vines. However, close to 50% has subsequently been re-planted in order to fine-tune the viticultural practices and improve the clonal and rootstock combinations. This included one of the first plantings of the Swan clonal selection of Pinot Noir in Oregon.
After dropping all of the crop in 2005 to allow the vines to get better established, the first two Pinot Noirs from the mature vines on the property came from the 2006 vintage, a total of 720 cases.
In the spring of 2008, an additional 3.5 acres of Pinot Noir were planted, which are now in production— the rocky soils and low water retention often means that it takes five years for a vine to get into production.
In addition to the Pinot, 4 acres of Chardonnay and 1.5 acres of Syrah have been planted. These are two varietals that benefit greatly from a cool growing climate.
The site which sits atop a mixture of glacial deposits and volcanic material, with a predominant presence of broken basalt has indeed proven to be the perfect place to grow grapes in the Pacific Northwest.
WINES FROM THIS PRODUCER
150+ Producers worldwide
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