About Benton-Lane Winery
Steve and Carol Girard were high school sweethearts from the California Bay Area who had already built a winery once - Girard, in the Napa Valley - when Pinot Noir changed their plans. Convinced that California was the wrong place to make it, they spent about five years researching and touring Oregon before settling on a stretch of the Coast Range foothills in the southern Willamette Valley.
What they found was Sunnymount Ranch, an old sheep farm near the village of Monroe that had taken its name more than a century earlier from Prairie Peak, the hill to its west that shelters it from winter storms. The site sits above the valley fog and below the windy hilltops on Jory and Bellpine soils, and the winery's name simply records that it straddles Benton and Lane counties.
They bought in 1988 and planting began the next year. The first Benton-Lane wine was made in 1991 and drunk mostly by friends and family; the first commercial vintage, 1992, was made at another winery, an arrangement that continued until their own facility - designed by architect Rob Thallon to sit quietly in the farmland around it - was finished in 1997.
Today the estate runs to 317 acres of which around 140 are planted, much of it to Pinot Noir across several clones with Chardonnay alongside, and many vines dating to 1991. Soils are a mix of sedimentary and volcanic, the surrounding mountains create a rain shadow, and gaps in the Coast Range funnel cool air through in summer. Wines are aged ten to fifteen months in French oak, the farming is Salmon Safe with organic and biodynamic practice, and the patio looks out over the vineyard.
They left Napa, spent years searching, and settled on an old sheep ranch.
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Napa vintners who moved north,Steve and Carol Girard founded Girard in the Napa Valley before deciding Oregon was the right place for Pinot Noir.
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A century-old sheep ranch,Sunnymount was named for Prairie Peak, which shelters the site from winter storms and puts it above the valley fog.
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Named for two counties,the estate straddles Benton and Lane, which is where the winery got its name.
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Vines from 1991,around 140 of the 317 acres are planted, much of it original Pinot Noir on sedimentary and volcanic soils.
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Purpose-built winery,architect Rob Thallon designed the 1997 winery to fit the agricultural character of the surrounding land.
"They left Napa, spent years searching, and settled on an old sheep ranch."
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Wines change with each vintage
For an accurate list of current-release wines and library bottlings from Benton-Lane Winery, please check the winery's official website or contact the tasting room directly. Willamette Valley producers typically rotate vintages and offerings seasonally.
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