Morgen Long

Morgen Long is the singular project of Seth Morgen Long, who set out to do something no one else in Oregon had: build an entire winery around Willamette Valley Chardonnay. Established in 2014 and named for his family, Morgen from his mother’s side and Long from his father’s, the label has quickly become one of the most talked-about names in Oregon white wine.

Seth came to wine through food, working in Oregon kitchens and training as a sommelier before his first harvest in 2009. What followed was a deliberate education in cool-climate whites, with cellar time in New Zealand, Oregon, and most importantly Burgundy, where he worked at Domaine de Montille in Meursault. That experience became his blueprint. Reverence for the vineyard, he says, is what he carried home.

Every wine is Chardonnay, drawn from some of the Willamette Valley’s most respected sites, many of them in the Eola-Amity Hills, including Temperance Hill, Witness Tree, and Durant. The fruit is handpicked and pressed with care, fermented with native yeasts, and raised in French oak barrels and puncheons before extended aging on the lees. The wines are typically bottled unfined and unfiltered, transparent and mineral, built for the long haul.

Production is small and visits are limited, generally by appointment in the warmer months at the Newberg winery. For travelers who love white Burgundy and want to see where Oregon Chardonnay is headed, Morgen Long is essential: a focused, sincere expression of one grape, one region, and one winemaker’s conviction.