Cramoisi Vineyard

It is our joy to share with you our passion for wine growing and harnessing the beauty and brilliance of nature.  Our adventure started in 2012, when we planted the first blocks of the vineyard. We fell in love with the French word Cramoisi that translates to crimson in English.  The name Cramoisi, embodies the delightful crimson clover that blankets the vineyard every spring. Vibrant, elegant, and earthy; Cramoisi reflects the color, beauty and complexity of our wines.  Our vineyard is situated in the Dundee Hills, the birthplace of the wine industry in the Willamette Valley where the Oregon wine pioneers first planted their vines over 50 years ago.

The French term “terroir”, refers not only to the soil, but to a vineyard’s own special environment (weather, diversity of plants, soil and a largely unexplored microbial world within the soil).  Terroir is the essence of uniqueness and Pinot Noir delivers a deep and special expression of where it grows.  Our soils are unique in the Dundee Hills because they consist of an expansive range of the volcanic soils.  The Jory soil widely associated with the Dundee Hills is very deep, almost rock free, and well drained. Cramoisi Vineyard consists of this typical Dundee Hills Jory and very shallow rocky soils and everything in between.  The shallowest and rockiest soil is known as Ritner and the medium depth soils are known as Nekia and Saum.  This variety of soils adds to the complexity of Cramoisi’s Pinot Noirs.  After exhaustive research, we matched rootstocks and clones to the wide variety of soils to capture the best possible expressions of Pinot Noir from our vineyard site.

We have 11 blocks of Pinot Noir, all of which are unique soil and clone/rootstock combinations.  Our clones are a mix of the best clones from Oregon’s first Pinot plantings (Pommard), The Dijon clones imported from Burgundy (667, 777) and more rare Heirloom/Heritage clones such as “Holstein” and Vosne Romanee (clone 122). The Dundee Hills is special because they are one of only two sets of hills that sit completely inside the Willamette Valley versus being located on the mountain foothills at the valley’s edge.  This offers optimal cold air drainage during the colder fringes of the growing season in spring and fall.  Cramoisi Vineyard sits perfectly between 500-600 feet of elevation in the middle of the slope where you would typically find a Grand Cru.

Cramoisi Vineyard’s farming philosophy follows ancient practices to work in balance with Mother Nature, growing the best possible boutique, ultra-premium wines in the Dundee Hills AVA of Oregon.