A few years ago, we changed the “about us” text on our back labels, replacing the poetic “misty shrouds” with a more fact-driven narrative to describe our special place, and the philosophy and practices that inform our stewardship of it.

Back labels on wine bottles are the rough equivalent of the “elevator pitch” in the business world: a very brief opportunity to state your position and/or make your case.  On the elevator, time is the limiting factor, and on the label it is space.  There is room for perhaps 50 words to tell the story:

Belle Pente (bell-pont) means “beautiful slope”, evoking our Yamhill-Carlton estate vineyard & winery, set on a historic 70 acre farm in Oregon’s bucolic Willamette Valley.  Combining traditional techniques like dry farming and livestock integration with innovative holistic management practices, we grow and produce high quality, authentic wines in a resilient, diverse agroecosystem.

So what does it all mean?

Our 70 acres is not a vineyard mono-culture; only 16 acres are currently planted to vines, and the plan is to never exceed 20.  The balance of the property includes pasture, native oak savanna, and a seasonal creek.  This provides a diverse natural buffer zone abundant in wild flora and fauna surrounding the vineyard.

Although we are not certified for anything, the baseline for our vineyard practices is organic dry farming.  For over 25 years, we have eschewed the use of herbicides for weed control, opting for more expensive and time consuming mechanical cultivation under the wine rows, supplemented by hand hoeing when necessary.

Disease control is achieved exclusively with organic substances like mineral oil, sulfur, and whey, supplemented with kelp, humic acid, and a tiny bit of copper.  This program is among the “softest” chemical uses in modern viticulture.

Borrowing from the tradition of bio-dynamics, we maintain a diverse, integrated farming operation which includes Kathadin and Dorper sheep, Highland cows, chickens, geese, and goats.  We also keep a few colonies of honey bees.  All play some role in supporting the winegrowing enterprise.

The sheep occupy the vineyard during the dormant season (November through March), grooming the aisles and headlands with their grazing, and fertilizing with their manure as they go.

The cows and goats patrol the outer periphery, feasting on wild blackberries, poison oak, and other vegetation.  They return to the barns frequently, which enables us to harvest their manure to make compost, combining it with the leftover grape skins, stems, and seeds.  This 100% “home grown” fertilizer then gets spread in the vineyard during the fall.

As the vineyard itself is by definition a mono-culture, we introduce diversity within it via a 9 year rotation of cover crops and native grasses in the aisles between the vine rows.  One aisle is maintained with permanent cover for 5 years, and the adjacent row is planted to a mix of Cayuse Oats and Crimson clover.

The 9 year rotation allows for a minimum of 80% “no till”, which along with our other practices are key elements of regenerative farming, an umbrella term which encompasses many of the things we’ve been doing for the last 25 years!

Winemaking is high intervention with low manipulation.  Small adjustments to acid and sugar levels are made as needed, and fermentation for Pinot Noir occurs with vineyard indigenous and ambient yeasts.  No other additives are used.

The winery is 100% gravity flow for reds (including bottling) allowing us to retain healthy levels of dissolved CO2 in the wines and reduce the amount of SO2 needed to preserve them.  Red wines are generally bottled unfined and unfiltered, and are held for an additional 6 months to 2 years prior to release.

I hope this post has been informative, and enhances your appreciation of the fruits of our labors!