L etters

The Background

We didn’t really drink much wine prior to visiting the Willamette Valley in mid-2018. It was of course present throughout different moments of our lives, but it held very little meaning. Or at least it felt like that at the time. Upon returning home to Charlotte, NC following that first trip out to the Willamette Valley – a day later than expected, and a story for another time – a couple of things stood out to us: the people and place. We felt an instant connection to both and jokingly dreamed of someday being a part of this community and living amidst the unrivaled beauty of the Pacific Northwest. Over the years that followed, wine became the conduit to pushing us closer to that dream. Or maybe those dreams became the conduit for leading us into wine. Either way, it was just a couple of short years later we came to a crossroads and made the decision to move across the country to attempt to turn our hazy dreams into our hopefully increasingly clear reality. Less than a year after, those dreams began to crystallize when we found our new home – a 30-year-old vineyard nestled in the foothills of the Oregon Coast Range. We immediately recognized the potential of Cancilla Vineyard from the first moment we stepped foot out here – the marine sedimentary soils capable of both beauty and power, a special mix of elevations and exposures, all cooled by the persistent daily winds that blow in from the Pacific Ocean just 40 miles to the west. Despite this, we initially tried everything we could to talk ourselves out of it. Change is hard. But in late 2021, we finally were home, humbled to become the next caretakers of this special site.

Before we talk about the wines, we wanted to detail a few of the guiding lights of our project:

• Humility and Intentionality.

  • Farming and winemaking are relatively new to us. This is not something we hide behind, but rather something that we embrace. We approach all decisions humbly and intentionally, ensuring that we rely on the generous knowledge of others and our own relentless work ethic to approach all decisions, big or small. The details always matter. We’ll make mistakes and learn and then make new mistakes and learn again. But we will be unrelenting listeners and learners, always striving to create something magical in both the vineyard and winery.

• Farming is always first.

  • Cancilla Vineyard has been farmed organically for a decade. We view organic farming as a floor, as we seek to explore and incorporate concepts from organics, regenerative agriculture, grazing-based viticulture, and biodynamics into our practices. We want to close as many loops on the farm as possible and bring back native plants and animals to increase biodiversity and overall farm and vineyard health. Some of these projects will be short-term while others will take time. Nature moves slowly and where necessary, so will we. We unapologetically believe great wine is made in the vineyard – healthy, biodiverse vineyards – and our focus on that will never stray.

• Minimal Intervention Winemaking.

  • While the overuse and rhetoric around the phrases “minimal intervention” and “natural winemaking” are a discourse for another time, we have always found that our favorite wines are made in more of a hands-off approach, truly highlighting the fruit and the vintage. We less “make” the wine and more guide and respond to it at each step of the process. We add nothing to our wines aside from minimal and targeted sulfur additions, and only where necessary, and work to never fine or filter unless the wine calls for it.

• Minimal New Oak Usage.

  • We want the wines to be as transparent of time and place as possible, which we feel the overuse of new oak is in opposition to. This approach also allows us to continue to learn and assess the vineyard in the most transparent way possible – block by block, row by row – to ensure that any decisions on potentially using new oak in the future are less about hiding or conforming and more about accentuating.

• Additive to Place.

  • We put thought and care into all of our actions and inactions. Our goal is to always be additive to both place and people. This means stewarding this land in the most thoughtful way possible, being intentional about sustainable bottles and packaging, and always working to build and better the community around us.

The 2021 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir

The first wine in our initial release is the 2021 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir. We didn’t farm Cancilla Vineyard in 2021 but unexpectedly received two tons of fruit from it towards the end of the 2021 growing season. We were both excited and overwhelmed as we scrambled to prepare and figure out what to do with two tons of fruit. Would our lease in Portland at the time allow us to make wine in the basement? Spoiler: no. Should we do it anyway? Through the help of friends in the wine industry, that second question became moot, and we ended up at Methven Family Winery in Dayton, where we’d guide both the 2021 and 2022 vintages of Throughline Wines.

The 2021 Pinot Noir grapes were harvested on September 29th, an idyllic Oregon fall day, with moody skies providing cool, misty weather, as clouds settled throughout the vineyard. Cancilla Vineyard has 11 vineyard “blocks” containing their own grape variety and clonal material – six different pinot noir clones and two different chardonnay clones. Our 2021 fruit came from a single block – block 11 – and thus a single clone – Pommard. Upon getting the grapes to the winery, we decided to keep ~15% whole cluster, placing them at the bottom of the fermenters, before destemming the remaining grapes on top in open top fermenters. The wines underwent a natural cold soak for two days before kicking off primary fermentation, which finished a few weeks later on October 24th. We pressed the grapes that day, before putting them into six neutral French oak barrels – a mixture of 3rd and 4th fills – to age. Throughout the next two years we topped up the barrels and tasted through them, searching for the moment to blend and bottle them. Once we felt they were ready, we underwent several days of blind blending – attempting to remove our own biases about the individual barrels – before settling on the final blend. At the end of the day, the final blend used 5 of the 6 barrels, and were bottled on September 13th, 2023. Each bottle was then waxed by hand – both ours and friends – as the wines bottle-conditioned in preparation for this release.

The 2021 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir flashes the beauty and strength of Cancilla Vineyard, highlighting the exciting potential of this site. A mixture of red and black fruits come together with hints of spice and black tea, wrapped amidst a chorus of acidity and persistent tannic structure.

The 2022 Cortell Rose Vineyard Gamay Noir

The second wine in the release is from the more recent 2022 vintage. We were offered to purchase a single ton of fruit from the organically farmed Cortell Rose Vineyard and jumped at the opportunity. The vineyard is located in the Eola-Amity Hills AVA within the Willamette Valley and, like our own site 37 miles north, benefits from cooling winds to help cool the grapes down at night following hot summer days. The fruit was picked on October 21st, just ahead of some of the first rain in months amidst an unusually long dry season. We decided to ferment half of the fruit via “carbonic maceration” – a technique that sees whole clusters anaerobically sealed in a closed tank to allow the grapes to undergo an intracellular fermentation before primary fermentation, common in inspiring regions such as Beaujolais in France. The second half of the fruit was destemmed and put into open top fermenters. The carbonically macerated grapes were unsealed after being untouched for 14 days, before being foot tread to break up the clusters, kicking off primary fermentation. Three days later on November 6th, the grapes were pressed off of their skins and put back into tank to complete primary fermentation. The destemmed grapes underwent a natural cold soak for 2 days before kicking off primary fermentation and were pressed on November 9th. Both the carbonically macerated and destemmed grapes were then put into neutral French oak barrels to age. The barrels were blended blind, and the final blend was 60% carbonic maceration with 40% of the destemmed barrels, bottled on September 13th, 2023. Just as the pinot noir, each bottle was lovingly waxed by hand.

The 2022 Cortell Rose Vineyard Gamay Noir brings together the elevated fruit forwardness and floridity of carbonically macerated gamay, balanced with intense spice and subtle structure from the destemmed berries.

Looking Towards the Future

As we put forth this initial release, we’re also getting ready to bottle several of our other 2022 wines in January, patiently resting in barrel in the interim. This includes several unique expressions of pinot noir as well as our first foray into white varieties, from our tiny parcel of chardonnay on property.

Around the farm, it’s quieter this time of year. The abundant sun of the Oregon summer leaves us yearning for the cool, rainy, cloud covered hills. It’s the perfect time of year to cross off long-delayed projects and recharge, planning all the while for the next year’s growing season. In 2024, we’ll see the introduction of our own compost in the vineyard and hopefully begin to preview animal integration on the property and amongst the vines, as we prepare diligently to welcome our own in the next few years. We also continue to plan for a small number of new plantings in the existing vineyard – new and diverse grape varieties to enhance our knowledge of place and prepare for an uncertain future.

In the winery, cellar season is here. In addition to the aforementioned 2022s that are nearing the end of their rest, the cellar is now excitingly replenished with the wines from 2023 – once again, pinot noir, gamay, and chardonnay. Unique to 2023, the chardonnay is undergoing elevage this year in neutral, Oregon oak, generously gifted to us and constantly reinforcing our belief in this community of people. We’re excited to continue to explore what terroir means to us by closing the distance between as many aspects of the finished wines as possible. For 2024, we’ll continue to explore new vessels and techniques in the winery, listening to the fruit and providing it with what may highlight it best. This likely looks like the introduction of ceramics for fermentation and aging and some shorter skin contact for some of the wines. While those decisions will not be made until the time comes – considering weather and relying on taste – we’ll be prepared to meet the 2024 wines where they are.

Before we close, we have an admission – writing this letter was not just to tell you about Throughline and this release’s wines. It also was self-serving, providing us an outlet to stop, breathe, think, and write. To vulnerably put down on virtual paper thoughts and ideas that sometimes swirl around in our heads, excitingly, chaotically, and often terrifyingly. Memorializing them on occasion helps bring us clarity and refocuses us on the many tasks at hand.

Gratitude does not begin to express our feelings. Whether that is for you purchasing the wines or simply getting to the end of this letter and following along our journey, we thank you for being a part of this with us. We could not be more excited to see where this incredible journey takes all of us.

We hope that you enjoy the wines and wish you the happiest of holidays this season.

AJ and Katie