Ken Wright Cellars

40 years of wine making have taught a simple truth: Source is everything. To understand our vineyard sources for Oregon Pinot noir is to understand geology. Two main geological events are responsible for the formation of our region. The collision of the Juan de Fuca Plate and the North American Plate resulted in the shearing off of soft sediments from the ocean floor. The plate is still sub-ducting to this day. Eons of weather and pressure have compacted those soft sediments, creating the sandstone and siltstone parent material which lies below most of the Willamette Valley. The Yamhill-Carlton AVA is comprised of these ancient marine sediments. The second key geological event is the Columbia River Basalt Flow, the largest flow of lava on planet earth. Originating from an active volcanic chain in eastern Oregon, this lava flow covered the northern Willamette Valley 20 million years ago. Vestiges of this mantle still remain and are represented by areas such as the Dundee AVA and Eo...