Poised atop the Dundee Hills, with gentle slopes that capture the breezes and sunshine, Domaine Drouhin’s 235-acre estate overlooking the Willamette Valley produces some of the finest Pinot Noir and Chardonnay fruit in the world.
Robert Drouhin’s vision of an Oregon estate winery that could rival the great vineyards of Burgundy has been realized at DDO. From what began as test plantings of cloned Pinot Noir rootstock, Domaine Drouhin now encompasses 130 acres of hillside vineyards. Interspersed with the Pinot Noir vines are 13 acres of Chardonnay, planted at various elevations and, like in Burgundy, planted right alongside rows of Pinot Noir.
Everything planted at DDO is unique to the estate. They also have two large blocks of rootstock planted on the estate, so can graft the cuttings onto rootstock. Domaine Drouhin grow and plant rootstocks that they’ve learned are well suited to the specifics of their vineyard sites in terms of site elevation, soil depth, and moisture-holding capacity, maintaining the highest level of quality control over plant material. The densely planted vines are farmed sustainably, L.I.V.E. certified, and tended to by hand when leaves and fruit are thinned; harvesting is also done entirely by hand.
Once the grapes have reached full maturity with a perfect balance between brix and acid, and fruit and tannin, they are hand-picked into small 25 pound totes, insuring the arrival of pristine, uncrushed fruit at their four-level gravity-flow winery. Their goal is to preserve the unique qualities that nature provided in the vineyards.