Adelsheim Vineyard

David and Ginny Adelsheim bought 19 acres outside Newberg in 1971. They weren’t looking for a vineyard — they wanted to leave Portland and build a house in the country. David had no formal training in wine, just advice from the handful of families already trying it. He learned by working alongside David Lett at Eyrie, studying at the Lycée Viticole in Beaune, and working Portland restaurants.

They planted the following year and made their first commercial wine in 1978: 1,300 cases of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Pinot Gris. That made Adelsheim the first winery in what is now the Chehalem Mountains AVA, and put them among the ten families who made wine from their own fruit in the Willamette Valley before 1980. In the early years they used their home as the tasting room and turned it back into a house when guests left.

Then came the part that shaped everything else. When the AVA system launched in 1979, Oregon growers realized they’d lose the right to write “estate bottled” on their labels without a designated appellation. David Adelsheim wrote the petition. The Willamette Valley AVA was approved in 1983, deliberately drawn as large as possible so anyone growing in the valley could use it. He wrote the Chehalem Mountains petition in 2002, approved in 2006. He also lobbied for Oregon’s wine labeling laws — the strictest in the country — and helped found the Oregon Winegrowers Association, serving as its first president. The Oregon Wine Board gave him a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012.

The estate now runs 368 acres with roughly 174 planted across the Chehalem Mountains, Laurelwood District, and Ribbon Ridge. Quarter Mile Lane still holds the oldest vines, planted 1972 on volcanic soil at 560 to 680 feet. Bryan Creek holds the second-oldest plantings and the only sparkling blocks. Ribbon Springs, planted 1995, sits on marine sedimentary ground with its own springs and wildlife corridors. Roughly 65 to 75 percent of fruit is estate-grown, producing about 42,000 to 50,000 cases.

Jack and Lynn Loacker became co-owners in 1994 and completed the purchase from the Adelsheims in 2017. The winegrowing team is led by winemaker Gina Hennen and vineyard manager Ariel Daly. All estate vineyards have been LIVE certified since 2008, with mechanical weeding in place of synthetic herbicides. Seven-time Wine & Spirits Top 100 Winery.