Angela Estate

Antony Beck grew up in the South African wine industry — his father Graham Beck founded the winery that bears the family name, best known there for sparkling wine. Antony now oversees the family’s thoroughbred breeding operation in Kentucky. His love of Pinot Noir brought him to Oregon, on the conviction that it’s the best place in North America to make the wine at a world-class level.

The project began with a conversation between Beck and Ken Wright about the potential of Yamhill-Carlton. Two husband-and-wife teams went in together — Antony and Angela Beck, and Robert Rosenstein, a Kentucky wine and spirits retailer, with his wife Dr. Kim Clawson Rosenstein. It started with a single Pinot Noir from Clawson Creek Vineyard.

They planted the 50-acre estate in 2006 and 2007, 21 acres then 13 more, to Dijon 777, 115, and Wädenswil, and named it for Angela — an entrepreneur in her own right, founder of the table linens company Pomegranate. The inaugural Angela Clawson Creek Pinot Noir released in March 2008.

They also acquired Abbott Claim Vineyard, which Ken Wright had planted in 2001 on Savannah Ridge, a narrow east-west ridgeline of ancient marine sediment east of Carlton. Wright continued to manage both vineyards and made the Angela wines — the only wines he has produced outside his own label. A separate Abbott Claim bottling joined the range with the 2012 vintage.

Alban Debeaulieu is now winemaker. The stated approach is guided first by what the vineyard gives, with a light touch and gentle coaxing.

The Savannah Ridge site is unusual enough that the entire vineyard is typically picked in a single day.

The Dundee tasting room pours estate Pinot Noir and Chardonnay alongside South African sparkling from the family’s Graham Beck holdings — a combination you won’t find elsewhere in the valley. The format allows tasting multiple vintages of the same wine made the same way, which makes warm and cool years directly comparable.