Archery Summit

Gary Andrus founded Pine Ridge Vineyards in Napa’s Stags Leap District in 1978 and spent fifteen years making acclaimed Cabernet there, championing vineyard-designate wines that expressed specific sites. Then Pinot Noir got him.

In 1993 he came north, drawn to the Dundee Hills because the ancient volcanic soils and climate reminded him of Burgundy. He founded Archery Summit and did something nobody in Oregon had: drilled a quarter mile of underground wine caves into the hillside and built a fully gravity-flow production facility around them.

He also broke the price ceiling. In 1994 Archery Summit released two Pinot Noirs at $50 a bottle, which was then unheard of in the Willamette Valley. The Estate Pinot Noir has been $150 since the 2000 vintage. It changed what Oregon wine could ask for.

Andrus sold his shares in both Pine Ridge and Archery Summit in 2001 and died in 2009 at 63. Crimson Wine Group, based in Napa, now owns both.

The estate covers five vineyards and roughly 115 to 120 acres, with additional fruit from select grower sites. Winemaking uses small temperature-controlled tanks, native yeast fermentation, and up to eighteen months of aging. The caves hold more than 550 French oak barrels. Production runs around 14,000 cases, sold largely through allocation, the wine club, and the tasting room.

The winemaking lineage here is significant. Anna Matzinger was winemaker and co-general manager until 2013, now running Matzinger Davies. Ian Burch, formerly of Evening Land, followed. Moisés Sotelo planted the estate vineyard in 1994; Leigh Bartholomew and Tim Scott have both managed the vineyards, each moving between here and Domaine Drouhin.

The tasting house sits at the top of the hill with wide valley views, and was expanded recently. You can taste indoors or down in the caves — which makes this one of the best rainy-day stops in the valley, since the whole experience is under cover.