Arlyn Vineyard

Janis Pate was deep in corporate life when a friend challenged her over dinner in New York to figure out what she actually wanted to do and go do it. Walking back to her hotel along a snowy Fifth Avenue, she made the decisions that put her on this path.

In 2012 she found 40 acres in the Chehalem Mountains — rolling WillaKenzie sedimentary soils, a hidden creek, walnut trees. She engaged local expertise and planted Pinot Noir, Gamay Noir, and Chardonnay, eventually reaching 20 acres under vine and about 25,000 plants. She named it for her mother, Arlyn, and for the lessons of hard work and kept promises.

She is the first woman in Oregon to purchase land, plant a vineyard, and develop a wine label with no spouse or partner. Her own assessment: it was no small undertaking, and it’s probably good she didn’t know that going in.

The farm is regenerative, dry-farmed, and biodynamic, worked by Janis, foreman Ulises Ayala, and a small crew. The animals aren’t decoration — Mangalitsa and Tamworth pigs, Scottish Highland cattle, Jacob and Valais Blacknose sheep, Boer goats, runner ducks, rabbits, and honeybees all do work. The Blacknose sheep came from Switzerland by way of a trip to Scotland, from some of the first purebred embryos the USDA permitted into the United States, and they graze the cover crop instead of mowers.

The wines were made by Thomas Savre of Lingua Franca, a protégé of Dominique Lafon who worked at Domaine de la Romanée-Conti. From the 2022 vintage, Wynne Peterson-Nedry took over.

Tastings are private, hosted by Janis herself, outdoors, and generally run 70 to 90 minutes. Miss Cooper, the vineyard dog, is usually part of it.