Ayres Vineyard & Winery

The whole thing started with a passing remark. Brad and Kathleen McLeroy got engaged in the south of France in 1997 and visited Domaine Tempier the next day. Monsieur Peyraud mentioned offhand that he makes the wine he loves to drink. Two years later, Brad came home from Oregon’s International Pinot Noir Celebration and said, from the airport curb, “I think we can do it. I think we should do it.” Kathleen said she thought so too.

That same year they bought 38 acres near Newberg with Kathleen’s parents, Don and Carol McClure. It was a defunct hazelnut farm on the southeastern slope of Ribbon Ridge, and it took years of clearing dying trees before the ground was ready. The family gathered there for Thanksgiving and picked a Helen Keller line for the opening page of their business plan: life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.

Brad had no winemaking experience. He’d run a wine shop in Kansas City. So in 2000 he took a job as a cellar hand at Domaine Drouhin Oregon under Véronique Drouhin, worked every harvest through 2006, and spent his last three years there as cellar master. Then he left to make his own wine full time.

Eighteen to twenty acres are planted, mostly Pinot Noir in Dijon clones 667, 115, 777, 113, and Pommard, on WillaKenzie marine sedimentary soils. Neighbors include Brick House, Beaux Frères, and Patricia Green. No herbicides or pesticides have ever been used on the property. The vineyards are dry-farmed and organically managed, LIVE and Salmon Safe certified since 2011, with each vine limited to under two pounds of fruit.

The range runs from an entry-level Willamette Valley Pinot to Perspective, blending estate fruit with neighboring farms, Lewis Rogers Lane from estate fruit only, Pioneer from a single clone, and One, bottled from a single fermenter. There’s also Poetica, an estate-grown white field blend from rows of Pinot Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, and Pinot d’Auxerrois planted back in 2004. Gamay Noir and a rosé appear too. Every bottle supports cancer research at the Providence Cancer Institute.

Tastings are by appointment in the cellar, and Brad usually leads them himself. Guests describe tasting back through a decade of vintages while he explains the why behind each one.