Evensham Wood | Haden Fig

Russ and Mary Raney planted Le Puits Sec in 1986 and spent twenty-plus years making some of the most quietly revered Pinot Noir in Oregon. Erin Nuccio drove up that long gravel road in 2007 to meet Russ, and the two recognized something in each other immediately. Russ took him on as an apprentice and helped him make the first Haden Fig wines that same year.

When Russ eventually offered to sell, Erin said no. He didn’t want to inherit someone else’s legacy or spend his career being compared to it. What changed his mind was a conversation at a party, where an accomplished Oregon winemaker told him the greatest Oregon Pinots he’d ever tasted were Russ’s. Erin and his wife Jordan bought Evesham Wood and Le Puits Sec in August 2010, and Haden Fig came along as the place where Erin still gets to be entirely himself. The Raneys still live nearby and still consult.

Le Puits Sec means “the dry well,” and the name is the whole philosophy. The vineyard has never been irrigated — Russ wrote that terroir has little meaning in an irrigated vineyard — and it’s been certified organic since 2000. Both wineries are members of the Deep Roots Coalition, the group of Oregon growers committed to dry farming. Fruit also comes from Temperance Hill, whose old own-rooted Pommard sits 800 to 900 feet up, and Illahe, the first site the Raneys ever looked at buying.

Evesham Wood makes 5,000 to 6,000 cases a year, 85 to 90 percent of it Pinot Noir. Haden Fig runs about 1,500. There’s no fancy equipment. Bottling and labeling are done by hand.