Address
Hundred Suns Wine, NE Miller St, McMinnville, OR, USA
Hours
By appointment only
Reservations
Yes
Address
Hundred Suns Wine, NE Miller St, McMinnville, OR, USA
Hours
By appointment only
Reservations
Yes
A two-person winery founded in 2015 by Grant Coulter and Renée Saint-Amour. The couple left California for the Willamette Valley, where Grant worked as assistant winemaker at Hamacher before spending roughly a decade at Beaux Frères, first as assistant and then as head winemaker. Renée taught high school. In 2015 they sold their Portland home, moved to a fixer-upper in the valley, and launched Hundred Suns; Grant subsequently became winemaker at Flâneur Wines, and Renée moved from the classroom into running the business.
In 2018 they purchased a 4.5-acre property in the Eola-Amity Hills with a fifty-year-old vineyard, which became their children’s backyard. Fruit comes from that estate plus selected sites across the Willamette Valley and the Rocks District in the Columbia Gorge. The name refers to the approximate number of sunny days in a growing season.
Winemaking is minimal-intervention: biodynamically farmed fruit, native yeasts, neutral oak and clay amphorae, unfined and unfiltered. The wines are made to express site and vintage rather than a house style. The Old Eight Cut Pinot Noir, named for an antique diamond cut, is the widely available bottling and regularly cited as one of the better values in Oregon Pinot. Everything from label design to hand wax-dipping bottles is done by the two of them; some labels feature their daughter’s artwork, others Grant’s.
Tastings are hosted personally by Grant or Renée in the warehouse winery, focused on the wines and the process rather than scenery.
A warehouse in McMinnville’s industrial hub. Book directly through their site. No. You’ll be standing among barrels talking with the winemaker. They say so themselves. Anyone who wants to understand how the wine is made. If you want a scenic afternoon with a group, pick somewhere else. Old Eight Cut is the accessible entry point. Single-vineyard bottlings are made in tiny quantities. He has made wine there alongside this project. Worth asking. Yes, through select retailers, though quantities are small and move quickly.
Common questions
Where do I go?
Is this a normal tasting room?
Who should go?
What should I look for?
Is Grant still at Flâneur?
Can I buy the wine elsewhere?
