J. Christopher / Appassionata Estate

Jay Somers founded J. Christopher in 1996 after training under Don Kautzner at Adelsheim, Neil McCallum at Dry River in New Zealand, and John Paul at Cameron. The ambition was Old World Pinot Noir made in the New World — unhurried, minimal intervention, biodynamic principles.

He met Ernst “Erni” Loosen in 2001. Loosen is the internationally acclaimed winemaker behind Germany’s Dr. Loosen and Villa Wolf estates, and had been collecting Oregon Pinot Noir since the early nineties. The two found they shared the same taste, and the friendship was sealed in 2004 when Somers flew to Germany to help Loosen’s short-handed harvest crew.

A collaboration followed: a high-end selected Pinot that Loosen named Appassionata, after the Beethoven piano sonata. A few vintages in, he committed properly, buying 40 acres on Chehalem Mountain in Newberg. Construction on the winery began in early 2010, the first block of Appassionata Vineyard went in that spring, and the first harvest came in 2014 — fifty cases.

Somers sold his interest in 2019 and now makes wine under J.C. Somers in Carlton. Loosen owns both labels, produced at the same Newberg estate. Tim Malone, Somers’s assistant from 2008 to 2015, returned as head winemaker; Bob Bertheau — Loosen’s longtime partner on Eroica Riesling at Chateau Ste. Michelle — joined in 2021.

The two labels do different things. J. Christopher draws on long-term contracts across the Dundee Hills, Chehalem Mountains, and Eola-Amity Hills alongside estate fruit, producing single-vineyard and appellation wines with freshness and verve, around 10,000 cases.

Appassionata is the patience project. Three Pinot Noirs named for the sonata’s three movements: Allegro, selected for liveliness and drinkable after three years; Andante, released five years after the vintage, chosen for elegance; and Fortissimo, the pinnacle, held ten years before release. Loosen’s conviction is that a wine’s true character doesn’t emerge until it matures, so the estate holds the wines until they’re ready rather than asking you to.

The property sits down a gravel lane off Hillside Drive, with gardens, wildflower plantings, and rolling valley views.