J.K. Carriere Wines

Jim Prosser took an unusually long road here. Oregon State degree, then Xerox and commercial real estate, then Lithuania as a Peace Corps business advisor, climbing in Pakistan, five continents, winding down a family business, selling Christmas trees, and cycling across the United States. Then Pinot Noir got him.

He learned the trade in the cellars of eight producers across four countries — Erath, Domaine Drouhin, Brick House and Chehalem in Oregon, Villa Maria in New Zealand, Tarra Warra and T’Gallant in Australia, and Burgundy. He started J.K. Carriere in 1999, alone and broke, buying grapes and MacGyvering a hundred-year-old barn into a winery. The name combines his two grandfathers, J.K. Prosser and Paul Carriere.

In November 2007 he bought 40 acres on the southeast flank of Parrett Mountain in the Chehalem Mountains. First blocks went in the following year, a new winery building followed, and the operation moved up the hill for good.

The wines are acid-centric and built for the table. Prosser works from three principles: think about Pinot as food and stay mindful of the acidity that makes pairing possible; make every decision from vineyard to bottle on taste and experience rather than lab numbers or focus groups; and back it all with enough science to guarantee a clean, ageable wine. Wild yeast ferments, wild malolactic, no fining, no filtering, blocks kept separate and blended when stable, as in Burgundy.

Provocateur is the entry point and consistently one of the best values in Oregon Pinot. Vespidae is the core blend. Glass, the rosé, has a following of its own. Chardonnay and sparkling round it out.

The tasting room sits at the top of Parrett Mountain with patios looking across the estate vineyard toward Mount Hood.