Lemelson Vineyards

Eric Lemelson moved from the East Coast to Oregon in 1979 to attend Reed College and decided before he graduated that this was home. His career started in politics — an internship with an Oregon congressman, then state and national campaigns and work in the legislature — before he became an environmental lawyer. He is the oldest son of Jerome Lemelson, one of the most prolific independent inventors in American history.

He moved to a Yamhill County farm in 1990, fell for Pinot Noir in the early nineties, and planted three-quarters of an acre on a hillside east of Newberg in 1995. He enjoyed the viticulture enough that within three years he’d added more than thirty acres near Carlton and started designing a winery.

That winery is the other half of the story. Twenty-one thousand square feet, three levels, fully gravity flow, with a mobile grape sorting platform — designed with consulting winemaker Eric Hamacher and Portland architect Laurence Ferar, and completed in time for the 1999 harvest. Eric’s brief was a no-compromises Pinot Noir facility built to the most sustainable standards available. A solar array added in 2007 covers over 40 percent of the main building’s energy needs.

The estate now spans seven vineyard sites across three AVAs — Dundee Hills, Yamhill-Carlton, and Chehalem Mountains — totaling around 156 acres, all certified organic by Oregon Tilth since inception. Sites include Stermer, Meyer, Chestnut Hill, Briscoe, Johnson, Rocky Noel, and Washer. Everything is estate grown: Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, and Riesling, at roughly 12,000 cases.

The single-vineyard Pinots are the point. Stermer from Yamhill-Carlton runs bright and red-fruited; Meyer from the Dundee Hills goes darker and plusher. Thea’s Selection is the flagship blend, named for Eric’s mother, and Jerome Reserve for his father.

The tasting room sits at the foot of the Stermer Vineyard, three miles east of Carlton. Guests consistently describe long unhurried afternoons in the shade with hawks overhead.