Ruby Vineyard & Winery

The vines here went in the ground in 1973, from cuttings taken off the South Block at Eyrie. That’s David Lett’s original planting, the oldest Pinot Noir in the Willamette Valley. Which makes these among the oldest own-rooted Pinot vines in Oregon and the oldest in Washington County.

Steve Hendricks is a fifth-generation Oregonian. His great-great-grandfather Abijah came west on the first wagon train down the Oregon Trail in 1843 and homesteaded 640 acres near Carlton. Steve and Flora Habibi bought this property in 2012, then called Beran Vineyards, and named it Ruby after her favorite gemstone. Their first commercial vintage came in 2015. The Hendricks Legacy Pinot Noir comes from the old family homestead, and the label reproduces the original land deed.

The ground itself has a story. Laurelwood soil is wind-blown loess deposited on the north slopes of the Chehalem Mountains at the end of the last ice age, rare enough that it got its own AVA in 2020. Farming is dry-farmed, no-till, organic, and LIVE certified, with indigenous fermentations and gentle extraction. Andrew Kirkland has made the wine since 2016, having worked as assistant winemaker under Eric Hamacher and at Brittan Vineyards under Robert Brittan. Production covers Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Rosé, and Gamay Noir, most of it available only at the winery.

The tasting room opened in 2016, with a deck looking across the vineyard toward Mount Hood and Bald Peak. It’s thirty minutes from Portland and you never touch 99W getting here, which is a bigger deal than it sounds on a Saturday. Cheese boards are available, picnics are welcome, and both dogs and kids are too. There’s also a private space for reserve and library tastings.