The Valley Room

In 1971, four families — the Kreimeyers, Markleys, Welches, and Trenhailes — bought a remote piece of hillside southwest of McMinnville that had once been a settler’s orchard. They kept the settling family’s name for the vineyard. Charles Coury and Dick Erath guided the first plantings, and what they put in the ground became one of the most consequential vineyards in Oregon history.

Here’s why. At the 1985 Burgundy Challenge in Paris, a blind panel couldn’t tell Oregon Pinot Noir from Burgundy’s Grand and Premier Crus. The Oregon wines that pulled that off had one thing in common: they were all made from Hyland fruit.

The vineyard spans over 200 acres with roughly 185 under vine, on a south-facing bench between 600 and 800 feet in the McMinnville AVA, rooted in volcanic Jory soil. The old plantings are own-rooted Pommard, Wädenswil, and the rare Coury clone, with Dijon 115 added in 1989. Those vines are now over fifty years old and have never been grafted or moved.

Laurent Montalieu, Danielle Andrus Montalieu, and partner John Niemeyer bought the property in 2007 and released the first estate wines in 2011. Laurent farms by what he calls a “land not hand” philosophy — a vineyard has to be left wild to say anything. Fruit still goes to Penner-Ash, Sokol Blosser, Antica Terra, Erath, Coeur de Terre, and Tendril, so you’ve likely tasted Hyland without knowing it.

The vineyard itself isn’t open to visitors. Tastings happen at The Valley Room in Dundee, a light-filled space with a sunroom, a long bar, and outdoor tables overlooking duck ponds. The estate flight typically runs five wines, and the whites deserve attention — the Riesling and Gewürztraminer come from those original Alsatian plantings and get overlooked next to the Pinot.