100% Pinot Blanc

Food pairings: Lighter seafood dishes such as trout or striped bass, other fish and shellfish, roast poultry, fresh cheeses and seasonal vegetable dishes; it is also a delightful stand-alone sipper.

Winemaking: To preserve its freshness, the Pinot Blanc is whole-cluster pressed and then fermented at very cool temperatures in small stainless steel tanks, which accentuates the aromatics and enhances the richness and viscosity of the wine. 2024 was a well-paced, ideal vintage for cool-climate vineyards in the Willamette Valley: a wet winter and spring, rain at bloom that naturally lowered yields, a few summer heat spikes during the green phase of ripening, and a slow, steady harvest spread over 40 days with a very mild, sunny October. The wine was bottled in March 2025.

Vineyards and terroir: The fruit is all hand harvested from Elk Cove's own estate-grown hillside vines at Five Mountain and Mount Richmond Vineyards. Five Mountain sits on a steep southeast-facing slope of windblown loess soil in the Laurelwood District of the Chehalem Mountains, with views of five Cascade volcanoes; first planted by the Ponzi family in 1978, it was purchased by Elk Cove in 2005 and planted with Pinot Blanc and other Alsatian white varieties. Mount Richmond, Elk Cove's largest vineyard, lies on marine sedimentary soil in the foothills of the Coast Range in the heart of the Yamhill-Carlton AVA. The Willamette Valley gives this delicate grape enough sunlight and warmth to ripen, while cool nights help retain its varietal character.

Family and history: Pat and Joe Campbell founded Elk Cove Vineyards in 1974 on an abandoned homestead in the foothills of the Coast Range, when there were fewer than ten wineries in Oregon. It was the first vineyard and winery in what is now the Yamhill-Carlton AVA, named for the herd of Roosevelt elk that bedded down on the property that first winter and for the protective bowl shape of the land. Their son Adam Campbell, a fifth-generation Oregon farmer and second-generation winemaker, joined his parents in 1995 and now makes the wines and oversees six estate vineyard sites. Few Oregon wineries grow Pinot Blanc, but it is one of the family's favorite varieties to make, and Elk Cove remains proudly family owned.

In the pictures: Owner and winemaker Adam Campbell among the vines at budbreak; Five Mountain Vineyard at sunrise; and an aerial view of the Elk Cove Winery Estate in the Coast Range foothills (photos courtesy of Elk Cove Vineyards).