Pinot Gris, Gewürztraminer, Muscat

Food pairings: Grilled or broiled fish, planked salmon, Dungeness crab cakes or crab-stuffed flounder, a shrimp and arugula salad, roast chicken, asparagus risotto, watermelon salad, sushi, and Asian dishes such as shrimp Pad Thai.

Winemaking: The grapes are hand harvested, whole-cluster pressed, and the juice is fermented at very cool temperatures in small stainless steel tanks, with no oak. This gentle treatment protects the aromatics and enhances the natural richness of the fruit; small portions of Gewürztraminer and Muscat are blended in. 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: Elk Cove is 100% estate grown. The Pinot Gris comes from the family's hillside vineyards in the northern Willamette Valley, where enough sunlight and warmth ripen the fruit while cool evenings keep its varietal character. The original Winery Estate Vineyard, on steep, well-drained, south-facing slopes of marine sedimentary soil, holds some of the oldest Pinot Gris vines in Oregon, dating back to 1985. Three other estate sites are also planted with Pinot Gris, including the steep slopes of Mount Richmond Vineyard in the Yamhill-Carlton AVA. All the Pinot Gris is planted in a high-density format and undergoes shoot and crop thinning for low yields and concentrated flavors.

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. Elk Cove remains proudly family owned, and Pinot Gris has long been its most popular white wine.

In the pictures: Owner and winemaker Adam Campbell checking budbreak in the vineyard; harvest at the Winery Estate Vineyard; and an aerial view of Mount Richmond Vineyard in the Yamhill-Carlton AVA (photos courtesy of Elk Cove Vineyards).