100% Chardonnay

Food pairings: Fresh seafood, creamy pasta, or a simple cheese plate.

Winemaking: The hand-harvested grapes were whole-cluster pressed and fermented with native yeasts. The wine was aged with 24% new French oak, which adds a gentle note of toast, and was bottled in August 2025.

Vineyards and terroir: This Willamette Valley Chardonnay blends two estate vineyards with distinct microclimates, both farmed organically, dry-farmed without irrigation and tended by Flâneur's own vineyard team. La Belle Promenade, "the beautiful walk", sits on an exposed hilltop on the western slope of the Chehalem Mountains AVA, at about 820 feet, on volcanic Jory and Nekia soils. Its cooler site gives floral, plush wines with vibrant acidity. Flânerie Vineyard, on the east-facing slope of the Ribbon Ridge AVA at 250-350 feet, grows in sedimentary Willakenzie soils with glacial erratic stones left by the Missoula Floods. Its warmer microclimate adds spice, savory depth and structure.

Family and history: A flâneur, from 19th-century Paris, is a leisurely wanderer and connoisseur of life, "walking at a pace slow enough to be led by a turtle", as the label says. Marty Doerschlag founded Flâneur Wines in 2012 after twenty years growing his family's architecture and engineering firm, inspired by a harvest-time trip to Bordeaux. He bought the abandoned orchard that became La Belle Promenade in 2012 and the Flânerie Vineyard on Ribbon Ridge in 2014. In 2013 he bought the historic Madsen grain elevator in downtown Carlton, built in 1890, from winemaker Ken Wright, and restored it by hand into the winery's tasting room and hospitality center. Anthony Sereni is Director of Winemaking.

In the pictures: The historic grain elevator in Carlton, Oregon, before its restoration as the home of Flâneur Wines (photo: M.O. Stevens, 2009, CC BY 3.0). The Chehalem Mountains in the northern Willamette Valley (photo: M.O. Stevens, 2009, CC BY-SA 3.0).