What to Buy
’99 Extended Tirage Brut Plum, roasted hazelnut, honey, boletas mushroom $50
’00 Blanc de Blanc Ginger, apple, pear, white pepper $40
’06 Nuthouse Pinot Noir Blueberry, blackberry, butterscotch, red cherry $60
Getting There
Take I-5 to Oregon Exit 253 (Stayton/Detroit Lake) and then left on OR-22. Take the Marion St Brg OR-22W to W Salem Business Dist /Edgewater St. Turn right on OR-221 to OR-18 Turn left on OR-18, then bear right on Pacific Hwy W OR-99W to winery.
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Winemaker Rollin Soles of Argyle Winery has been producing fine wines and earning high praise and customer interest from critics and enthusiasts for more than 20 years. He is the only Oregon winemaker whose creations have been ranked seven times among the Top 100 Wines of the World by Wine Spectator. Having honed his skills at some of the world’s finest wineries in California, Australia, and Switzerland, his personal dedication to winemaking is evident by the multiple high wine scores and reviews he has received from the industry media.
Looking for a location in America’s coolest latitudes, Rollin and partner Brian Croser settled on Oregon’s Willamette Valley because of its ideal climate for late-season–ripened Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Since 1987 Argyle Winery has produced méthode champenoise sparkling wine, barrel–fermented Chardonnay, and silky-textured Pinot Noir from low-yielding vines on its 500 acres of farmed hillside slopes.
Argyle farms three vineyards. Its prime vineyard source is Knudsen, farmed since 1987 on 120 acres located in the red hills of Dundee. Half of the vineyard was planted in the early ’70s, yielding wines with ripe fruit flavors and earthy, spicy, old-vine character. The “younger” half features state-of-the-art viticulture and Old World clones planted in high-density blocks on warm sites producing Knudsen’s finest sparkling wine fruit. |
Lone Star Vineyard, because of its low elevation, is perfect for the two forces crucial for ripening grapes. The vines absorb the sun’s heat and light, turning barren vines into fruit-laden miracles of Pinot Noir flavor. Stoller Vineyard, with its full southern exposure and red-colored Jory soil, turns out some of Oregon’s finest Pinots as well.
Argyle’s tasting room is located in the old “haunted” Dundee City Hall. Local lore has it that a ghost still roams the building. Perhaps this is a wine tourer who just can’t get enough. |
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