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The Bergström Story15 Acres in the Dundee HillsOur story began in 1997, when John and Karen Bergstrom moved out to Dundee from Portland and purchased 15 acres of land in the Dundee Hills off of Worden Hill Road. The Land is a beautiful South, South-East slope, previously farmed to hazelnuts and black walnuts. We spent two years carefully preparing the earth, sowing and plowing under rich green cover crops that would help revitalize the soils and improve the organic matter before planting the Bergstrom Vineyard in 1999. This Vineyard would be a testament to our commitment to quality from the very beginning, planted entirely to Pinot Noir with a wide variety of clonal and rootstock selecitons (Pommard, Wadenswil, Dijon 114,115,667,777,828, as well as some unique plant material from Burgundy grafted onto Riparia Gloire, 101-14 and 3309-C rootstocks.) The Bergstrom Vineyard is comprised of 8 different high-density blocks varying from a traditional Burgundian spacing of 3500+ grapevines per acre, to Oregon's more widely accepted cutting edge spacings of 2200-2500 vines per acre. Our first harvest off of the Bergstrom Vineyard was in 2001. In a typical year this vineyard will yield 1.3 tons to the acre giving us 49 barrels of Pinot Noir to use in our Bergstrom Vineyard Pinot Noir, our Cumberland Reserve Pinot Noir and in our Willamette Valley Pinot Noir. Winemaker Josh BergströmAfter two years of interning in local Oregon wineries as a cellar worker and harvest hand, and travelling down to Davis California on long weekends for winemaking and viticultural extension classes with his father, Josh Bergstrom left for France to complete a post graduate program in Viticulture and Enology at the CFPPA (Center for the Formation and Promotion of Agricultural Production) in Beaune during 1998 and 1999. He returned home with his wife Caroline in time to begin farming the Bergstrom Vineyard and obtain fruit contracts for Bergstrom's first harvest in 1999. First Vintages for Bergström WineryOur first wine produced was the 1999 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir made from the Arcus, Red Hills, Knight's Gambit and Murto Vineyards, all located in the Dundee Hills. Josh and Caroline made the wines at the Lemelson Winery located in Carlton Oregon while Josh was once-again interning for another local winemaker. The total production in 1999 was 10 barrels of wine (180 cases.) In 2000, we moved our operation down to Flynn winery and expanded our production to include Chardonnay and Pinot Gris from the Wahle Vineyard as well as older Pinot Noir vines from the Hyland Vineyard. Our production was now at 1,000 cases of wine. 27 Acres on the Chehalem MountainIn the year 1998, Paul and Kendall de Lancellotti purchased 27 beautiful sprawling acres on the crest of Calkins Lane, an off-shoot of the Chehalem Mountain and Bald Peak. In the spring of 2001, we started planting our second estate vineyard, the de Lancellotti Vineyard. The de Lancellotti Vineyard is an 8 acre parcel on very sandy Dupee type soils which lies on a bedrock of sandstone. These are the ancient oceanic settlings and some of the oldest soils on the West Coast of the United States. This vineyard was planted in a high-density style with 2500+ vines per acre with a solid mix of clonal and rootstock selections: Pommard, 115 and 777. Our first harvest from the de Lancellotti Vineyard was in 2003. In a typical year the de Lancellotti Vineyard will give us 1.1 tons of Pinot Noir to the acre, or 22 barrels to use in our de Lancellotti Vineyard Pinot Noir or the Cumberland Reserve Pinot Noir. New Winery Completed in Summer of 2001In the Summer of 2001 we completed construction on our winery, which sits at the very top of Calkins Lane overlooking the Chehalem Valley, the back of the Dundee Hills to the South , the Ribbon Ridge, Bald Peak to the North and the Coastal Range to the West. Our 5,000 capacity winery was built with one thing in mind : simple and functional winemaking facility where we can control every aspect of our winemaking from de-stemming to bottling all in one room. Plans are in the making to expand this facility in 2005-6 to include a new barrel building and a retail tasting room so that Bergstrom Winery can finally open its doors to the public. Family CrestIn the early days of developing the Bergström vineyard and winery, the most exciting project was to design the label. Little did we realize it would be more difficult than anything we had yet collectively tried to do. Clearing acres of land and planting the vineyards was hard work, but designing a label called for a different set of skills: creativity, introspection and artistic ingenuity. It would need to be an artistic centerpiece easily recognized on the wine shelf amongst hundreds of other labels, help establish the brand by being a constant across our wines, and yet speak of who we are as a family. We gathered around the table with all of our children and in-laws with the simplest assignment of coming up with a label that would represent our new endeavor and become a point of stability for our future success. After brain-draining introspections we took turns presenting our ideas. The result - 10 unbelievably different designs without a single common thread. We quickly enlisted the help of Anstey-Healy Design, who guided us in developing a label incorporating all of our different backgrounds-a true American "melting pot" family! Looking at the label, the center crown contains 5 points representing our five children. The Fleur-de-Lis symbolizes the French influence of our son Joshua's training in Viticulture and Enology at the CFPPA in Beaune where he met his French wife Caroline who is now our Oregon sales representative. The lower cross on the left represents Kendall and Paul deLancellotti's heritage and is taken from Paul's fathers Italian crest. The acorn represents agricultural fertility and the annual cycle of birth, renewal and growth in the vineyard. The Mossipa represents our Swedish beginnings and is a most rare small flower that grows in very few places in the mountains of northern Sweden. Its rarity and beauty is a celebration when discovered-much like the Oregon Pinot Noir! |
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BERGSTRÖM WINES LLC |
www.bergstromwines.com |
