Willamette Valley Vineyards has announced its plan to build a new winery in the Dundee Hills. It will be built on 40 acres in the Dundee Hills and located close to its new dedicated sparkling winery at Bernau Estate Vineyard.
This new winemaking facility is intended to become the Willamette Valley Vineyards’ primary location for the production and bottling of its various brands, and is expected to be built on 40 acres in the Dundee Hills AVA adjacent to Highway 99 that the company purchased four years ago.
“We believe this property is well-suited for supporting the production and bottling of the multiple brands of our enterprise including Willamette Valley Vineyards and additional quantities of our Domaine Willamette méthode champenoise sparkling brand, which we expect to launch in late Spring of 2022,” stated Winery Director Christine Clair.
“Our winery in the Salem Hills has served us well over the past 34 years, but we believe we have simply outgrown its original design,” said founder and CEO Jim Bernau. “We produced 175,000 cases at this winery last year on-site and are expecting continued increases in demand in the coming years as our restaurant and retail placements expand and our planned new winery restaurants are built in local communities. We felt that we needed a new, more modern production facility in order to meet this anticipated increase in demand.”
Willamette Valley Vineyards has engaged Steve Martin Associates of Sonoma County, California to assist in the planning, design, and development of the forthcoming winemaking facility.
The company has also announced that it is looking for candidates to fill a newly established Director of Winemaking and Vineyards position that will report to the company’s Winery Director. The Company’s Director of Winemaking and Vineyards is expected to be responsible for the operations of wineries and vineyards, which currently includes a team of 65 full and part-time employees and consists of 16 vineyards owned or leased by the company totaling 490 producing acres. The new Director of Winemaking and Vineyards will also be expected to develop new estate vineyards and produce new brands and products, as well as oversee the planning, building and development of the planned expansion facility.
Willamette Valley Vineyards has engaged WineTalent to lead the confidential search for its new Director of Winemaking & Vineyards. Any interested candidates for this position can learn more about the position and apply at WineTalent’s official website.
The company has also announced that in the next two years it plans on opening four new restaurants. The Winery Restaurants will be located in Lake Oswego, Happy Valley and Bend in Oregon and on the Vancouver Waterfront in Washington. The eateries are expected to offer Pacific Northwest-inspired dishes to pair with the winery’s classic Oregon wines as well as offer customers a new membership program. The company is hoping to build on the launch its micro-winery in Folsom California in 2020, and is hoping that through the opening of the Winery Restaurants, more consumers will be introduced to their wines.
For more information, head over to Willamette Valley Vineyards’ official website.