Our Vineyards
Elk Cove is 100% estate-grown. We follow every wine from vine to bottle, sourcing all fruit from 400 acres of vines vineyards on six sites across the northern Willamette Valley.
At Elk Cove, our family has increased our estate vineyard holdings over the past 50 years to over 400 acres. We’ve grown little by little, planting 10 acres or so a year on abandoned homesteads and acquiring historic sites from other winegrowers along the way. These include:
Winery Estate: Our original site first planted in 1974 by Pat & Joe Campbell.The first vineyard and winery in what is now the Yamhill-Carlton AVA, it includes Includes two of our best vineyards, La Bohème & Roosevelt.
Clay Court: Home to Elk Cove’s founders, our only Jory soil site.
Five Mountain: Home to Owner/Winemaker Adam Campbell with views of five cascade peaks. Originally planted by the Ponzi family.
Mount Richmond: Our largest vineyard, situated just outside the town of Yamhill, Oregon where we farm our greatest diversity of grape varieties.
Goodrich: Our warmest site, situated on a natural bench in Yamhill, Oregon. The vineyard that renewed our love for Chardonnay and whole cluster Pinot Noirs.
Windhill: A historic vineyard in Banks, OR planted by the Reece family, friends & Oregon winegrowing pioneers. Home to some of our oldest vines planted in 1974.
Elk Cove Winery Estate
Our first Vineyard, site of Elk Cove’s winery, was founded by Pat and Joe Campbell in 1974, when there were only a handful of winegrowers in Oregon. We have since added 45 acres to our original 5 acres of Pinot Noir, Riesling, Gewürztraminer and Chardonnay (since grafted over to Pinot Gris).
The Winery Estate is one of the higher vineyards in Oregon, reaching an elevation of 750 feet. The steep slopes of marine sedimentary soil (Willakenzie) are well-drained and primarily south facing, ideal for vine-health and concentration of flavors.
Our Winery Estate represents three generations of Pommard, the Northwest’s classic Pinot Noir clone. We took cuttings from the best vines planted in 1974 to plant our La Bohème Vineyard on the west side of the property in 1985. In 1993 we selected the best vines from La Bohème to plant Roosevelt Vineyard just south of the winery. We continue to use this technique of “selection massale” to perfect our newest vineyard sites.
Roosevelt and La Bohème are two of our best vineyard blocks and are used to create our most coveted Single Vineyard Pinot Noirs – proof that the Campbells chose a phenomenal location to plant those first vines.
La Bohème Vineyard
We planted La Bohème Vineyard in 1985 by selecting the very best vines from our original Estate Pommard plantings. Pat and Joe Campbell named the vineyard after the family who sold them the property – and their favorite Puccini opera.
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This picturesque vineyard overlooks the winery and the coast range mountains and rises to 800 feet, making it one of the highest elevation vineyard sites in the Willamette Valley. La Bohème was planted using cuttings from vines selected for small cluster size and intense flavors, hallmarks of the world’s finest Pinot Noirs. We prune and cluster-thin La Bohème heavily to limit yields and to maximize ripening and flavor concentration.
Roosevelt Vineyard
Roosevelt Vineyard was planted in 1993 and has quickly become Elk Cove’s most prized vineyard site. A four-acre high-density (2100 vines per acre) planting situated just south of the winery on Willakenzie soils, Roosevelt’s south-facing hillside slopes to a steep precipice overlooking the magnificent Williams Canyon.
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Roosevelt undergoes extensive pruning and cluster thinning to limit yields and maximize ripening to concentrate the fruit and is managed using completely organic practices. All of these elements combine to consistently produce one of Oregon’s finest Pinot Noirs.
Five Mountain Vineyard
Five Mountain is set on a steep southeast-facing slope in the Laurelwood District Sub-AVA of the Chehalem Mountains. This vineyard has spectacular view of five volcanoes of the Cascade Range: Mount Hood (in the above photo), Mount St. Helens, Mount Rainier, Mount Jefferson, and Mount Adams.
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This historic vineyard on loess soil (Laurelwood/windblown silt) was planted in 1978 by the Ponzi family and was purchased by Elk Cove in 2005. Five Mountain now totals 30 acres including the original 4.2 acres of old-vine Pommard clone Pinot Noir. We have also added plantings of Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Gewürztraminer and Riesling to continue perfecting our Alsatian style white wines.
Five Mountain is home to winemaker Adam Campbell’s family and the site of many of our summer gatherings where the view of Mount Hood is always a highlight.
Clay Court Vineyard
Clay Court is located in the picturesque Parrett Mountain area of the Chehalem Mountains AVA. Elk Cove purchased this great all Pinot Noir vineyard in 2009 because of its gentle southeast-facing slopes and signature dark red soil (Jory/volcanic clay).
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This 15-acre vineyard was planted in 2001 with Dijon 115 and 777, in addition to the historic Pommard clone of Pinot Noir. Clay Court is an ideal location for producing spicy Pinot Noir with concentrated red cherry fruit.
Clay Court is also home to Elk Cove’s founders, Pat and Joe Campbell. Outside their door sits their enormous vegetable garden and the namesake tennis court, perched at the top of the vineyard.
Goodrich Vineyard
Elk Cove Vineyards purchased Goodrich Vineyard in March of 2014. A 69-acre property planted with 21 acres of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, Goodrich sits just outside the town of Yamhill, Oregon in the heart of the Yamhill-Carlton AVA.
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Goodrich Vineyard was planted in 2007 with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir in high-density format. The property boasts the exact same marine sediment (Willakenzie) soil as our Mount Richmond property and lies just a few miles from our Winery Estate Vineyard.
“We always look out for great opportunities to secure grapes from top vineyard sites in great AVA’s in the Northern Willamette Valley. The chance to procure 21 acres of immaculately farmed Pinot Noir and Chardonnay vines in an area we knew was top notch was too much to pass up. Top reserve quality and single-vineyard Pinot Noirs have been made from this site by our friends at Raptor Ridge, Soter, King Estate and many others.” – Elk Cove Winemaker Adam Campbell
Mount Richmond Vineyard
Mount Richmond Vineyard sits on marine sediment soil (Willakenzie) in the foothills of the Coast Range Mountains. In the heart of the Yamhill Carlton AVA, this land was purchased in 1996 as a partnership between winemaker Adam Campbell, his wife Carrie Godlee-Campbell, and Elk Cove founders Pat and Joe Campbell.
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Mount Richmond was designed to emulate the wine quality of our Roosevelt Vineyard. The vines were planted in a high-density format using cuttings of Pommard clone Pinot Noir taken directly from that esteemed block. An elevation of just 300 feet allows for earlier ripening, which protects us from weather events. This also lengthens the harvest season, bringing out different flavor components compared to our higher elevation Estate Vineyard.
With close to 200 planted acres, Mount Richmond is the largest vineyard holding of Elk Cove. Several of the high-density blocks are newer (2009-2017) and now include the Dijon Clones (777 & 115). Already producing outstanding single vineyard Pinot Noirs, this vineyard will continue to develop its full potential in years to come.
Download the Mount Richmond East Vineyard Map
Download the Mount Richmond West Vineyard Map
Windhill Vineyard
Elk Cove has produced single vineyard pinot noirs from this beautiful hillside vineyard in Banks, Oregon since 1979. Windhill Vineyard was planted near the Hartwick Resevoir in 1974 by the Reece family, Oregon winegrowing pioneers, and was purchased by Elk Cove in 1996.
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South-facing slopes, loess soil (Laurelwood/windblown silt), mid-level elevation (500 feet) and low yields make Windhill a superior vineyard site. In addition, this vineyard boasts some of the oldest grapevines in the Northern Willamette Valley, including the Pommard clone vines we use for our single-vineyard Windhill Pinot Noir.
We have farmed Windhill using completely organic practices since 1999. Windhill is in the new Tualatin Hills AVA.