Vintage

The 2024 vintage here in the Willamette Valley was a winemaker’s dream: well-paced with idyllic conditions for cool climate vineyards.

The growing season started and ended cool and mild, with short heat-spikes in mid-summer. Winter and spring were wetter than average, giving the vines a head start underground. Budbreak in mid-April was followed by steady growth into June, when rains during bloom naturally lowered yields for us, lessening the need for thinning fruit. July and August were punctuated by several heat-spikes. Thankfully, the hottest temperatures occurred during the green phase of fruit maturation, while clusters are sunburn resistant. Toward the end of the growing season, a late August drizzle left our vines clean and refreshed, ripening a moderate quantity of very beautiful fruit. We looked forward to harvest with keen anticipation.

The 2024 harvest had a slower pace than typical. With the exception of some early sparkling wine picks, all fruit came in over the course of 40 days. We brought in our first Pinot the second week of September and harvest continued at a steady beat, allowing us to give each vineyard block and fermentation our optimal attention. After a very mild October with plenty of sunshine and wonderful diurnal swings in temperature, the first cold snap of November brought so much cold air, the cellar required extra heating during our white wine fermentations. The timing of harvest was close to our historic average, but within a longer window contributing to great hang-time.

Expect concentrated, fruit-forward wines with great complexity. We are hopeful that the 2024 will come to be considered a classic Willamette Valley vintage.

Vineyard

Mount Richmond Vineyard sits on Willakenzie soils in the heart of the Yamhill Carlton AVA. The site was purchased in 1996 as a partnership between winemaker Adam Campbell, his wife Carrie, and Elk Cove founders Pat and Joe Campbell.

The motivation for planting Mount Richmond was to emulate the wine quality from sites such as our esteemed Roosevelt vineyard. The vineyard now holds the honor as the largest vineyard holding of Elk Cove, totaling over 200 planted acres.

Mount Richmond sits at 300-500 feet elevation, lower than the vineyards planted at the winery, which allows for earlier ripening. Planted in a high-density format (2100 vines/acre), similar to Roosevelt, Mount Richmond sits on rolling hills just outside the town of Yamhill to the east of the Coast Range Mountains. In addition to the old vine Pommard selection, planted from select cuttings off of Roosevelt Vineyard, the blend now also includes equal parts of Dijon clones 115 and 777.