More about Schone Tal Cellars

SchöneTal is about as small as an Oregon winery gets: a family project in McMinnville making Pinot Noir by the barrel, sometimes by the handful of cases, and treating each lot with a light touch.

The name is German for "beautiful valley," a nod to the family's German heritage and to the Willamette Valley itself. The founders settled in McMinnville, the wife's hometown, after a few years in the Bay Area, and the winemaking bug came from volunteering at local harvests. With help from neighbors in the local wine community they made their first wine in 2014. The fruit is bought from sustainably farmed sites, above all the Hirschy Vineyard in the Yamhill-Carlton AVA, on Willakenzie marine-sediment soils, and the biodynamically certified Meredith Mitchell Vineyard in the McMinnville AVA.

The approach is minimal intervention: native-yeast fermentations, punch-downs by hand, whole clusters in proportions that vary with the season, ageing in neutral oak, and bottling without fining or filtration. Alongside vineyard-designate and Willamette Valley Pinots there is a tiny "Black Label" series, the family's favorite barrel of a vintage, often all Pommard clone and whole cluster, with German names. Expect savory, transparent, site-driven Pinot Noir in very small quantities.