Willamette Valley Vineyards to open new winery in Oregon, US

Oregon-based winery Willamette Valley Vineyards has announced plans to build a new winemaking facility in the Dundee Hills, in an effort to meet increased demand.

The new winery is expected to become the company’s primary location for the production and bottling of wines including pinot noir and chardonnay under its various brands.

The facility will be built on 40 acres in the Dundee Hills and located close to its new dedicated sparkling winery at Bernau Estate Vineyard.

“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,” said the company’s winery director, Christine Clair.

Willamette Valley Vineyards founder and CEO, Jim Bernau, added: “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.

“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.”

The company has also revealed plans to open four new winery restaurants over the next two years.

The announcement builds on Willamette Valley Vineyards’ launch of its micro-winery in Folsom California last year, as it looks to introduce more consumers to its wines.