ORGANIC AND DRY FARMING
Our wines bear an unmistakable connection to the earth—and not only because grapes grow in dirt. Air, water, soil, animals—entire ecosystems—make our wines what they are. Knowing this, we employ organic practices throughout our business. Whether we’re dry-farming grapes from our Organically Certified estate vineyards or from our LIVE and Salmon Safe and Organic certified sites, hosting a winemaker dinner made from organic ingredients grown nearby, or building our winery and tasting room with a low-emission footprint combining recycled steel and cedar salvaged from century year old barns in the Willamette Valley, we search for ways to work in harmony with the natural environment. We dry farm our 60 acres of estate vineyards with our in house team. We believe that dry farming pro-acts the roots of the grapevine and strengthens their work to descend into the parent material of subsoil finding water, in the process creating incredible fruit character.
PROCESS
Winemaking at Purple Hands is low-intervention from start to finish. Fruit arrives on the crush pad for sorting from the vineyard picked At 45 degree temperatures as the sun rises in the morning.
Pinot Noir is de-stemmed into open top fermenters into the cellar for slow cold soaks on the delicate Pinot skins before native fermentations begin. The soaking on skins process is all done naturally without any temperature exchanging units. Whole cluster is used in larger or smaller amounts depending upon what the temperatures and ripeness of the fruit. The ferments are then soft pressed and settle then racked to barrels for aging and “raised” in hand-made vessels from our favorite European forests.
Chardonnay is picked early at low Brix to preserve bright, zippy acidity. A small portion of skin contacted juice is drained back into the press, after which the juice is deliberately oxidized over several days to naturally drop astringencies and restructure phenolics at the juice stage. This process, what we call “blackening the Chardonnay” stabilizes the wine early, enhancing texture and long-term ageability. Following this oxygen exposure, the juice ferments natively before being finished with our preferred yeast strains. All Chardonnay undergoes 100% malolactic fermentation and is finished at an ideal pH of approximately 3.25.
We add nothing and take nothing away. All juice and wine is made without artificial ingredients, guided only by the integrity of the fruit and the moment it leaves the vine. What you taste is the natural place, unfiltered and unapologetically honest.
CLONE
Pommard, Wädenswil, Coury, Dijon 777, Dijon 943 and Dijon 115 are the primary clones Cody chooses to work with both for their transparent personalities and how they express Pinot noir from our ancient soil types. Each one can be bottled separately as clone-specific and can construct a complete wine: front palate, mid-palate, and finish. Clones are very important as they are the vocabulary of the vineyard’s language. Each clone has a unique flavor profile that’s rooted in its DNA and further individualized by its growing site.
EARTH
We work diligently every year to ensure that our wines convey flavor profiles created by millions of years of geological evolution to those who drink them. From Jory (Volcanic) to Marine Sedimentary, soil type affects the fruit characteristics of the wine (red, blue, or black) as well as its spice, earth, and sweet or savory attributes. Elevation is also significant; vineyards at lower elevations produce more fruit-forward wines, while those at higher elevations provide a more mineral-driven result.
