“An excellent vineyard site and pinot noir, a fine facility, and a dedicated, kind, and talented team… this bodes well for illahe’s success”
–RUSS RANEY,
EVESHAM WOOD
ILLAHE is a Chinook Jargon word meaning “earth,” “land,” or “soil.” We feel this fits both our location in Oregon and our desire to craft wine that expresses the variety of soils on the estate, which include golden sedimentary clay, orange volcanic soils, and light taupe loams.
ILLAHE Vineyards was established in 2000 by Lowell Ford, grower of Oregon grapes since 1983. The 50-acre vineyard is home for 35 acres of pinot noir and smaller plantings of riesling, pinot gris, grüner veltliner and other varietals. We purchase our viognier from Plagmann Vineyards.
ILLAHE’s winemakers are Brad Ford and Michael Lundeen. Their winemaking emphasizes small-batch ferments with a diversity of yeast and whole-cluster percentages, often with treaded punchdowns, allowing the winemakers to feel the fermentation kinetics. They shovel the pomace into a wooden basket press, helping eliminate seed tannins and providing an exceptionally gentle pressing. Whites are temperature-controlled and adjusted in small tank lots. Michael and Brad work together on selecting the best barrels of pinot noir from a diverse selection of coopers to create the reserve and grand reserve bottlings. All their processes are natural, careful, and clean.