Willamette Valley Vineyards to build new winery in Oregon, US

Willamette Valley Vineyards has announced plans to construct a new winery in Dundee Hills and open four new restaurants in Oregon and Washington in the US.

The new winery will be built near Willamette Valley Vineyards’ new boutique at Bernau Estate Vineyard on 40 acres of land in the Dundee Hills which was acquired by the company four years ago.

This is planned to become the primary location of the company to produce and bottle its various brands.

Willamette Valley Vineyards winery director Christine Clair said: “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.”

Civil engineering company Steve Martin Associates has been appointed to support the planning, design and development of the new facility.

Willamette Valley Vineyards is also planning to open four new restaurants, collectively named ‘Winery Restaurants’, in Lake Oswego, Happy Valley and Bend in Oregon and on the Vancouver Waterfront in Washington, in the next two years.

These new restaurants are expected to provide Pacific Northwest-inspired dishes along with the firm’s classic Oregon wines and a new membership programme to its customers.

Willamette Valley Vineyards founder and CEO Jim Bernau said: “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.”

Founded in 1983, the company currently comprises 16 owned or leased vineyards totalling 490 producing acres.