Temperance Hill Vineyard

Temperance Hill Vineyard is a 100 acre vineyard made up of roughly 20 different blocks of wine grapes. The site itself is 200 acres (lots of room to grow) in the west Eola Hills, just west of Salem, Oregon. It has an elevation range of 660 to 860 feet making it a cool, late site; excellent growing conditions for Pinot Noir. The soils are predominantly Nekia, Rittner and Jory. The site is thought to be the remnants of an ancient volcano and grapes are planted on many different slopes with varying exposures.

80% of the vineyard is planted in Pinot Noir, the rest is made up of Chardonnay, Gewurztraminer and Pinot Gris. The oldest vines at Temperance were planted in 1980 and 81 and are on a hanging trellis system. The more recent plantings of Dijon clone material are on a single upright vertical trellis system. The latest plantings are on a single arm Guyot system and have 1550 vines per acre. Some of the blocks in the latest planting are Dijon clone Pinot Noir and some are Pommard clone.

Dai Crisp took over management of the vineyard in 1999 and since then has farmed it all in accordance with Oregon Tilth Organic Certification standards. The vineyard is both Food Alliance and Salmon Safe Certified. All the materials used in the vineyards are OMRI (Organic Materials Review Institute) certified or Tilth approved. Dai uses mechanical cultivation rather than herbicides and usually does two jobs at once, like mowing while in-row cultivating, to increase the efficiency of fuel and tractor use. All the handwork is done by a 13 man crew, the core of which has been with Dai since 1999.

The target crop level for the pinot noir is two tons to the acre and the fruit goes to 20 clients including Adelsheim, Bergstrom, Brooks, Chehalem, Elk Cove, Evesham Wood, JK Carriere, Lange, Love and Squalor, Lumos, Mystic, Panther Creek, Pheasant Court, R. Stuart & Co., Ransom, St. Innocent, Stevenson-Barrie, Union Wines and Wiles Cellars.