Calamity Hill

Oregon's Smallest Licensed Producer of Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris

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Our Wines

By Tom Vail

Our wines are the end product of all the work to grow and harvest the grapes.

img16Our Vineyard Manager, Jessica Cortell, owner of Vitis Terra Vineyard Services, has done a great job maintaining the health of our vineyard and the quality of our fruit. We have been fortunate to find four outstanding winemakers willing to work with us to make wine from our very small amount of fruit.  It is basically just as hard (maybe harder) to make 50 cases of pinot gris as it is to make 500. Our Winemakers are/have been: Michael Stevenson: Pinot Noir from 2007 to 2009, Chris Lubberstedt: Pinot Noir from 2010 to 2014 and Rosé from 2012 to 2014,  and Geoffrey Crowther: Pinot Gris from 2007 to date, and our new winemaker for all Pinot Noir and Rosé from the 2015 harvest onward is Greg McClellan.  We are also fortunate as our vineyard site has wonderful conditions for growing our pinot noir and pinot gris. We invite you to visit and taste the unique character of our wines, typically acid driven reflecting our cool site with its north slope and 480′-500′ elevation in the Willamette Valley’s Eola-Amity Hills AVA.

Garden Shed Red Pinot Noir  …is a field blend of the 777, 115 and Pommard clones.  It is best served just below room temperature – about 65 degrees. Both the aroma and flavors benefit from an hour or more of breathing or with decanting. As is the case with most Pinot Noir, Garden Shed Red is best with a meal as it is considered the most food-friendly wine in the world.

Our Black Label Reserve Pinot, 2012 and 2014, are made from the exact same fruit as our 2012 and 2014 Garden Shed Red.  We call them “Reserve” because we added new french oak to our barrel program for these wines and aged them for at least 18 months in oak instead of the normal 9 months.  We liked the result so much that we have decided that from the 2015 vintage onward, we will make only one pinot and it will use more new oak and be aged for at least 18 months in barrel, like the Black Label Reserves.  The 2015 is labeled as Garden Shed Red but from 2016 Pinot, we have bottled with a black label very similar to the Black Label Reserve.

Starlight White Pinot Gris displays the exceptional aromas and flavors you would expect from vines which are only asked to produce about 1.5  tons of fruit per acre.  It is best served very cool – 45 degrees – as a great summer refresher. It also goes well with fish, white meats, and salads. We think you will find our Pinot Gris to have a very special character. If you think of Pinot Gris as a fairly bland wine, you haven’t tried our Starlight White.  Our cool, north facing site at 480 to 500 feet is ideal for this cool climate wine.

Our Rosé of Pinot Noir is made from 100% pinot noir grapes grown at Calamity Hill.  Don’t mistake this for other Rosés of the past.  This is not just leftover wine at the winery that is blended then has sugar added to make a sweet pink wine.  This is a purposefully created wine that we think is a great summer drink, on its own or with almost any meal.  It is, like our Starlight White Pinot Gris, best served cool – 50 degrees.   We made only 20 cases of our 2018 Rosé so it is likely as rare a wine as you will ever drink.

Our 2019 Chardonnay?  On April 18, 2019, we chopped the top off all 500 of our Pinot Gris vines and grafted them over to Chardonnay.  Their growth has been amazing and we hope to make a VERY small batch of chardonnay, 2019 vintage.  Stay tuned to see if that happens or if you will need to wait for the 2020 vintage for a chardonnay from Calamity Hill grapes.

Every wine we produce is made exclusively from fruit grown at Calamity Hill and is always 100% the varietal shown on the label.

Currently Available:

August, 2018 – Products/Prices

Product                                                                                           Bottle       Case

2011 Garden Shed Red Pinot Noir  – 750 ml – SALE.       $20             $20

2013  Garden Shed Red Pinot Noir  – 750 ml                        $29             $25

2014  Garden Shed Red Pinot Noir  – 750 ml                        $29             $25

2015  Garden Shed Red Pinot Noir  – 750 ml                        $29             $25

2016  Black Label Pinot Noir     –      750 ml                           $29             $25

2014 Black Label Reserve – Pinot Noir – 750 ml                    $35            $30

2018  Starlight White – Pinot Gris  – 750 ml                                    $23             $20

2017  Starlight White – Pinot Gris  – 750 ml                                    $23             $20

2016  Starlight White – Pinot Gris  – 750 ml                                    $23             $20

2018 Rosé of Pinot Noir                  – 750 ml                                   $18            $16

2007, ’08, ’09 ’10 – Garden Shed Red – Pinot Noir – Magnum     $75   Sale-$50

‘11 Garden Shed Red – Pinot Noir – Magnum                     $60         Sale-$50

Calamity Hill 100% Oregon-grown and Oregon-milled Olive Oil

2018 Olive Oil is available in:  250 ml (8.45 oz)                                 $18

                                                 and 500 ml (16.9 oz.)                                 $35

Calamity Hill Logo Pinot Noir Style Glass   (24 oz.)                               $5

Calamity Hill Logo Pinot Gris Style Glass   (12 oz.)                          $3

Calamity Hill Logo Pulltap Cork Screw/Wine Key                                 $12

Where to Buy Calamity Hill Wines

Just  contact us using the form at the bottom of this page, and tell us what you want. We will respond promptly. If you are in our local area, we can probably arrange to deliver to you. If you are out of our area, we will get the cost to send the wine via FedEx or UPS to you and let you know.

You can also contact us (Natch4@gmail.com)

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