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Stoller Vineyards: Oregon's Corton Hill


Cathy & Bill Stoller

This is where I grew up. The 360 acre farm on the most southern slope of the Red Hills of Dundee that is now Stoller Vineyards and is known fondly as Corton Hill by longtime local winegrowers, recognizing its similarity to the famed wraparound hillside in Burgundy which begins the Cote de Nuits, became part of the Stoller Family in 1943. We still have a copy of the original contract for 200 acres bought for $17,000. (Read more about the Stoller Vineyards in our About Us section.)

The farm was primarily used to raise turkeys and cereal grains such as wheat, barley and oats for feeding the turkeys. In the mid-20’s my grandmother purchased a few turkeys to raise as pets. The turkeys reproduced to the point to where she ended up selling turkeys to local meat distributors. Somehow, my father and uncle took her hobby and became lifelong turkey farmers.

My father and uncle purchased a second farm one-half mile south of Lafayette where my parents soon began building a home in 1951 in which I lived through high school. My father and uncle decided to split the properties in 1968, so there wouldn’t be confusion among children as to who owned what.

What we all owned was work! As I reflect growing up on a turkey farm, the thought of work never leaves my mind. There was always something to do, from gathering turkey eggs to irrigating crops, preparing the brooder house for newborns, feeding and watering them, building fence, taking them out on range, trucking in the feed components to store in the granary, mixing the feed and then feeding them out on the range.

Another memory that is quite clear is hearing my father and uncle talk about the slopes of the land and the soil. They used to complain that it was so rocky that it would break discs and plows. It didn’t have the rich soil that allowed crops to grow well. They had to put on more turkey manure than normal in order to make it fertile enough to grow a crop. It was land that was high maintenance and relatively low return. Little did they know those attributes would be perfect 40 years later for grapes!

Our farm under a cousin’s direction grew to be the largest turkey growing facility in Oregon, raising over 17 million pounds of turkeys a year. In 1993 when the industry ceased to be viable, Cathy and I purchased the property from my cousin.

We decided we had the right site for a world class vineyard because of the soil (volcanic, iron-bearing Jory), elevation (300-600 ft) and southern slope. We gathered ideas from independent vineyard managers Joel Myers and Alan Holstein, who we hired as vineyard manager, and Harry and Patrice Rion. Advice suggested higher density plantings (1250 and 2600 vines per acre), use of rootstocks to preclude phylloxera, heavy use of the new Dijon clones of Chardonnay and Pinot noir, and drip irrigation. In the first years of planting, beginning in 1995, we put in an equal amount of Pinot noir and white varieties (chardonnay, pinot gris and pinot blanc), averaging 20 acres planted total per year. After this spring’s planting we will have approximately 75 acres planted. From this point on, we will plant primarily Pinot noir. The eventual goal is to have 200+ acres of the farm planted to grapes.

Besides Allen Holstein, vineyard supervisor Jaime Cantu, farm manager Mike Haverkate, and dozer expert Jerry Powell have made the operation happen. Because of almost flawless implementation it has happened quickly, with wines being made from harvest in 1996 and 1997.

--Bill Stoller