Champoeg Wine Cellars

Champoeg Wine Cellars
10375 Champoeg Rd NE
Aurora, Oregon
USA 97002
Phone: (503) 678-2144
http://www.champoegwine.com/

Email: [email protected]

Champoeg Wine Cellars is located southwest of Portland, Oregon in the historical Champoeg State Park region of the north Willamette River Valley. Established in 1990 and opening to the public in the Fall of 1992, our ambition is to produce premium Oregon wines at everyday affordable prices.

Champoeg Vineyard is planted on the south facing slope of a small hill known as La Butte overlooking the beautiful French Prairie. With elevations ranging from 200 to 450 feet, the southern exposure provides the warmth and sunlight needed to ripen grapes to their fullest potential. Planting began on the twenty acre site in 1974 with Pinot Noir. Soon after followed Chardonnay and White Riesling. In 1990, Pinot Gris was added to the vineyard. Since the first harvest in 1978 Champoeg Vineyard has sold strictly to Northwest wineries.


Winery construction began the summer of 1992 with additional crush and storage space completed in 1993. The facility is designed to be cost effective and energy efficient, allowing for the economical control of temperatures throughout the winemaking process. Current winery capacity is 15,000 gallons in tank and 3500 gallons in barrel. Varietals produced include Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, and White Riesling with selective lots of Gewürztraminer and Pinot Noir Blanc.

Large tasting room windows invite visitors to view both vineyard and winery activities while enjoying the comfortable surroundings. Champoeg Wine Cellars offers tastings and tours, case discounts, wine related gifts and accessories and picnic facilities.

History
The name Champoeg, pronounced "Champ-oo-eg", is a derivative of the French and Kalapuyan Indian languages of the early 1800's. A "poeg" or "pooitch" was the Indian term for the camas flower bulb. Every fall the roots were dug in large quantities to be eaten as a starch during the winter. The prefix "cham", meaning field, is derived from the predominantly French settlers of the era. Thus the name Champoeg means "the field of the camas roots". Although there no longer exist 'fields' of camas flowers, the beautiful violet blue camas can still be found in the area today in the early spring.

Discovery of Pinot Meunier winegrapes on the site when it was planted in the early 1970's prompted investigation revealing that the site supported winegrape vineyards at various times from the 1840's until the 1930's. An 1880 farm report referred to Butteville, our neighboring community, as the "Wine Capital of the Oregon Territory". This can be attributed to the fact that the area was largely settled by French-Canadians of the Hudsons Bay Company during the early 1800's prior to the arrival of settlers traveling the Oregon Trail.

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