We were tickled this week to discover a lovely feature about our dear friends, Mike and Julie Slater of Tonnelier Vineyard in the Yamhill-Carlton AVA, on the Sustainability Trend Spotting blog. We’ve been exclusively sourcing our Pinot noir Dijon clones 115 and 777 from Mike (pictured above with Dave at their first harvest) and Julie since 2013, and they are the source of our single-vineyard Villanelle Reserve Pinot noir.
The feature, “Happy Earth Month | Try Some Sustainable Wine,” was written ahead of Earth Day (Saturday, April 22, 2017). It discusses how Tonnelier Vineyard has been farmed with sustainable practices from the beginning, and was officially Low Input Viticulture and Enology (LIVE) certified in 2012.
We were even more surprised to discover that Bells Up was included in the feature, as Mike brought blogger Colleen over for a wine tasting at our place so she could sample some of what she called “the magical partnership between a micro wine grower and wine maker.”
Her favorite?
“If I were pressed to pick only one favorite bottle from the Bells Up Winery collection, I’d have to go with the 2014 Villanelle Pinot Noir. It is a really special, limited edition reserve sourced solely from Tonnelier. Lots of dark berries with the smooth, silky finish you’d expect from a great Oregon Pinot Noir. But, don’t make me choose—they were all high quality wines.”