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Reviews

97-98 -Decanter -

Technical Details

  • Blend 100% Chardonnay
  • Winemaker Ben Casteel
  • Country US
  • Region Oregon
  • Sub Region Willamette Valley
  • Appellation Willamette Valley
  • Vineyard Bethel Heights Vineyard
  • Farming Method Certified Organic
  • Oak French oak barrels
  • Fermentation barrel fermented
  • Aging / Cooperage aged 12 months in French oak and 6 months in stainless steel
  • Alcohol 13.1%
  • Production 5 cases

Bethel Heights Willamette Valley Wine Auction Chardonnay Willamette Valley 2024

Chardonnay | Oregon

DC97-98

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Certified Organic

$239.95

750ML

Bethel Heights has been farming the same volcanic hillside in the Eola-Amity Hills since 1977, when twin brothers Ted and Terry Casteel and their families planted the first vines on 50 acres of south-facing slopes northwest of Salem. Nearly five decades later, some of those original plantings (own-rooted Chardonnay from Wente and Dijon clones) are among the last surviving own-rooted vinifera in the entire Eola-Amity Hills AVA. Ben Casteel, Terry's son, took over as winemaker in 2006 and has continued his father's philosophy: let the Jory volcanic soil and the Eola-Amity's signature marine winds do the talking. The estate grows Chardonnay here not as an afterthought but as a genuine statement of terroir, and this bottling, made exclusively for the Willamette Valley Wine Auction in a numbered, signed edition, is that statement at its most concentrated and intentional.

Recent Bethel Heights Chardonnay has drawn scores as high as 97 from Decanter, and the 2024 follows a run of critically acclaimed releases. Expect the estate's characteristic balance of restraint and richness: stone fruit, white flower, and a mineral salinity that is the unmistakable signature of Jory soil Chardonnay, knit together by the kind of structure that comes only from old vines and careful hands. This is one of Oregon's most compelling white wines, made in a quantity so small the number is printed right on the label.

About The Producer

Bethel Heights is about as close to a founding family of the Eola-Amity Hills as you can get. In 1977, twin brothers Ted and Terry Casteel and their wives Pat Dudley and Marilyn Webb left academia behind, cleared 25 acres of abandoned walnut trees on a volcanic hillside west of Salem, and planted some of the first Pinot Noir vines in what would eventually become one of Oregon's most celebrated AVAs. Those original cuttings came from Dick Erath's vineyard and went into the ground on their own roots, ungrafted, at a time when almost no one was betting on Oregon to produce world-class Pinot. Today those legacy blocks remain among the last own-rooted Pinot Noir and Chardonnay vines in the world, and they still form the backbone of the estate's finest wines. For the first two decades Ted managed the vineyard and Terry made the wine, with the estate certified Salmon Safe and LIVE long before sustainable viticulture became fashionable in the valley. The second generation took over naturally and enthusiastically: Ben Casteel, Terry and Marilyn's son who grew up running between the vine rows, staged a harvest in Burgundy, worked his way up under Lynn Penner-Ash at Rex Hill, and assumed the winemaker role in 2006. Today five cousins are co-owners and stewards of the 80-plus acre property, with a third generation of ten kids already growing up on the farm. The wines are precise, site-driven, and built for the table, everything you want from a family that has never once taken their foot off the gas.

$239.95

750ML