Page 15 - Grapevine March-April 2020

In The Winery

to son Alex and his siblings. As a teenager, Alex
caught the wine bug during a trip to France with
his father. His interest continued when he jour-
neyed with his family through Burgundy, Bordeaux,
Champagne and other Old World re-gions. During
these trips, he learned how wine can serve as a
bridge between cultures.

After high school, Alex attended OSU, where
he graduated with an economics degree before
en-rolling in the Viticulture and Enology program.
Here he obtained the scientific skills needed to
fine-tune the informal education and refined palate
he received from his parents.

After college, Alex worked at Drylands Winery in
Marlborough, New Zealand, as well as Pen-ner-Ash
Wine Cellar and Bergström Wines, two wineries
based in Newburg, Oregon. While get-ting hands-
on experiences at Willamette Valley wineries, he
gained an in-depth understanding of Willamette
Valley soils. While the Valley’s soil is known inter-
nationally for producing award-winning Pinot Noirs,
other area soils are ideally suited for growing white
wines such as Char-donnay and Pinot Gris. In some
instances, the same soil can produce both grapes.

In 2011, Alex and his family put that Willamette
Valley soil to the test. Despite a challenging grow-
ing season, they achieved success with the 468
Chardonnay vines planted at Estate Ivy Slope
Vineyard, the formal name of the family’s backyard
in Beaverton, Oregon, on the northern border of
Willamette Valley.

From the winery’s inception, the Fullertons have
sought to produce quality fruit that mitigates the
impact of climate change. They achieved this goal
by employing organic and biodynamic farming
methods such as permanent cover cropping and
the use of organic fertilizers.

Looking to the Soil

Since then, the Fullertons expanded their winery
by exploring which grapes work best with the type
of soil in a given vineyard. The soils present in the
Willamette Valley are sedimentary, vol-canic, and
loess. The history of how the soil came to be so

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