CORUS EXPANDS IN OREGON
with permission of Wine Press NW
Corus Estates & Vineyards, based in Seattle, has a fascinating history - and it gets more interesting all the time.
Corus can trace its beginnings to the late 1950s when a group of University of Washington professors got together to make wine and formed Associated Vintners. AV was Washington’s first producer dedicated to wines made from European (vinifera) grape varieties. In the early ’80s, AV became Columbia Winery and moved from Seattle to nearby Woodinville. In the ’90s, it acquired other wineries, including Covey Run and Paul Thomas in Washington and Ste. Chapelle and Pintler (now Sawtooth) in Idaho. The parent group overseeing these wineries became Corus Brands, and it planted a huge vineyard in the eastern Columbia Gorge called Alder Ridge.
Earlier this decade, Corus sold most of its wineries (Columbia, Covey Run, Paul Thomas and Ste. Chapelle) to wine giant Canandaigua and was left with Sawtooth Winery, its two estate vineyards in Idaho’s Snake River Valley and Alder Ridge Vineyard. Led by CEO Stan Baty and President Ken McCabe, Corus began to rebuild and launched the highly regarded Zefina Winery in Seattle, the Alder Ridge label and Battle Creek, a Pinot Noir label in Oregon’s Willamette Valley.
On Monday, Corus announced the opening of a new custom-crush facility in Dundee, Ore., right in the middle of Ya mhill County. Called Twelfth and Maple Wine Co., it is a 70,000-square-foot operation that will be used to make the award-winning Battle Creek wine. It also will make wines for such top Oregon producers as Erath, Hatcher Wineworks, A to Z, Brooks, Daedalus and Francis Tannahill. Former Rex Hill winemaker Aron Hess will oversee production of all wines made at the facility, and Sam Tannahill will continue his role as consulting winemaker for Battle Creek.
An ongoing pictorial of Dundee Nut House into world class winery. Although the dust isn’t close to settling we will give you an exclusive, on going pictorial of the transformation of an old warehouse into a world class winery.
The outside
Covered bay
Offices and Tasting Room
Lower Level 1
Lower Level 2
Upper Level Wine Room and shippingÂ
Quailhurst, Trinity, Vitae Springs, Cost Vineyards, Elkstrom, Dobbes Family Estates and some production bottling for Torri Mor has kep Joes winery, located next to the Pinot Station in Dundde hopping for the past few days. Of special note was the bottling of a Pinot Port for Quailhurst Vineyard Estates. There are lots of pictures here, so take your time and see a modern bottling operation do it’s stuff. Click here for the event gallery.
This fine wine is now available on our winery direct homepage.
We may be small but we are gowing rapidily, the latest additions to our winery direct sales are Chateau Bianca.
Wine Country Farms has chosen the oregonwineconnion.com winery direct sales as their WWW sales force. Wine Country Farms’ wines have only been available at their tasting room, located at the Wine Country Farms Bed and Breakfast in Dayton Oregon. Visit their web site at