Ken Wright, the founder of Ken Wright Cellars, is among the founding fathers of the Willamette Valley winemaking industry. Today, you can find Ken hard at work in the vineyard, winery, or tasting room.
Ken Wright Cellars Story
A trip to friends in the Dundee Hills in 1976 convinced Ken that this was where the finest Pinot noir in North America was being grown. Still, he stayed in California for another ten years before moving to Oregon. Meanwhile, he gained invaluable experience making wine for Ventana Vineyards, Chalone, and Talbott Vineyards in Monterey County of California’s central coast.
In 1986 Ken Wright with his family moved to McMinnville, Oregon, and started Panther Creek Cellars.
During his first years in Willamette Valley began focusing on single-vineyard wines, like they do in the best vineyards of Burgundy. Ken solidified his core winemaking philosophy in 1994 when he founded Ken Wright Cellars. Today Ken makes a single vineyard bottling from 13 vineyard sites in the Northern Willamette Valley.
Besides working on his own winery, Ken Wright contributed enormously to winemaking in Willamette valley. He was instrumental in organizing the six new American Viticultural Area (AVA) that define the distinct growing areas within the region.
Ken Wright’s contributions are so extensive that May 2015 Wine Spectator article needed nine pages to cover all his lifetime achievements in the Oregon Pinot Noir industry and his local philanthropies.
Of course, the wine speaks louder than any article. Over 120 Ken Wright Cellars wines received 90+ points from Wine Spectator and Wine Enthusiast and kept going. In 2014, Ken’s 2012 Abbott Claim Vineyard Pinot Noir was ranked the number one wine in the world by Wine Enthusiast.
Tasting Room
Ken Wright Cellars’ tasting room in Carlton is a historical building used to be a train station built in 1923. Ken and his wife, Karen, open it in 2003 after a couple of years of extensive restoration.
The flights are changing to keep it interesting, and when we were there last time, we were lucky to have a horizontal flight of single-vineyard Pinot Noir: 2017 Canary Hill and 2017 Carter both are from Eola-Amity AVA 2017 Abbot Claim, and 2017 Savoya from Dundee Hills AVA. It offered us a unique opportunity to compare AVAs and individual vineyards to each other, taste the difference each terroir makes.
As wine swingers, we always have nerdy questions about the wine we taste and vineyards where the fruit comes from. If you have an inquisitive mind and like to know everything about the wine you’re drinking, Ken Wright Cellars is worth the visit. The staff knows all the nitty-gritty details of every wine they pour, can share details of 40-years long Ken’s winemaking story, and everything you might want to know about the wine you’re tasting.
You might be lucky and meet Ken himself. But don’t expect him to wear fancy clothes. He might be heading to the vineyard or production facility after speaking with you.
What are your thoughts if you tasted Ken Wright Cellar’s wine? What are your favorites from Willamette Valley of Oregon?
