Maison Louis Jadot is expanding its presence in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, where the French négociant’s Résonance winery has been making impressive Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays since 2013. This week, Jadot acquired an 82.5-acre property in the Eola-Amity Hills AVA, including the 44-acre Koosah Vineyard.
“It will give us an opportunity to grow our Chardonnay production, and we wanted to add a new AVA to our program,” Thibault Gagey, director of operations for Résonance, said of the move. “There are many good places in the valley to make wine, and to us, there are three very special places: Yamhill-Carlton, Dundee Hills and Eola-Amity Hills. So, after we purchased land in the first two, it was a natural progression to find something here in Eola-Amity Hills.”
Eola-Amity Pinot Noirs are known for their intensity and vibrant acidity and are a good complement to the elegance of Dundee Hills and the dark, savory fruit of Yamhill-Carlton. The sellers, Kevin and Carla Chambers, previously sold Résonance Vineyard to Jadot in 2013, and began developing Koosah in 2016, eventually planting 26 acres of Chardonnay and 18 of Pinot Noir. Another 5 acres are ready to plant on the ranch.
The vineyard is in the same neighborhood as high-profile Eola-Amity vineyards Cristom, Temperance Hill and Seven Springs. It’s southeast-facing, rocky and steeply sloped, reaching some of the highest elevations in Eola-Amity, 700 to 1,100 feet. Koosah takes its name from a Native American Chinook term meaning “Heavenly Sky.”
“It’s too big of a coincidence that we decided to sell at the same time that Résonance was looking for a special site to express the Eola-Amity terroir,” Kevin Chambers said in a statement.
With the addition of Koosah, Jadot now owns 138 acres of vineyards in Willamette Valley in three different AVAs. The 79-acre Résonance Vineyard in Yamhill-Carlton is also home to the winery, and the 15-acre Découverte vineyard is in Dundee Hills. The winery currently makes about 10,000 cases of wine annually.
Financial terms of the Koosah sale were not disclosed but for Résonance and Louis Jadot, it’s a good investment. “The idea,” Gagey said, “is to be in Oregon for the long term.”
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