A Rare, All-Sparkling Winery Opens a Tasting Room This Spring
A rendering of the patio at the Corollary Wines tasting room
In Willamette Valley, which made its name in pinot noir, Corollary Wines stands out as they build Oregon’s only privately owned estate winery dedicated entirely to sparkling wine.
Yes, other winemakers nearby, like Argyle Winery, have built fame on sparkling wines. But only bubbles? Well, that makes a statement. The couple behind the venture, Jeanne Feldkamp and Dan Diephouse, founded Corollary in 2017 and purchased a 57-acre property in the Eola-Amity Hills AVA in 2022. They planted 13 acres of pinot noir, chardonnay, and Pinot Meunier—the three classic Champagne grapes—along with the less-common Pinot Blanc. At the top of the hill sits the tasting room in progress, designed by Waechter Architecture, the firm behind the Society Hotel in Hood River and Portland’s immersive art gallery Hopscotch. The brick-red tasting room, which will include features like a rainwater-collecting roof, lots of vineyard views, and a bubble-inspired glass chandelier from France, is scheduled to open in spring 2024.
Dan Diephouse and Jeanne Feldkamp are the owners of Corollary Wine.
This turn of events was a surprise to Feldkamp and Diephouse. “We were not planning on buying a vineyard,” says Feldkamp. “But we saw the potential immediately and got excited about the possibilities. They say that winds from the Van Duzer Corridor will cool the grapes at night, and that the chillier temperatures of the site’s higher elevation grapes hang onto their acidity. All tastings will be led by the winemakers themselves. “There’s a big education component in our tastings,” says Feldkamp. “It’s really fun seeing people discover something completely new and get really excited about it.”
They’re hoping that their wines can give a clear expression of what Eola-Amity sparkling wine tastes like, just like you’ve come to expect a certain flavor from France's Champagne. We’ll find out in nine years or so; Corollary is already known for its lengthy, 30–60 month periods of lees aging (their 2018 Namaste Brut was released this year), and it’ll be four years before their grapes are ready to harvest. This is not a field for the impatient.
