Wine Soundtrack - USA

After more than a decade of success as a corporate tax attorney in Cincinnati, Ohio, Dave Specter was emotionally and physically spent. His wife Sara convinced him to leave the profession and they turned the hobby that brought him joy—winemaking—into his new career. The pair had fallen in love with Newberg and the Willamette Valley while on vacation in 2008.
He left his legal career in 2009 to work as an unpaid cellar rat to award-winning winemaker Joe Henke of Henke Winery in Cincinnati. Joe mentored Dave for three years, during which time Dave enrolled in the Washington State University online enology course, earning a certificate. In 2011, Dave won two amateur national winemaking competitions with two different wines in two months; a year later the Specters relocated to Newberg. They established Bells Up in 2013. The first wines were released Memorial Day 2015, coinciding with the opening of the estate winery/tasting room.

We are proud to be Eugene, Oregon’s first bonded winery, with a heritage of hospitality that spans nearly four decades and three generations of female leadership. Established in 1979 by Doyle Hinman, Hinman Vineyards quickly became a top-selling winery in the state before being purchased in 1993 by Carolyn Chambers. A well-respected business and civic leader with deep roots in the Eugene community, Chambers rebranded the winery to Silvan Ridge after her maiden name “Silva,” and recruited her daughter Elizabeth out of a career in finance to act as General Manager. In just five short years, Elizabeth established Silvan Ridge as one of the foremost wineries in Oregon by limiting production to high quality wines reflective of the unique roots of Eugene and the Southern Willamette Valley. Today, Elizabeth’s daughter Julia acts as co-president alongside her husband, Andrew Stiltner. Together, they are championing a vision to bring the unassuming, casual elegance that Eugene is known for to the homes, tables, and celebrations of wine enthusiasts across the nation.
Under the guiding hand of our winemaker Juan Pablo “JP” Valot, Silvan Ridge Winery offers wine enthusiasts a selection of diverse and food-friendly wines representing the very best of the Southern Willamette Valley

If ever there were a Central Coast winery that embodied both a pioneering legacy with an innovative eye toward the future, it would be Beckmen Vineyards. Located in the heart of the Santa Ynez Valley wine country, Beckmen Vineyards was founded by Tom and Judy Beckmen in 1994, when the area was just beginning to blossom. Born of equal parts intrepid determination and elegant finesse—Beckmen wines capture the spirit of California in a glass. Today, Beckmen Vineyards stands as one of the seminal producers of estate-grown Syrah and Grenache varietal wines from Santa Barbara County.
The Beckmens first planted roots in the region when Tom and Judy Beckmen discovered a 40-acre vineyard and winery near the picturesque town of Los Olivos, CA. Just two years later, in 1996, their commitment to building a world-class estate vineyard led them to purchase an unplanted 365-acre ranch they would call Purisima Mountain in the nearby Ballard Canyon AVA, an area today considered one of California’s holy grails for Rhône varieties. The Purisima Mountain Vineyard became the first Demeter-certified biodynamic vineyard in Santa Ynez and is presently California’s fourth largest biodynamic vineyard.
At the heart of Beckmen is Tom and Judy’s son, Steve Beckmen, winemaker and vineyard manager, who has been running the winery since day one. A self-taught winemaker, Steve has pursued relentless experimentation and pushed boundaries in the vineyard and winery, establishing him as a trailblazer in the region. In the vineyard, his early obsession towards sustainability and biodynamics was unparalleled. In the cellar, Steve challenged standard practices by being one of the first in the region to embrace whole-cluster and native fermentations, both now widely utilized. His knowledge continues to evolve by keeping an eye on climate change, testing various blending and aging techniques, and conducting trials with skin-contact Viognier aged in amphora sans sulfur. Today, he remains one of the most respected farmers and winemakers on the Central Coast and is credited with helping put Santa Barbara on the wine map.

Tablas Creek Vineyard, a pioneer of California's Rhone movement, is the result of a decades-long friendship between the Perrin family of Château de Beaucastel and Robert Haas, longtime importer and founder of Vineyard Brands. In 1989, the partners purchased a 120-acre property in the rugged Adelaida District of west Paso Robles for its similarities to Châteauneuf du Pape: limestone soils and a favorable Mediterranean climate. They immediately began what would be a decade-long process of importing and propagating the traditional varietals grown at Beaucastel, which they use at their own organic estate vineyard and also made available to more than 600 vineyards and wineries around the west coast.

Tablas Creek’s wine production begins at their limestone-rich 120-acre organic estate vineyard, where vineyard practices emphasize dry farming and seek to maximize the expression of place. Since 2010, Biodynamic techniques have been incorporated and include an on-site mixed herd of sheep, alpacas and two guard donkeys that graze the cover crops while fertilizing the vineyard. The vineyard achieved Demeter Biodynamic certification in 2017. Winemaking is done entirely with native yeasts and aging of the reds and many whites is completed in 1200-gallon French oak foudres. Tablas Creek follows the centuries-old Châteauneuf du Pape tradition of blending to produce wines with complexity and balance while maximizing the expression of its unique terroir. The winery’s collection of Rhone-style red, white and rosé blends and varietal wines is available at the tasting room and at select restaurants and wine shops.

As Tablas Creek celebrates its 30th anniversary, the winery remains focused on the future. Muscardin, the 14th and final grape from the Beaucastel Chateauneuf-du-Pape collection, was grafted into the vineyard this summer, while three other new grapes (Bourboulenc, Cinsault, and Vaccarese) were harvested for the first time. Just as exciting, Tablas Creek was selected to be the pilot vineyard in the new Regenerative Organic certification, through which they hope to provide an example of how the wine community can lead the way to a more sustainable, more delicious future.

Scattered Peaks is an elevated spin on Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon carefully curated and elegantly crafted by wine industry icon, Derek Benham and legendary Napa Valley Winemaker, Joel Aiken.

Leveraging their deep passion for – and long history within – the California wine industry, Derek and Joel curate superior fruit from coveted regions throughout Napa Valley. Their plunder is then aged in carefully curated oak barrels and artfully blended to achieve the high levels of quality and experience.

Scattered Peaks is a creative marriage of Derek’s greatest loves: surfing, skiing and wine. A powerful triple-entendre, the term ‘Scattered Peaks’ refers to a surfing condition when waves approaching the shore split, creating different wave peaks. Secondly, the term signifies the many snowy peaks around the world that Benham has conquered with unmatched enthusiasm. Finally, ‘Scattered Peaks’ refers to our vineyards dotted across the world-renowned Napa Valley.

Poetry Vineyard is a steep, southwest-facing, hillside vineyard that reaches from the highest elevation in the Stags Leap District down to the Silverado Trail.
Made up of a combination of shallow, volcanic soils on top of fractured shale, this vineyard receives plenty of sunshine and is the source for the winery’s flagship Cabernet, Sauvignon, Poetry. The vineyards on the valley floor surrounding the tasting room and the winery are referred to
as Twin Peaks Ranch. The soil is predominantly gravelly loam, and the vines are planted to red Bordeaux
varieties. This property forms the backbone of the Cliff Lede Stags Leap District Cabernet Sauvignon.
The state-of-the-art winery, designed by Howard Backen, combines time-tested techniques with innovative technology.
It features a Pellenc optical sorting machine, which sorts grapes based upon quality settings
established by the winemaker.
Following an additional hand-sort, a unique crane system gently gravity delivers
the berries to tanks for fermentation, allowing for minimal processing of the fruit. In addition, Lede
commissioned American tank manufacturer Mueller to recreate distinctive truncated tanks similar to those at Château Latour, tapered to allow for a higher skin-to-juice ratio, resulting in greater complexity and a deeper concentration of flavors in the wine.

From the beginning, the character of Le Cadeau Vineyard was apparent. The aromatics were fresh and intense. The fruit flavors were pure and deep. There were hints of Asian spices mingled with an earthiness not often found in young Pinot noir wines. Those core characteristics remain today, regardless of the vintage or the winemaking.

Truly extraordinary winemakers from Oregon and beyond have collaborated with Le Cadeau and made excellent wines, but increasingly the adage rings true: Great Pinot noir is made in the vineyard. New clones and rootstocks have been added while farming practices have been pushed to ever-higher standards. As we move into our second decade of winegrowing in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, we’re confident that our best wines are yet to come.

Le Cadeau Pinot noir is all about this very special and unique vineyard in the Chehalem Mountains. We showcase various attributes of the vineyard–clones, soils, and aspect–by bottling small production cuveés from different sections of the vineyard.

Our search for a great site to plant Pinot Noir started in 1999, and ended on a warm April day in 2000. We walked up a hill into an old pasture we learned about from some friends and it was immediately clear how warm the site was, what perfect orientation it had and how well drained the soils were. Steve knew the minute he climbed into that pasture, that this was an A+ site; it had the right elevation, orientation and soil type.

Caring for the land, cultivating its greatest offering, and joining friends at the table. These are the things we love to do, and they’re all right here on the estate farm. Our founder caught sight of a vision as a boy from his relatives in Italy and Croatia: Staying close to the earth is staying close to the riches of life. Alloro Vineyard is how we take that tradition forward—thoughtfully growing Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Riesling, and Muscat and handcrafting them with utmost care into wines that recall a heritage of hard work, conviviality, and shared leisure.

The words Anam Cara are Celtic for "friend of my soul" and represent rare friendships that transcend time and distance.

Originally from Lodi, California (Nick) and Scotland (Sheila) the couple met in London while Sheila was in Public Relations and Nick was the European Marketing Manager for a US-based corporation. When Nick returned stateside in 1981, they were married in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Together, they opened a small chain of family-serving pizza parlors first in Benicia, California, and then in the Napa Valley. It was when they moved to St. Helena that their immersion in the world of wine began.

In 2001, the family came to Oregon, purchasing a rundown walnut, plum and filbert orchard which was to become the home of Nicholas Vineyard and Anam Cara Cellars wines. Nick and Sheila continue to farm the vineyard, assisted by their two dogs, Buck and Missy who welcome visitors and help keep the vineyard gopher free.