Pike Road Wines Soil Series: Sandstone

Pictured: Marine soils at Quandary Vineyards looking south down the Yamhill Valley

Pike Road Wines Soil Series

The Willamette Valley has quite the soil story to tell! Whether it's volcanic eruptions, oceanic deposits, strong winds, or glacial floods - each soil has its sub-plot. At roughly 120 miles long and 40 miles wide the beautiful Willamette Valley offers a complex mélange of these distinctive soils that are exposed in the eroding hillsides and planted to grapevines. Each grapevine is influenced by the soil it is planted on, impacting the development of the grapes and contributing to the stylistic nuances of the wine’s aromas and flavors. To highlight this incredible connection between earth and vine, each vintage features one of the three major soils found in the Willamette Valley, letting this incredible connection speak through what we call the Soil Series! 

Introducing the 2023 Sandstone Soil Series Pinot Noir! 

For the 2023 vintage, we are highlighting one of the oldest soils found in the Willamette Valley – Marine Sediments. These soils derive from sand and silt sedimentation underneath the cold Pacific Ocean waters over a 20 – 40 million timeframe creating a fractured beige-colored sandstone. Interestingly, because of the cold ocean conditions of our northern Pacific Ocean, there was very little Limestone deposited during the development of these soils. Instead, our icy waters created an array of free-draining fractured sandstones that underly much of western Oregon. Tectonic movements and activity of the Pacific Plate and Juan De Fuca Plate encountering the North American Plate over millennia have lifted and exposed these soils in the greatest quantities along the Coast Range of the Willamette Valley. 

Soil Profile: The Marine Sediments of the Willamette Valley have many different variants, with Willakenzie, Melbourne, Goodin, and Bellpine being the most significant. These sandstone-based soils can be quite shallow - meaning less topsoil before the roots reach the sandstone bedrock.  These soils provide very little water retention, forcing vines to dig deep to survive. The fractured sandstone creates extra water stress for the vines during our dry summers which generally causes smaller berry development and slows the development of the skin tannins, providing the unique aromatic and flavor profile of these Pinot Noirs. 

Wine Styles: Darker fruits such as black cherry and blackberry along with complex savory layers and dark floral notes often define the profile of wines from marine sediments. The tannins tend to be big creating wines with broad shoulders and deep flavors. Wines from marine sediment soils can often require a little extra bottle age to show their best but once given the time, they are capable of producing some of the most intense and dynamic Pinot Noirs found in the Willamette Valley.