Our History
A Look Back at Our Journey
In 2003, with a little luck and perfect timing, Cay and Michael Lichtenwalter purchased a thirty acre property in the beautiful and well respected Ribbon Ridge AVA in the north Willamette Valley of Oregon. There were only a handful of vineyards and wineries on Ribbon Ridge at that time. On this property there were 13 acres of woods, 17 acres of hazelnuts, and lucky for us a well and an approved septic field which allowed us to build a house on this agricultural property.
In 2005, an acre of hazelnut trees were cleared for a building site and house construction began. We took up full time residence on Ribbon Ridge in 2006. The half-acre Joy Block was also planted next to the house in 2005.
The main hazelnut orchard was bulldozed in 2007 and with the help of family and friends, three acres of wine grapes were planted. One acre each of Dijon 114, 115 and Pommard.
Over the next few years we slowly expanded the vineyard to 12 acres. During this time we realized the value of having a vineyard crew to take care of the day to day individual needs of Pinot Noir vines much more efficiently than we could. We consider ourselves lucky to have found the helpful expertise and knowledge of Javier Marin. As the owner of JM Vinegrower, Javier is a respected vineyard manager with over 25 years of experience.
Since 2010, we have sold our grapes to many talented local winemakers. Two of our clients, Fullerton Wines and Quintet Cellars (and soon a third, Eminent Domaine) use our grapes for vineyard designate selections. In 2018, we enlisted winemaker Drew Voit to create the Lichtenwalter Vineyard Estate collection of wines. These estate wines are a limited production of premium Pinot Noir. The label design illustrates the German derivation of Lichtenwalter, “light in the forest”, an appropriate symbol of the 13 acres of woods we are lucky to have in our beautiful westerly view.
