Seven Hills Vineyard
Seven Hills Vineyard is located 15 miles south of Amavi Cellars, in
Northern Oregon, within the Walla Walla Valley Appellation. The
original 24 acres of vines were planted in 1981, and over the past
two decades the vineyard has been expanded and now encompasses more
than 200 acres. It is the most well known of all our vineyards, and
many fine wineries utilize Seven Hills Vineyard grapes. Wine & Spirits Magazine
Seven Hills Vineyards sits on the edge of what used to be an enormous glacial lake. The mineral-rich, well-drained soil is topped by windblown loess. The technical classification of the soil is Ellingford Silt Loam, which is considered to be quite young in geological terms.
The vines, planted on a northward slope, receive approximately 8 to 10 inches of rainfall annually, thus irrigation is necessary. Vineyard Manager Chris Banek, meticulously monitors the irrigation of the vines. Water is pulled from a deep basalt well, which was drilled through more than 1100 feet of hard rock, into a surge pond. It is then distributed to the grapes via both above-ground and buried drip lines that are also used to spread compost tea to the vines.
The highest point of elevation is 800 feet above sea level. All grapes are trained on Smart-Dyson split canopy trellises, a system in which the vines are trained both up and down off the cordon wire, with the exception of five acres of Geneva Double Curtain. In the Geneva Double Curtain system of trellising, two cordon wires are strung four feet or higher off the ground. As shoots from the vines on these cordon wires grow, gravity pulls them downward like a curtain.