King Estate Winery

The Free Bacchus Story

Ed King was buying hay for his horses when he found a 600-acre cattle ranch near Lorane, outside Eugene. He and his father bought it in 1991, planted the first 16.5 acres of vines in 1992, and had more than a hundred acres in the ground by 1994. The estate now runs to 1,033 acres.

It is a big operation for a Biodynamic one. King Estate makes about 250,000 cases a year, which puts it among Oregon’s five largest producers, and it is known above all for Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir. The vineyard had been certified organic since 2002, so going Biodynamic was quick: King Estate applied in September 2015, was listed as in conversion that January, passed its inspection on 5 July and was certified on 23 September 2016.

Doing it at this size took some improvising. The viticulture team turned two old spray tanks into sprayers for the biodynamic preparations and built its own mixer, and the estate, which started out buying its preparations, now makes most of them itself. The biodynamic calendar, which ranks days for different kinds of work, has limits here: the winery says it is nearly impossible to use for harvest decisions, and uses it for things like new plantings instead.

The hardest year was 2020. Wildfire smoke settled over Oregon at harvest, King Estate picked about a tenth of its usual tonnage, and it took no fruit at all from the estate vineyard. One boundary is worth knowing. The organic certificate names the Domaine wines, the Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir from the estate; the everyday Willamette Valley Pinot Gris also uses fruit from partner growers.