Development & Viticulture Expertise
Overarching Philosophy
We grow wine, not grapes.
Premier Pacific Vineyards holds fast to the principle that
great wine is grown, not made. As any luxury winery can attest, this is especially true for those at the high end of the market.
Development Principles
Rigorous Site Selection
Truly high-end vineyards demand particular combinations of soil,
location and climate. Extraordinary sites can be very different from
one another in how the various factors interact (
terroir), but
world-class sites normally have one thing in common: they produce
low-vigor vines whose fruit ripens slowly and consistently. These are
the growing conditions that Premier Pacific demands of its sites.
Site Selection Principles
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Cool climate regions.
Complex, distinct wines that stand out
in the high-end wine world normally come from growing areas with
climates just warm enough to ripen wine grapes. Vines of all grape
varieties planted in so-called "on the edge" climates have the best
chance of achieving the long, gradual ripening period associated with
fine wine.
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Low fertility soils.
Excessively vigorous vines rarely produce
the best wine. So we search for rocky, well-drained soils often found
on hillside or mountain-top sites.
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Recognized AVAs.
Successful luxury wineries are focused on
vineyard sites in AVAs with established reputations and an existing
culture of winegrowing and winemaking success. Since quality sites
within these AVAs are increasingly rare, we have focused on them
exclusively in building our portfolio.
Environmental Responsibility
Premier Pacific appreciates its unique opportunity to help protect
the environment. We take our mandate as a responsible steward of the
land seriously and have invested considerable time and resources toward
designing each vineyard to be as sustainable and low impact as
possible.
Sustainable Winegrowing Practices
Sustainable practices are not just environmentally responsible, but
less intrusive, more natural vineyard management techniques that are
being recognized as an important part of growing luxury wine.
Premier
Pacific Vineyards develops and manages vineyards following the best
practices laid out in California’s Code of Sustainable Winegrowing Practices and is also seeking LIVE (Low Input Viticulture and Enology) Certification for its vineyards in Oregon.
This less intrusive approach of sustainable winegrowing is more environmentally
responsible and increasingly recognized as vital to a terroir-based winegrowing philosophy, which we embrace.
Precision Viticulture
Premier Pacific Vineyards draws heavily upon the experience of
Bill Hill and a veteran viticulture team to achieve its goals of
creating world-class vineyards. We also employ state-of-art management
techniques that in their entirety are commonly referred to as Precision
Viticulture. These practices have been applied from the earliest stages
in the development process and extend to day-to-day management
decisions.
Some of the Precision Viticulture principles we employ include:
- Vigor control through proper site selection and rigorous matching of rootstocks to soils
- Vineyard longevity through use of highest quality plant material
- Advanced methods to identify optimum vine density
- Vertical Shoot Position trellising
- Balanced pruning approach
- Regulated Deficit Irrigation (RDI)
Utilizing the Most Advanced Viticultural Knowledge and Experience
Many understand theoretically what must be done to create an
extraordinary vineyard. Fewer are able to execute those plans. As
important as it is to devise the best practices outlined here, it is
equally important to have the team able to properly employ them.
Premier Pacific's viticultural team, led by William Hill and
Mitchell Klug, has a deep roster of viticultural talent and hundreds of
years of combined experience developing and managing world-class
vineyards.