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

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.