Élevée Winegrowers
Élevée Winegrowers is a study in Willamette Valley Terroir, with the primary objective of showcasing the diversity, range, and beauty of the Valley’s flavor profiles, as rendered in each growing season. They believe that a wine is shaped equally by one’s growing and winemaking choices. In fact, they feel they are one and the same. Consequently, at the heart of Élevée is the concept of ‘winegrower’: one part ‘winemaker’, one part ‘grower’.
Tom Fitzpatrick, Winegrower and Owner received his Master’s Degree in Viticulture & Enology from UC Davis and gained practical experience in Burgundy with Domaine Hubert Lignier, a very highly regarded producer whose holdings include Premier Cru, Grand Cru and Village vineyards in Chambolle-Musigny, Morey-St-Denis, and Gevrey-Chambertin. He began his winemaking career with a small estate winery in Washington State. After working for a short period with Hunter’s Wines in New Zealand, he and his wife, France, settled in Napa Valley, where he worked for Pine Ridge Winery and then alongside some of Napa’s most famous cult producers at Napa Wine Company. They finally settled in Oregon in 2007, where Tom worked as Associate Winemaker for Hamacher Wines before becoming Winemaker and General Manager at Alloro Vineyard in 2010, where he has won numerous awards for his wines.
After years of growing and crafting wines for others, they were presented with the opportunity to bring their idea to life when Archery Summit’s Gary Andrus decided to sell a very special, high density, micro-site in the Dundee Hills that he had planted in 1998. They named the vineyard Élevée and began producing extremely small quantities strictly from this magical place, garnering high accolades from the beginning. In 2016, they were presented with the opportunity to direct the farming on two additional vineyards, one in the Chehalem Mountains and the other in the Eola-Amity Hills, both having personalities very distinct from their Elevee Vineyard and allowing them to further develop their vision of showcasing the Valley’s diverse terroir.
These premium wines are made with the utmost care and attention to their sense of place and vintage. Produced in such small quantities, they are a rare gem in the Willamette Valley.