Evesham Wood

Since 1986, Evesham Wood has been crafting standout Willamette Valley wines from their headquarters in the Oregon’s famed Eola Amity Hills appellation.

In the mid-1980s, founders Russ and Mary Raney undertook a comprehensive search for an ideal vineyard location in the Willamette Valley. They picked a low, east-facing terrace on the eastern side of the Eola-Amity Hills ridge. With an initial planting of three acres Pinot Noir, two each of Chardonnay and Pinot Gris, and one of Gewurztraminer, they called their vineyard “Les Puits Sec”—French for “the dry well.”

Russ and Mary farmed organically and practiced dry-farming from the start, and earned organic certification in 2000. They also became charter members of the Deep Roots Coalition, an advocacy group for natural methods in the vineyard, primarily dry-farming.

In 2007, they brought in Erin Nuccio as an apprentice. Nuccio, who discovered a passion for wine while living in Washington DC, studied viticulture in California before moving to Oregon to start his label, Haden Fig, and learn from Russ. When the Raneys retired in 2010, he was the obvious choice to purchase Evesham Wood, and he’s carried on their traditions of hands-off winemaking, dry-farming, and organic viticulture ever since.

Nuccio crafts half of Evesham Wood’s Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from Les Puits Sec, and half from local dry-farmed and organically farmed vineyards, including Temperence Hill—a site the Raneys had sourced since their first vintage.