The Story of nicholas vineyard
Nicholas Vineyard in the Laurelwood District AVA has been a grower partner of ours since the mid 2000’s.
Nick and Sheila Nicholas
(Photo courtesy of Anam Cara Cellars)
“Originally from Lodi, California (Nick) and Scotland (Sheila,) the couple met in London while Sheila was in Public Relations and Nick was the European Marketing Manager for a US-based corporation. When Nick returned stateside in 1981, Sheila joined him and they were married in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Together, they opened a small chain of pizza parlors serving families in Benicia, California. Soon, they expanded into the Napa Valley. It was when they moved to St. Helena that their immersion in the world of wine began. In 2001, the family sold the restaurants in California and came to Oregon, purchasing a rundown walnut, plum and filbert orchard which was to become the home of Nicholas Vineyard.
Located on a southeast-facing slope of the Willamette Valley's Chehalem Mountains AVA in the hills east of Newberg, the vineyard was first planted by Nick and Sheila in 2001. The elevation goes from 350ft to 650ft, and the vineyard rows are planted in a north-south direction. There are cool, drying winds through the highway corridor, which help keep mildew and frost pressure at bay. The soils are primarily Loess (wind-blown, ice age sediment) with bedrock and outcrops of volcanic Jory soils and deposits from the Missoula floods.
Of the original 27 vineyard acres, five 5-acre blocks are Pinot noir planted to Pommard as well as Dijon Clones 114, 115, 667 and 777 on varying rootstocks, as well as an additional acre each of Riesling and Gewürztraminer. In 2008, the family planted a further six acres according to the biodynamic calendar and the new vines saw their first harvest in 2011. The younger vineyard is planted in one-acre blocks to Riesling and Chardonnay, as well as 1.5 acres of Wädenswil Pinot noir, with less than an acre each of Pommard and Dijon clone 113.
Nicholas/Grand Oak Vineyard
(Photo courtesy of Rain Dance Vineyards)
I first became aware of Nicholas Vineyard because of Sheila Nicholas. In the late 1990s and early 2000’s, Sheila was the only wine PR professional we knew of in the Willamette Valley. She had worked in PR in Napa Valley before moving to Oregon. We took advantage of her expertise to expand the conversation about the new wave of Chardonnays that were being produced in the north Willamette Valley from the clones brought in from Burgundy. And when the Chehalem Mountains American Viticultural Area (AVA) was finally approved in December 2006, Sheila and I were part of the small group that created the Chehalem Mountains Winegrowers to support that AVA.
In the mid 2000’s, we started to buy grapes from the vineyard that Sheila and her husband Nick owned. And in 2009, we made a single vineyard Pinot noir from Nicholas Vineyard. It was the first such single vineyard that we had made from a vineyard on loess soil. Loess is the term used to describe soil that has been blown into its current position, as opposed to eroded in place. The entire northern side of the Chehalem Mountains AVA (about half the AVA) is covered in loess. The soil series is named “Laurelwood.” And in 2020, the “Laurelwood District” was approved as an AVA nested within the larger Chehalem Mountains AVA. Nicholas Vineyard is in that AVA.
In 2014, the Nicholas' downsized their ownership to six acres, selling the balance to Ken and Celia Austin. The Austins have a winery (Rain Dance Vineyards) and four vineyard sites along the southern slope of the Chehalem Mountains between Highways 219 and 99W. Ken and his sister own the Allison Inn and Spa, as well. The Nicholas’s continue to purchase fruit from their original plantings to make their wine. We do too. The vineyard is now called Grand Oak.”
