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We recently sat down with Winemaker Erik Kramer and Leti Catoira, Director of Farming, to get an update on all things wine, viticulture, and sustainable winery practices at WillaKenzie Estate.
What’s Happening in the Vineyard?
“Spring certainly feels like it has sprung: The 2025 growing season is officially upon us!” Erik said. “We had a great deal of rainfall in the Willamette Valley over winter, so the soils are nicely loaded with plenty of water. All that potential, dormant energy in our grapevines is now ‘energy in motion,’ and there’s lots of new growth in the vineyard. Budbreak occurred during the second week of April this year, and I’m very much looking forward to what the 2025 vintage is going to bring. It’ll be an especially exciting year for Chardonnay at WillaKenzie as we’ll have some new grapes to work with from both the Emery and Aliette parcels.”
Canopy Management
Leti explained how she and her team manage the canopy (the part of the vines above the ground) to set the vintage up for success. They expose the grape clusters to the morning sun to develop flavor and color—except for the fruit destined for WillaKenzie’s rosé and sparkling wines, where the goal is to preserve higher acidity for those bottlings. They also remove extraneous shoots that compete for nutrients, and they pull leaves to promote healthy airflow for the vines.
Water Conservation
When asked about the team’s water conservation practices in the vineyard, Leti explained that they only irrigate when it’s critical to do so. “We use a pressure chamber device,” she said, “to measure the winegrape’s vine water status weekly, block by block. We measure vine stress by applying pressure to a leaf; if we have to apply a lot of pressure, the water is not available to the vine. If the leaves start to curl and the tendrils droop, those are other signs that tell us the vines are too stressed. We like to keep the vines at the limit of stress—it’s something we can measure but also see visually. And we have a hose for every vine row to provide irrigation when necessary.”
Interestingly, Leti noted that it’s usually the Terres Basses parcel that needs irrigation because the Hazelair soil there dries out more quickly than the Willakenzie soil found in the estate’s other parcels. “We also keep our water run-off salmon-safe by not using herbicides,” she added.
Learn more about our sustainable wine practices in our blog here.
Cover Crops
Cover crops are another sustainable practice that Leti’s team uses to keep the vines balanced and the soil healthy. They plant cover crops such as clover, fava beans, oats, or radishes in every other row and till as minimally as possible. “We want to have balanced vines, but we don’t want too much competition, so we till every other row,” she explained. “If we have too many cover crops, vines have to compete for water and resources. It’s about balance!”
Cellar News
While vintage 2025 begins to take shape, prior vintages are now maturing in the cellar.
Erik and his team have just completed bottling the 2023 wines and laying them down in anticipation of future library releases.
Meanwhile, the 2024 vintage Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays are resting peacefully in barrel but are already showing great promise. “Melissa Zeman (Associate Winemaker), Marge Connors (Cellar Manager), and I had a chance to taste through the 2024 vintage recently,” Erik shared. “The wines are delicious, extremely well-poised, and a true reflection of what can happen in the Willamette Valley when Mother Nature is kind to us. While I find the 2024s to be loosely reminiscent of the 2008s, that vintage was a little later, cooler, and lower yielding, so the wines were a tad more structural than the current vintage. The 2024s are going to be expressive and dynamic wines with great energy and purity. The quality is very high throughout the cellar. I’m pretty jazzed about them.”
In the world of bubbles, the winemaking team bottled the sparkling wines from the 2024 vintage in May and disgorged the Éclatant brut sparkling in June. “Our upcoming release of Éclatant will be the first truly non-vintage version of this wine,” Erik shared. “It’s going to be a very compelling wine and fun to share.”
Plan Your Spring Wine Tasting at WillaKenzie
We invite you to visit our Yamhill wine tasting room and terrace this season to enjoy breathtaking views and textural wines. Join us for our Cellar Club Spring Release open house, Share & Pair Sundays, or an Al Fresco Patio Tasting.
