Planted: 2001

Acreage: 10.4 acres

Elevation: 272 feet

Varietals: Pinot Noir (Clones Dijon 114, 667 and 777)

The Latitude 45 Vineyard is directly intersected by the 45th parallel, like many of the great vineyard properties of France. It is the south facing block of Pinot Noir vines that greets you when passing through the Left Coast gates. This 12 acres is planted in Dijon clones 114, 115 and 667, grafted onto 101-14 and SO4 rootstocks. Across the drive you will find spring-fed Lake Suzuki, the center of our gravity fed irrigation, named in honor of family friends.

The Latitude 45 vineyard grows on a soil known as Chehulpum. This soil is a silt loam and is closely related to Rickreall series silts. Below the shallow soil (approximately 3ft.) is fractured silt stone, which contains sea shells and fossils. The Chehulpum is a very young sedimentary soil (laid by water) some deposited as recently as 10,000 years ago by the Missoula Floods. These floods created the Columbia Gorge and are the largest known floods in the world.

The bright blossoms of the roses planted at the end of every third row attest to the good health of our vines. Left Coast’s signature, single vineyard designate Latitude 45 Pinot Noir is managed to produce low yields and is known for its red fruit along with its spiciness, which is a function of the terroir; with the Chehulpum silt there is also a distinct “dusty” character.

Just above the Latitude 45 vineyard we have the second largest Erratic Boulder in the State of Oregon (second to the Bellevue Rock near Sheridan). This Boulder is solid granite and may weigh 60,000 lbs. It was moved here trapped inside an iceberg that floated down with the floods. The Left Coast property is also home to the largest single collection of these erratic rocks in the state.