Patton Valley Vineyard was founded in the 1990s by Dave Chen and Monte Pitt, a pair of wine lovers who were classmates in business school in Chicago in the 1980s. They spent their spare time visiting the city’s wine shops and dreaming of someday having their own winery. After earning their graduate degrees, Chen moved to Oregon and became looking for property for an estate. Eventually the pair bought a 72-acre abandoned fruit orchard in Gaston. In 1997 the first vineyards were planted and the estate’s first commercial release was the 1999 vintage. Today the estate has 24 acres of vineyards planted entirely to Pinot Noir. Of note is the fact that the estate has been dry farmed since 1999 and it has earned a certificate of sustainability from Low Input Viticulture and Enology, a non-profit that advocates for and monitors sustainable viticulture practices. Also of note is the fact that since 2007 all Patton Valley wines have been bottled with screwcaps, a practice the estate says improves the ageability of its wines. Derek Einberger is winemaker.