September 8, 2017
CapitalPress.com
Winery gravitates to Dundee
By BRETT TALLMAN
For the Capital Press
DUNDEE, Ore. — Down-
town Dundee is a construction
zone.
At one end of town, the
Newberg-Dundee bypass is
nearly finished. At the other,
orange cones protect freshly
poured sidewalks that creep
west along Highway 99W.
Old buildings are being re-
modeled and new ones are
springing up. At the west
end of town, winemaker
Cody Wright is washing
barrels behind Purple Hands
Winery’s new facility.
“Cellar Ridge Construc-
tion finished the facility the
last week of July (2016),”
Wright said.
By the first week of Au-
gust, Purple Hands had
moved from an old farm-
house in the Dundee Hills
to
downtown
Dundee.
Just three weeks later,
Wright started the 2016
harvest.
“We saw it as an invest-
ment in Dundee and where
this town is headed,” Wright
said. “When we talked about
where we’d put our tasting
room, my wife, Marque, and I
both felt like there was some-
thing special happening here.”
Wright makes only 5,500
cases of wine a year. At that
scale, he believes he is mak-
ing the highest quality wine
he can and markets it primari-
ly by word-of-mouth.
“We’re still small,” he said.
“By positioning ourselves on
a main thoroughfare, we have
an opportunity to have the
brand spotlighted.”
In addition to the location,
Wright also thought deeply
about the sustainability of
Purple Hands. Cellar Ridge
built the facility using recy-
cled steel for the roof and re-
claimed wood as siding. The
interior is heated and cooled
with efficient mini-split sys-
tems and plumbed with low-
flow fixtures.
“I want to leave a light
footprint,” he said. “As a
winemaker, a big part of that
has to be running a low im-
pact facility.”
Wright is quick to point
out that the decision also
makes good economic sense.
“We power a 5,000-square-
foot winemaking facility on
$200 a month,” Wright said.
“That’s nothing.”
Wright spent the first week
of August bottling Purple
Hands’ 2016 wines. With one
vintage bottled up, he is turn-
ing his attention to the next
one.
“August is almost like a
meditation,” he said. “I’m
downloading and decom-
pressing, making sure all my
resources are prepped and my
inventory is correct. That way
I’m in good shape turning the
corner into harvest. It’s a good
feeling because the last year
has been a whirlwind.”
If the whirlwind affect-
ed his wine, it doesn’t show.
Wine Spectator recently an-
nounced scores for the 2015
vintage. On a 100-point scale,
Purple Hands wines from
Holstein, Stoller, and Latch-
key vineyards all received
scores of 94.
“Since I started making
wine, I’ve had five 93s,” he
said. “Never a 94.”
From the 2015 vintage,
only one wine in Oregon
scored higher.
The first trucks carrying
fruit from 2017 are on track to
arrive in downtown Dundee
by the middle of September.
Dundee will still be a con-
struction zone when they do,
but Wright’s chips are on the
table.
“People are investing in
this community and we’re
excited to be part of that,” he
said. “Marque and I really be-
lieve that Dundee is going to
be the premier wine town in
the Willamette Valley.”
7
The new Purple
Hands winery
and tasting
room in Dundee,
Ore.
Brett Tallman/For the Capital Press
Cody Wright chose downtown Dundee, Ore., for the new Purple Hands winery and tasting room.
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