‘Good wine is for everyone’ is the mantra of Byron Dooley, winemaker at Seven of Hearts. These are wines that truly reflect the best of their terroir, while still being aimed at appealing to as wide an audience as possible.
There’s no wine snobbery at Seven of Hearts – Byron can often be found in the tasting room at the weekends chatting away about his work, and the company places great importance on everyone having time to meet visitors and talk enthusiastically about the wines.
And there’s plenty to talk about – the company’s aim is never to make the same wine twice, allowing the unique qualities of each harvest to shine. They work with around 15 different vineyards in the Willamette and Columbia Valleys, assessing each crop on its own merits and making different decisions to bring out the best of its individual character. What they do have in common is a minimum-intervention process that uses native yeast and whole cluster fermentation to extract the natural qualities.
