Most Willamette Valley labels chase Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Holden Wine Company looks south instead, toward the vermentino, malvasia and other northern Italian varieties that founder Sterling Whitted fell for during his time in Italy.
Backstory
Sterling Whitted studied Italian and business before traveling to Italy, where a fascination with wine took hold. Back in Oregon, he earned an advanced enology degree at Oregon State University while working harvests at respected producers including Owen Roe, Cameron and Teutonic Wine Company. He launched Holden Wine Company in the mid-2010s, working out of shared cellar space at Medici in Newberg and building production from a few hundred cases at a time.
The Region
The wines are made in the northern Willamette Valley, a cool, marine-influenced corner of Oregon better known for Burgundian grapes. Whitted sources fruit from across the state, reaching as far as the warmer Applegate Valley in southern Oregon for Mediterranean varieties that ripen poorly farther north.
Vineyards & Farming
Whitted's stated aim is a winery with an Oregon bent that is organic, sustainable and rooted in northern Italian grapes. He buys fruit from growers who farm without chemicals, including malvasia grown in the Applegate Valley by veteran Oregon vineyardist Herb Quady, plus Pinot Noir from sites such as Medici and Bjornson and Chardonnay from Johan Vineyards.
Winemaking
The cellar approach is deliberately hands-off. Fermentations run on native yeast, and sulfur is kept to a minimum or left out entirely where the wine allows. Whitted avoids chemical corrections and other heavy interventions, letting the variety and site speak. His malvasia is made as a skin-contact orange wine that has been singled out among Oregon's best.
The Wines
The range pairs Oregon classics with Italian outliers: Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, a skin-contact malvasia, vermentino and rose. Production stays small and artisanal, with each wine reflecting the minimal-input, native-yeast philosophy at the heart of the project.
