Niew Vineyards
(New York Only)
Oregon
Pushing the boundaries of regenerative agriculture. Making some of the country’s best Chardonnay.
Tai-Ran Niew represents the convergence of two of the most exciting movements in Oregon wine: pushing the boundaries of natural farming and uncovering what is potentially the greatest terroir for Chardonnay in the country.
Tai-Ran is one of the few true adherents in the United States to Fukuoka styled natural farming, which aims to apply as few inputs and labors as possible, of any kind, in the vineyard. The vineyard is designed from the get go to require as few inputs as possible: planted east facing to reduce disease stress and at high elevation to reduce heat stress. He then does none of the things that vignerons would normally do to nurture the vines: no undergrowth management to reduce competition for nutrients, no tillage to aerate the soils, and no subsequent compost to add organic matter back into the soil that tillage would have killed. The idea is to create a state of equilibrium in the vineyard and to “discover” the natural yields and quality of the fruit. The result is intensely concentrated yet crystalline clusters of Chardonnay, grown in tiny quantities.
Photos: Peter Schweitzer