Dalla Terra Vineyard

Karl & Carole Dinger craft premium wine at the Owen Roe Winery. Karl Dinger, winemaker, purchases only the finest fruit from Washington State while awaiting the 2008 harvest, the first from the family's "World Class" in Wilsonville, Dalla Terra Vineyard. The vineyard sits on the south face of Parrett Mountain and faces predominantly south, underlain by Jory and Laurelwood soils, over volcanic basalt. First planted in 1996, it is located at the southern terminous of the Chehalem Mountains AVA. Shallow, quick draining soils, combined with a gentle slope provide a unique terroir for clones of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Reisling and Syrah, 9 acres in all.

Winemaking

After winning numerous amateur competitions, and inspired by a trip to Italy, Karl introduced the first commercial release of his 2004 vintage. This production of four red wines of exceptional quality earned rave reviews from local and regional critics, and was awarded gold and silver medals at the prestigious Northwest Wine Summit. All of the wines are fruit-forward and delightfully drinkable, food friendly yet have the structure to age nicely if you can manage to put some away. The wines are produced in a very limited supply with a total production in the 2004 vintage of less than 300 cases. For the 2005 vintage, Dalla Vina produced just over 1,000 cases including "Amore" named the "Best Dessert Wine" by the 2007 NW wine Summit. In 2006 the production was up to 1,800 cases including the first Estate grown wine from the families original "Mother Block" aptly named La Famiglia. This beautiful wine was harvested on Carole's mother's 90th birthday by three generations of her Italian family who came to celebrate from across the country. The NW Wine Summit has awarded this extremely limited production wine a Gold Medal. Each new vintage is anxiously awaited by fans across the country who appreciate the fine art of hand crafting wine in the traditional manual methods.

Terra Vina is dedicated to producing hand-crafted wines from the finest vineyard locations in Washington and Oregon. They select exceptional fruit from very low yielding vineyards. Their wines are expertly crafted to showcase not only the unique character and sense of place, but also the virtues and character of the varietal itself.

At the winery, they meticulously hand sort each and every cluster, insuring that only the freshest and ripest fruit are used for our wines. Small lots are fermented in traditional, open top fermenters with manual punch downs three times daily. The wines are then racked to French Oak barrels for aging and are bottled unfined with a coarse filtration. Their wines exhibit complex scents and flavors with intensity and elegance unmasked by excessive oakiness.

Their dedication to excellence in wine making has produced award winning wines each year they've produced wines.  Terra Vina is a favorite of Northwest Wine Quest.