Cowhorn Vineyard & Garden

Cowhorn Vineyard & Garden is a certified Organic and Biodynamic vineyard and winery located in the Applegate Valley appellation of southern Oregon. The 117-acre property is just a few miles north of the California border, alongside the Upper Applegate River. About 25 acres are planted to wine grapes. Cowhorn Vineyard’s tasting room is certified Living Building Challenge, the first in the world to achieve the progressive and creative set of requirements for the built environment.

The estate is different from most others, in important ways. To start with, they chose grape varieties that are historically associated with the Rhône River wine region of France: Syrah and Grenache for red wine, and Viognier, Marsanne and Roussanne for white wine. While the latitude is a bit lower than the Rhône, and the growing season is shorter, other qualities are similar, especially to Châteauneuf-du-Pape: river-side bench-land with little rain, hot summers, and rocky soils that don’t hold much water. The folks in the Châteauneuf region obviously figured out which grape varieties excel under these conditions, because their wine has been famous (and fabulous) for a long time. So even though these varieties are not widely planted in the United States, they’re right at home in at Cowhorn Vineyard.