The 1899 is made with the resources that would have been available in 1899. That means, without modern equipment and without electricity. Bea and Doc, the Percheron Draft Horses do a bit of work helping to get the grapes to the winery. In a wet harvest, when the ground is too soggy for the horses, well...that's when the whole staff gets busy carrying small buckets up the hill to the winery.

Illahe Vineyards, “1899” back in time

August 5, 2019 Posted by Michael Renken No Comments

We continue our visit with Lowell Ford of Illahe Vineyard in the proposed Mt. Pisgah/Polk County AVA in the Willamette Valley, by leaving the upper level of their gravity flow winery and heading into their new wine cave completed in 2015. Both the winery with it’s barrel shaped ceiling and the wine cave, set into the hill behind the winery, were designed by Laurence Ferar and Associates from Portland.
The 1899 is made with the resources that would have been available in 1899. That means, without modern equipment and without electricity. Bea and Doc, the Percheron Draft Horses do a bit of work helping to get the grapes to the winery. In a wet harvest, when the ground is too soggy for the horses, well…that’s when the whole staff gets busy carrying small buckets up the hill to the winery.