Bethel Heights Vineyard

United by their interest in wine, in 1977 Ted Casteel, Pat Dudley, Terry Casteel, and Marilyn Webb, together with Pat's sister Barbara Dudley, abandoned the academic life and bought 75 promising-looking acres northwest of Salem, with 14 acres of newly planted cuttings in the ground.  They moved to the property in 1978 and started a new life. In 1979 the family cleared and planted 36 more acres and in 1981 they harvested their first crop and started home winemaking in Terry’s basement.  In 1984 they produced their first commercial vintage of 3000 cases.

For the first 30 years Ted was responsible for managing the vineyards and Terry was the winemaker. Pat and Marilyn shared responsibilities for marketing and business management. Over thirty years they grew the Estate vineyards to 100 acres, and their wine production to 10,000 cases, and made common cause with their fellow pioneers to establish the Willamette Valley as the home of New World Pinot Noir.

Meanwhile, five cousins grew up at Bethel Heights Vineyard knowing its tidy rows and wild hidden places as their backyard playground, science lab and adventure park. In 2006, cousins Ben Casteel (son of Terry and Marilyn) and Mimi Casteel (daughter of Ted and Pat) took the helm at Bethel Heights. Ben is now our Winemaker, and Mimi is our Viticulturist and General Manager, while the rest of the family continues to play supporting roles. Together Ben and Mimi are launching Bethel Heights into the future with youthful energy, talent, and passion.

Our visitors often ask where the name Bethel Heights came from. The answer may be found in a small booklet written in 1941 by John E. Smith called Bethel, Polk County, Oregon. According to Smith, "One of the earliest settlers in this vicinity was Rev. Glen O. Burnett who came to Oregon in 1846 and built his house half a mile or so north of the present location of Bethel School. To the heights eastward, he gave the name 'Bethel Hills', Bethel being the name of the church in Missouri that he had recently served as pastor."

There are many other landmarks in this area that contain the name “Bethel,” including several roads, a school, a church and a cemetery. The property now known as Bethel Heights Vineyard was originally platted in 1909 and recorded under the name Bethel Heights Walnut Groves. A number of the original walnut trees are still flourishing around the edges of the vineyard.

We’ve grown our estate vineyards gradually for more than thirty-five years, from the original 14 acres planted in 1977 to just over 100 acres in 2014. Three-fourths of our plantings are Pinot noir, with Chardonnay expanding as our primary white variety.

Our Legacy Blocks of own-rooted vines, planted between 1977 and 1979 before the advent of phylloxera in Oregon, include 23 acres of Pinot noir (Pommard and Wädenswil clones), and 4.5 acres of Wente clone Chardonnay – all still healthy and producing fascinating wines. Later plantings from the ‘90s and beyond include many of the new “Dijon clones” of Pinot noir and Chardonnay, all on phylloxera-resistant rootstock.

All three of our estate vineyards lie within the Eola-Amity Hills AVA. Bethel Heights and Justice are side-by-side on the west slope, and Ingram is on the east slope about eight miles to the north of Bethel Heights.

BETHEL HEIGHTS VINEYARD ESTABLISHED 1977

• Total acres: 49.6

• Elevation: 480’ to 620’

• Soil: Volcanic basalt (Nekia series)

JUSTICE VINEYARD ESTABLISHED 1999

• Total acres: 24.4

• Elevation: 400’ to 480’

• Soil: Volcanic basalt above, marine sediment below

INGRAM LANE VINEYARD ESTABLISHED 2008

• Total acres: 28.3

• Elevation: 220’ to 450’

• Soil: Volcanic basalt above, marine sediment mid-slope, Missoula silt below

THE EOLA-AMITY HILLS AVA - NAMED FOR THE WIND

Bethel Heights is one of the oldest vineyards in the Eola-Amity Hills, an independent hill chain in the center of Oregon’s Willamette Valley.

Early pioneers who settled in this region in the nineteenth century noticed the powerful, predictable marine winds that blow through the Van Duzer Corridor, the lowest point in Oregon’s Coast Range, due west of here. Harking back to their classical education, they named the hills for Aeolus, keeper of the winds in Greek mythology; hence the name Eola Hills.

Because of the dominating effect of these marine winds on our climate, the Eola-Amity Hills generally experience cooler average temperatures during the growing season than other parts of the Willamette Valley. Wine grapes grown in the path of these winds are cooled quickly from the day's heat during the summer, amplifying their aromatic qualities, and preserving their bright, fresh fruit flavors.

The soils are different here too, characteristically shallower and rockier, and therefore better drained, than in other parts of the Willamette Valley.

In these conditions, our grapes can safely ripen on the vines long into October, come heat or rain, reaching full flavor potential without losing the bright acidity and fine-grain tannins that give great wine its structure and balance.

The Eola-Amity Hills became a federally designated AVA (American Viticultural Area) in 2006.  Our AVA is now home to more than 2,486 acres of wine grapes and thirty commercial wineries. Learn more about the Eola-Amity Hills AVA 

When our family arrived at Bethel Heights in 1977 we found a flourishing ecosystem in place: healthy living soils, a stream running through a shady ravine fed by a pure clean spring, and a rich diversity of wildlife with which we have learned to co-habit. Above all else we have sought to grow our grapes and make our wine without diminishing the life of this place.

Bethel Heights has long been on the forefront in the fight for farmland protection in Oregon, a never-ending battle against urban sprawl. We were one of the first vineyards certified Salmon Safe in 1997, representing a commitment to protect clean water in agricultural landscapes.

Ted Casteel of Bethel Heights was one of the founders of Oregon's LIVE Certified Sustainable, a rigorous, landscape level sustainability certification program for vineyards inaugurated in 1999, which now certifies more than 40% of all the vineyard acres in Oregon. In 2008 when LIVE launched an equally rigorous certification program for winery production practices – a program unique in the world –Bethel Heights was one of the first participants. Mimi Casteel currently serves on the LIVE Board of Directors.

Experiments in sustainability abound at Bethel Heights. We are always looking for ways to improve: improving the habitat for beneficial insects in our vineyards, brewing compost tea to boost the immune systems of our vines, measuring mildew blooms to reduce the number of mildew sprays.

In the winery we're beginning to address the next phase of carbon neutrality and water conservation: solar panels installed in 2010 (you can see our solar monitor in action here), conversion to new steam cleaning equipment in 2012, conversion to lighter weight bottles ongoing. It’s all about the details.

At times it makes us uncomfortable to say that our wines are certified sustainable, when it is clear that there are many aspects of sustainability that we have not even addressed, let alone achieved. But we are here for the long haul.