Barbara Dudley
| Bethel Heights Vineyard | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Location | near Salem, Oregon, USA |
| Appellation | Eola-Amity Hills AVA |
| Founded | 1977 |
| Varietals | Pinot noir, Pinot gris, Chardonnay, Pinot blanc, Riesling |
| Distribution | national |
| Tasting | Open to public |
| Website | http://www.bethelheights.com/ |
Marilyn Webb redirects here. For the activist, author, journalist, and professor, see Marilyn Salzman Webb.
Bethel Heights Vineyard is an Oregon winery in the Eola-Amity Hills AVA of the Willamette Valley. Founded in 1977 by twin brothers Ted and Terry Casteel, their wives Pat Dudley and Marilyn Webb and Pat's sister Barbara Dudley, the vineyard was one of the earliest plantings in the Eola-Amity Hills region. While initially only a vineyard, a winery was built with the first estate wines produced in 1984. While specializing in Pinot noir, offering several individual block and vineyard designated bottlings, Bethel Heights also produces wines made from Chardonnay, Pinot gris, Pinot blanc, Riesling, Grüner Veltliner, and Gewürztraminer.
Today, the winery remains family owned between the Casteel-Dudley-Webb families with 11 co-owners. The winery has earned a reputation in the region as a pioneer in "sensible and sustainable" viticulture with Ted Casteel being one of the co-founders of the Low Input Viticulture and Enology (LIVE) certification program in the state of Oregon. In 1997, Bethel Heights was one of the first vineyards in Oregon to be certified Salmon-Safe and they are a member of the Oregon Certified Sustainable Wine (OCSW). In 2007, they were among the first Oregon wineries to join the Oregon Global Warming Commission and pledged to go carbon neutral by 2010.
Hearing about the growing Oregon wine industry and the work of pioneering winemakers making Pinot noir, the Casteel brothers and their wives sold their houses in Seattle, Washington and purchased land that was slated to become a trailer park in the Eola Hills northwest of the city of Salem, Oregon. The land was deemed "not suitable for farming" but the Casteels found the south-facing slope with good exposure and shallow, well drained soils to be ideal for viticulture so they purchased the land and planted 14 acres (5.7 ha) of Pinot noir vines in 1977. The Casteel named area Bethel Heights after the unincorporated area of Bethel, Polk County, Oregon where the estate is located.
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