Your biannual Compton wine club will start shipping out the week of October 8th. Our shipping wine club releases go out twice each year one in April and October! Thank you for being a member all over the United States.

Autumn has arrived and Mother Nature is delivering the nice warm days and cool nights that Pinot Noir grapes love. At the time of this fall wine club release, we are in the middle of our 2024 harvest, working hard and waiting to see how it all turns out. So far, we have brought in fruit from three of our vineyards and still have to finish picking at our Compton Family Farm and Hoot & Howl Vineyards.

The spring was slow to warm up, but heat spikes throughout the summer advanced fruit ripening earlier than anticipated. We monitor the sugar levels (called brix) in the grapes before harvesting, to ensure the right balance of acidity. More heat = more sugar in the grape. Wine grapes typically have higher acid and sugar levels than table grapes. The smaller size, thicker skins and seeds in wine grapes play an important role too: adding balance, structure and complexity in our wines. This year’s smaller Pinot grape clusters with a higher skin to flesh ratio should give the 2024 red wines richer color and tannins.

We are a true family business, with all of us working together through harvest and crush, getting tired and punchy, and cooking and eating most of our shared meals at the winery. It’s amazing to watch Matt, our co-owner, winemaker and vineyard manager, work so incredibly hard from sunrise to well beyond sunset. He gets to the vineyards in the early morning for harvesting, trucks the fruit to the winery, and spends the rest of the day getting everything weighed, crushed, and starting fermentation – making the wine-making magic happen! You’ll see Tabitha and the Compton boys helping too: weighing fruit, cleaning and moving bins and equipment, and on all steps of the processing line. Many thanks to the awesome wrestling coaches at Philomath H.S. and Salem OR for all the athletic conditioning. Our brawny sons are now a great help with manual punch downs of red wines as they ferment on the skins. We share punch down duty twice daily for several weeks.

The true origin of the delicious Compton Wines you enjoy so much is found beneath the topsoil. Working in harmony with the vineyard ecosystem is what our regenerative farming is all about. Healthy living soil rich with beneficial mycorrhizal fungi grows strong resilient vines that won’t require treatments and interventions. Matt is an intentional winemaker and his approach to growing grapes is holistic and proactive, not reactive. As foliage grows in the early spring, Matt pulls leaf samples from each vineyard to lab test and analyze what the plants need to thrive. We never use synthetics and have incorporated adaptive grazing and cover cropping to naturally add beneficial nutrients to the vineyards.

We strive to make clean, well-rounded wines that are true to the varietal characteristics of the grape, with intention and care all the way from our local vineyards to the bottling line. Thank you for including Compton Wines in your special occasions and everyday happenings. Please join us in supporting the international campaign “Come Over October”, which encourages all of us to invite others to gather together and share wine, food, conversation, and friendship, in the month of October, and throughout the year. Consider our Tasting Room a year-round extension of your living room or backyard, and bring a friend – or 10! We look forward to sharing wine and friendship with you for many years to come.

Cheers, Matt & Tabitha Compton

Chardonnay, 2023 – New Release (All Mix Clubs)
Our delicious Garden Series lightly oaked Chardonnay has returned! We whole cluster pressed old vine 108 and Dijon clone Chardonnay and split the lot between our concrete egg and new French oak barrels to ferment and age.

Rose of Pinot Noir, 2023 – 92 Rating (All Mix Clubs)
“A pretty pale copper hue, this is aromatically piercing, tart and refreshing. Citrus fruits are here in abundance – a lush mix of lemon, lime, grapefruit and a touch of pineapple. With aeration it broadens out, touching on red berry fruits. An elegant style but classic for rosés from Pinot Noir.”
Paul Gregutt

Pinot Gris, 2023 – 92 Rating (8 & 12 Mix Clubs)
“Catches the hint of blush that characterizes this grape. It’s in a fine drinking window, with citrus and pear and table grapefruit flavors. Almost fleshy, nicely balanced and textural” – Paul Gregutt
The warm summer of 2023 rewarded us with great fruit quality and higher-than-expected yields at harvest time and an early harvest in mid-September, making for outstanding wines.

Compton Sparkling Brut, 2019 – 90 Rating (8 & 12 Mix Clubs)
“Made in the true Champagne method, this is three quarters Pinot Noir from the oldest vines in the vineyard: the rest Chardonnay. It’s a forward, fruity wine with appealing minerality. It’s finished dry but not tongue-scrapingly astringent, and has lively flavors of apple, white peach and melon.” – Paul Gregutt

Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, 2019 (8 & 12 Red and 12 Mix Clubs)
Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, 2022 – 90 Points (All Red and 8 & 12 Mix Clubs)
“I last tasted this cuvée a few vintages ago, and it never fails to please. This 2022 – the current release – is aromatic and savory, light on its feet but powerfully flavorful. Peppery red berries, a hint of watermelon, firm tannins and decent length make this a perfect everyday Pinot Noir” – Paul Gregutt

OSU Woodhall Vineyard Pinot Noir, 2021 (All Mix & Red Clubs)
Single vineyard Pinot Noir from the viticulture research vineyard of Oregon State University, planted in 1977, Woodhall III Vineyard. A blend of Pommard and Wadenswil.

Alpine Cuvee Pinot Noir, 2015 – Library Wine – 94 rating (8 & 12 Red Clubs
Alpine Cuvee Pinot Noir, 2021 – NEW RELEASE (All Red and 8 & 12 Mix Clubs)
This previous vintage of our Alpine Cuvee Pinot Noir was 2017! A blend of old-vine pinot noir from two dry-farmed vineyards in Alpine, Oregon: Woodhall III Vineyard, planted in 1976, and Bovine Vineyard, planted in 2008.

Llewellyn Cuvée Pinot Noir, 2018 – 92 Rating (8 & 12 Red and 12 Mix Clubs)
A blend of old-vine Pommard, Wädenswil and Dijon 115 pinot noir from three dry-farmed vineyards off of Llewellyn Road south of Corvallis/Philomath: Compton, Hoot & Howl, and Mary’s Peak Vineyard. These vineyards have alluvial and marine sedimentary soils which grow Pinot Noir that exhibits voluptuous and denser dark red berry and blue/black fruit with darker floral earth tones and bigger, heavier tannins.