Abacela (www.abacela.com) is a family-owned and operated vineyard and winery in Southern Oregon, with more than 76 farmed acres under cultivation and annual production of 12,000 cases. Abacela also completed Oregon's first Carbon Neutral Challenge

Proprietors Earl and Hilda Jones, long admirers of fine Spanish Rioja wines, were curious why Tempranillo had never produced exciting wines in the New World, even after 100 years of cultivation in California. In this dichotomy they saw both a challenge and an opportunity, so, in the early 1990s they purchased 500 acres of rolling oak savannah in the Umpqua Valley AVA and established Abacela. The name comes from the Spanish/Portuguese word abacelar, which means to plant a grapevine. Today, Abacela is considered a modern era pioneer and leading producer of Tempranillo and other Iberian varietals in America.

Early on, the Joneses recognized why successful cultivation of quality Tempranillo in America had been so elusive; failure to plant the grape in an appropriate climate zone like found in Spain’s Rioja and Ribera Del Duero. The Umpqua Valley offered precisely that; a similar continental-maritime climate, plus suitable land and irrigation. Abacela’s estate vineyards are situated along a major geologic feature known as the Wildlife Safari Fault. Steep, irregular and rocky hillsides offer a medley of soils, slopes, aspects – and provide the name Fault Line Vineyards.

The Joneses constructed a contemporary gravity-flow winery to satisfy their philosophy of minimal-intervention processing of ripe fruit into varietally correct reds and whites. All the wines reflect their terroir and are aromatic, flavorful and food friendly.

Harvest 2016