Story by Anneka Miller
Photos by Anais Keenon and Tess Jewell-Larsen
Multimedia by Tess Jewell-Larsen

At 8:00 am, dew soaks the grass and we can see our breath in puffs. The watery morning sunlight is just starting to stretch across the vines turning the grass to glitter at Bellpine Vineyard. Suddenly the air splits with a BANG! A flock of black birds explodes into the sky, and an orange tractor with a shotgun rack comes rumbling around the end of the rows with Alan Mitchell sitting in the seat.
It’s mid-October and the vines are laden with purple and golden clusters. The cold weather slowed down the ripening process, and it’s late in the season for the Muscat harvest. Mitchell’s crew of pickers, who have worked this vineyard for eight years, is already out clipping the giant clusters off the vine and into five-gallon buckets.
Most years the fruit from this vineyard goes to Territorial Vineyards & Wine Company in Eugene, a joint project between Mitchell and his wife, April, and Jeff and Victoria Wilson-Charles. This year, the partners have decided to sit out the harvest and the fruit will go to other wineries in the area.
Mother Nature can be an unpredictable and unforgivable mistress. But the inherent challenges of farming are what actually keep winegrowers, like Mitchell, going.
“There’s an inherent satisfaction in working the land,” he says. “You’re involved in an agrarian pursuit that humans have done since they figured out how to break ground and domestic plants.”
For winegrowers the year starts during the cold weeks of January, continues through the spring and summer, and usually ends in late September, early October. But, not all years or all seasons are the same, which is part of the challenge and part of the appeal.
“It’s constantly changing,” Mitchell says. “Your life cycle is tuned into the seasons, you’re not punched into the clock and doing the same bloody thing every day.”
As human beings in modern times, being able to be in touch with nature, and working with it, is not something that many people can do anymore, Mitchell observes.
Back at Bellpine, located just outside Junction City, Mitchell tallies buckets on the back of a piece of cardboard while the crew works its way down the rows. He started his vineyard career managing other people’s vineyards and expanded when he established a vineyard of his own.
“I did this all myself,” he says, gesturing to the misty vines. “I planted my own vines, built my own fence.”
Using borrowed equipment from the vineyard management company, Mitchell laid-out and planted the vineyard after his regular workday was done. In 2001, he had twelve acres planted and was ready to quit managing vineyards and start a winery. But, he needed a partner.
Jeff and Victoria Wilson-Charles were Mitchell’s vineyard management clients, at the time. They also had aspirations of establishing their own winery. Together with Mitchell, they purchased an old Boyd Coffee Company warehouse in the Whiteaker district of Eugene.
“It was just a blank slate,” Mitchell says.
Today, the warehouse has been converted into a state-of-the-art winery where the winemaker turns fruit from three vineyards – Bellpine, Equinox near Crow, and Toad Hall near Junction City – into Territorial wines.
The beginning of the year for the winemaker is the end of the year in the vineyards. Harvest brings in hundreds of tons of fruit that have to be destemmed, crushed, fermented, and moved into tanks and barrels to finish and mature. Just like the vineyards, every year it’s different.
“I like the fact that it’s not the same every year,” John Jarboe, the winemaker, says. “It can be a little hairy … You’re dealing with Mother Nature, it can be unpredictable and it can be stressful.”
Jarboe loved the winemaking business the first time he tried it in 1993 at McMenamins Edgefield winery. He was invited back the following year and eventually became assistant winemaker. He joined the Territorial team in 2001.
Jarboe really enjoys working at Territorial because it’s a small winery, but not tiny. “This is my first wine making job on my own,” he says. “It’s kind of like my own shop.”
Many small winery operations require people to wear different hats depending on the day and what needs to be done. For example, Mitchell spends the morning in the vineyards and the afternoon in town at the winery taking care of the business.
“I like the way my life is set up,” he says. “I never get bored with the variety of things.”
Running the business side of Territorial means coordinating with wine buyers and distributors that sell Territorial wines across the country. Marketing and selling wine can be time consuming and frustrating, but it has its perks.
“Making a product that somebody not only consumes and enjoys, but takes and weaves into important, ritual aspects of their lives, like when your wine is at their wedding, or at Thanksgiving dinner,” Mitchell says. “That’s what keeps you coming back.”
Today, there are forty-two acres of vineyards to manage and 5,000 cases of annual production to sell at Territorial Vineyards. Even though there’s so much to do, Mitchell’s favorite moments are spent among the vines.
“I love the dormant season,” he says. Dormant season is in January, when its cold and the vines have shut down after their fruit has been clipped off.
“I prune all my own vines,” Mitchell continues. “I’ve been doing it for so long, I’m not really there, and my arms just do it. It’s sort of like a form of meditation.”
Things are slow in the winter; there are no emergencies during pruning season, and it’s the beginning of the season in the vineyard.
“When all the brush is down and all the canes are tied down, you can just feel the potential out there,” Mitchell says.
Territorial Vineyards and Winery is open for tasting and purchases Friday and Saturday from 5:00 – 9:00 pm and on Thursday from 5:00 – 11:00 pm. They feature local art in the tasting room and live local bands on Thursdays. For more information on Territorial visit their website. Find out more about Lane County wineries and vineyards.

Gallery • 7 Photos

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Eugene Vineyard Stakes Its Territory