Proteus Wines is a tiny but purposeful estate creating boutique, lovingly-crafted vintages from grapes grown from the rich volcanic soils of Oregon’s Chehalem Mountain range. Small-batch and hand-hewn, our wines are exactly those we’ve enjoyed drinking over the years and sharing with our friends. Which is just how Proteus came to be.
It began with a long-held tradition of harvesting, bottling and celebrating over pot-lucks. The camaraderie of these events spurred us to create wines that could not only be shared among this close-knit “club” of friends but more widely offered, always retaining a personal approach. With production limited to only a few hundred cases annually, we’re able to craft our wine, our way – true to our values. This means a dedication to sustainable, natural and organic farming, meticulous, yet unmanipulated cellaring and thoughtful blending. The result is an appealing and approachable wine consistently over-delivering in quality and value.

Farming for unreasonably low yields to capture as much grape flavor as possible, Proteus allows native yeasts to ferment spontaneously. We follow natural settling and stabilizing regimens and filter wines only lightly when absolutely necessary to burnish brightness and vivacity in the glass.

The vision behind Proteus originated from a retired opera conductor who suggests exploring innate rhythms of the vineyard and in the winery to leading a myriad of operatic forces, to delight not incontrolling things overwhelmingly, but allowing the “players” to realize their best performances…together.

Why Proteus, the shape-shifting deity of the sea? The image evokes the alchemical
transformation of grapes to wine, to remain adaptable and relevant, and to challenge us with new ideas in the vineyard and the winery. In short, Proteus represents award-winning wines which are foremost about enjoyment alongside great food and great company. It is a promise of high quality and exceptional value without pretense.