Sitting with Pam Turner in Ambar’s Japanese-inspired tasting facility (finished in 2024) she explains how Ambar came about. ‘Rob [Townsend] has always liked the wine business. When he was in mergers and acquisitions, closing dinners had lots of good wine and he really wanted a vineyard. So, when Scott [Baldwin, of De Ponte Cellars in the Dundee Hills] told us he’d seen a promising property in Dundee in 2016, we bought it sight unseen.’
Ambar Estate’s tasting facility
The 20-acre (8-ha) property Turner and Townsend bought had been logged but never planted. They employed Results Partners (Willamette Valley’s largest vineyard management company) to plant it to Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier in 2018. Turner, an environmental advocate and the author of several science and nature books for children, was adamant that it be farmed organically from the beginning and converted to dry-farming as soon as the vines were established. Today, Ambar Estate is Willamette Valley’s first Regenerative Organic Certified vineyard.
Ambar Estate vineyards
After the vineyard was planted, the couple’s thoughts turned to where their wine would be made. In their search for a custom-crush facility, they realised that demand for custom crush was outstripping supply.
In 2021, the same year that Ambar Estate yielded its first fruit, Townsend and Turner purchased 66 acres (27 ha) on which to build Vinovate Custom Wine Services, a 24,000-sq-ft custom-crush facility. (While Vinovate was being constructed, Ambar’s wines were made at NW Wine Company by Kate Payne-Brown.)
With the completion of Vinovate in 2023, Brian Weil became the head winemaker for the facility – taking on the winemaking for Ambar Estate as well as 12 full-time clients (including LucidWild, profiled below) and a handful of part-time clients.
Ambar Estate’s portfolio consists of a toasty Blanc de Blanc sparkling, three Chardonnays that are fruit- and oak-dominant and one fermented and aged in concrete, a refreshingly tart and fruity rosé and three Pinot Noirs that have a bit of bitterness and spice to the finish. Most of these are available to purchase only through Ambar’s website or in their tasting room, where they offer a wine-and-food pairing experience.
