"Not a vineyard that a sane person would have planted," says Maggie Harrison, Antica Terra’s tenacious and gifted winemaker. This forty-acre parcel in Oregon's Eola-Amity Hills, renowned for its structured and deeply flavored Pinot Noir, faces southwest on a hill with rocky, glacially-formed soils. The vineyard is more rock than soil, with volcanic basalt and marine sedimentary rocks mixed with sandstone and alluvium.
Maggie, formerly an assistant winemaker at Sine Qua Non, joined Antica Terra in 2005 when the vineyard was up for sale. Initially planted with Pinot Noir in 1989, the site had six acres of vines. Maggie and her partners expanded it by twenty acres, removing 3,600 tons of rock. Despite this, the vineyard remains low-yielding with stunted vines producing tiny, concentrated grape clusters, never exceeding two tons per acre.
Maggie's meticulous winemaking ensures Antica Terra's wines are thought-provoking and profound, combining precision with soul.
