Beckham Estate

Andrew Beckham is first and foremost a trained ceramicist, teaching high school ceramics up until a few years ago. When he and his wife Annedria relocated to the Chehalem Mountains/Willamette Valley, the idea was to open a ceramics studio for Andrew.

But inspired by the local winemaking community, they decided to plant vines and start making their own wine, eventually aging them in amphorae Andrew makes. (In our research, we only came across one other winemaker located in Abruzzo who also makes his own amphorae from the soils they farm, as Andrew does).

This practice of a winemaker making their own amphorae and using them to age their wines is SUPER RARE. Andrew is the only winemaker in North America who also makes his own amphorae. Amphorae have been used to age and transport wine since the time of the Ancient Greeks.

They farm about 17 acres organically and practice low-intervention winemaking. Fermentations use inidigenous yeast only, and there is no fining or filtering of the wines. In addition to growing grapes, they raise sheep and honey bees on their farm.